Classical conditioning : establishment of the response and disappearance of a response

Before reading this it is suggested you read the basis of classical conditioning by clicking here!

According to the behaviorists, learning can be defined as ‘’ the relatively permanent change in behavior brought about as a result of experience or practice.’’ Behaviorists recognize that learning is an internal event.When you look at conditioning it is a learning process, that we all use, after all the mind does seem to learn very efficiently when repeating a process multiple times. This is how you learnt your letters and this is how you are capable of reading this article.

Classical conditioning is a very used process that can be broken down in various perspectives to understand it at all angles. In a previous article we saw the difference between a respond and a stimulus, in addition the difference between unconditioned and conditioned was shown using the little Albert experiment. This article will focus on acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery and discrimination.

Acquisition, by definition describes the first phase of learning. When used in a classical conditioning it refers to the condition response that has been caused by a conditioned stimulus. When can we say that acquisition has occurred? It’s simple, after conditioning the conditioned stimulus has been paired with the unconditioned stimulus causing a conditioned response.

Now there are a few factors that can influence acquisition. The first is timing as it is essential to have an effective conditioning so the time gap between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus must be very short. One of the rules of conditioning is the following; the greater the delay between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, the longer acquisition will take. According to psychologists in the University of Illinois the best gap of time is around half a second. Another important factor is the salience of the conditioned stimulus and this is crucial. If the conditioned stimulus is too subtle it might not be noticed enough to become associated with the unconditioned stimulus. Remember the more you make your stimuli noticeable the faster acquisition will occur.

Extinction, clearly by nature states that there is no more; it is very similar when used in classical conditioning. When extinction occurs, there is no more conditioned response to a conditioned stimuli, it is not associated more it is the direct opposite of acquisition. When it comes to classical conditioning, the conditioned response will eventually cease if the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly alone without the unconditioned stimulus. Example, if Pavlov rang the bell without the food repeatedly the dog would eventually stop salivating. "With classical conditioning, there appears to be a positive relation between strength of conditioning and resistance to experimental extinction. The greater the amount of conditioning training and the larger the measures of CR magnitude, the greater the resistance to extinction. Any variable that increases the strength of a CR also increases its resistance to extinction. "(Kramble, 2007)

Once extinct can it come back? The extinct conditioned response can possibly reappear, in fact when that happens it’s called spontaneous recovery. Spontaneous recovery is actually the reason why extinction and unlearning are not the same. With extinction the response might disappear but it does not necessarily mean that it has been forgotten or eliminated. Example, Pavlov’s dog went through extinction thus he stopped salivating when he rang the bell, but after 2 hours rest the conditioned response suddenly reappeared, this explains spontaneous recovery.

If we look at little Albert’s experiment, Albert is conditioned to fear a white mouse but would he be scared of a white rabbit? Chances are yes, this is called stimulus generalization. This happens when a conditioned response arises because a stimulus is too similar to the original conditioned stimulus. When this is in play a person can learn how to remove the stimulus generalization. This is called discrimination; it can appear when the individual is taught to discriminate between the similar stimuli and the conditioned one. Here is a great experiment that shows this in action; experiment conducted in 1921 by Shenger-Krestovnika, during this experience they paired the taste of meat (ucs) to the appearance of a circle shape, the conditioned response was salivation. They then showed an eclipse shape and the dog would salivate (stimulus generalisation). The discrimination of stimuli appeared after not pairing the taste of meat to the eclipse multiple times.

You have now gained knowledge about the basis of classical conditioning, also remember that next time you want to learn something, this can be useful!

Written by: Tarek Benzouak