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Classical Conditioning
(Lecture 7)
III. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
A. Watson and Little Albert
Operant conditioning concerns freely emitted or
voluntary behavior and the environmental
conditions (Sd & Sr) that control it.
J.B. Watson also showed other kinds of behavior
that is under environmental control.
Gave 11 month-old “Little Albert” a white rat to p lay with
to which he showed no fear.
While Albert was watching the rat, Watson struck a stee l
bar with a hammer which startled and scared Albert who
started to cried.
This pairing of the rat and a scary, startling sound was
continued. After 7 pairings, every time Albert saw th e rat,
he started to cry!
III. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
A. Watson and Little Albert
Other physiological (bodily) responses which
have become associated with neutral objects.
Hospital (neutral object) sick feeling
(physiological response)
Snakes (neutral object) fear (physiological
response)
Smell of fresh baked cookies (neutral object)
feeling loved (physiological response)
This is classical conditioning: The
environmental control of physiological
responses or reflexes.
III. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
B. Pavlov’s Theory
Ivan Pavlov was a medical researcher in Russia
at the turn of the century
.
He studied digestion and won a Nobel prize
He was exploring the function of saliva in digestion.
He discovered that the dog would salivated when
seeing the dish, before any food was available.
Harness and fistula (mouth tube)
help keep dog in a consistent
position and gather
uncontaminated saliva samples.
The drum recorded when & how
much saliva the dog produced.
