[Group 5]

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
→ DEFINITION
● Classical Conditioning
○ When an individual or an organism associates a conditioned stimulus paired with an
unconditional stimulus resulting in a new behavior or response
● Conditioned stimulus
○ Original neutral stimulus
● Unconditional stimulus
○ Natural response or reflex
→ IMPORTANT PEOPLE
● Ivan Pavlov
○ Russian physiologist
○ Widely recognized his work on the physiology of digestion
○ Also known for his work on classical conditioning
● John Watson
○ Psychologist and editor who established a psychological school of behaviorism
○ Researched on animal behavior, child rearing and advertising
○ Conducted experiments such as “Little Albert” and Kerplunk
● Rosalie Rayner
○ Psychologist
○ Assistant and wife of John Watson
○ Wrote articles about child development and familial bonds
○ Helped conduct the “Little Albert” experiment
→ EXPERIMENTS
● Pavlov’s experiment
○ He was studying the salivation in dogs in response to being fed when he eventually observed,
after repeated testings, that his presence would be enough to trigger the salivary reflex of the
dogs even without food. Pavlov found out that the dogs have somehow learned to associate
food with his presence
○ He then decided to experiment on his discovery with the use of a bell and food. The bell, being
the neutral stimulus, does not elicit an automatic response on its own while the food, being the
unconditioned stimulus, causes an automatic unlearned response, which is salivation.
○ Whenever Pavlov decided to feed his dogs, he ring a bell. After several repetitions, he rang the
bell on its own and, as expected, the dogs salivated.
○ The dogs then learned the association between the bell and the food, making the neutral
stimulus a conditioned stimulus.
● “Little Albert” experiment
○ Watson and Rayner did this experiment to check if Pavlov’s theory is applicable to humans
○ The patient was a 9-month old baby boy named Albert
○ In the beginning, a rat was placed in front of him and he didn’t react or he wasn’t afraid of it.
Watson and Rayner then made noises which caused Albert to cry, noting that the rat was still in
front of him. They did this over time or a “period of conditioning”. Later on just the act of placing
a rat in front of him made him cry
○ The ​conditioned stimulus was the live rat​ which he didn't fear when he was initially allowed to
play with it. On the other hand, the emotion of fear when presented with a ​sudden loud noise
was the unconditioned stimulus​ in this experiment.
 [Group 5]

○In the end, Little Albert developed a fear of rats together with objects which shared
characteristics with the rat; including rabbits, dogs, fur coats, a Santa Claus mask and some
cotton wool. This process is known as ​generalization​.
→ EXAMPLES
● When the teacher enters the classroom, we immediately stand up
● Stomach Virus is equated to Nausea. A specific food caused you to have a stomach virus. Now,
smelling or eating that specific food causes you to be nauseous.
● A specific scent or perfume causes joy and happiness. This scent is then associated with a person.
Now people wearing this perfume can now be considered attractive due to the “joyfulness” feeling
attached to it.
● When we hear repetitive fast food advertisements, we get hungry

VIDEO LINKS:
(Ivan Pavlov on Classical Conditioning [0:38- 1:33])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6LEcM0E0io

(Little Albert Experiment)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXACsOI&t=190s