PSY-220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Classical Conditioning, Bacopa Monnieri, Little Albert Experiment
1 May 2018
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Chapter 12: Learning and Memory
Learning, Memory, and Amnesia
• Memory is critical to a person’s sense of self
• Classical conditioning
o Pioneered by Ivan Pavlov
o Pairing two stimuli changes the response to one of them
▪ Conditioned stimulus
▪ Unconditioned stimulus
Pavlov
• Wasn’t actually interested in learning
o Classical conditioning was an accidental discovery in the process of taking
detailed notes during his actual experiments
• Won the Nobel Prize for medicine
o For his intended research … on the physiology of the canine salivary system
Classical Conditioning
• Before the organism has been conditioned, there are two things being observed
o The unconditioned stimulus (US)
▪ Any object or event that produces an involuntary or reflexive
reaction in the subject, when the subject notices the object/event
o The unconditioned response (UR)
▪ The involuntary of reflexive reaction to the US
▪ Always (Action) + the thing that caused the response
• Ex: salivated TO THE FOOD
• After the conditioning, there are four things being observed
o The US
o The UR
o The conditioned stimulus (CS)
▪ A formerly neutral stimulus that has been paired with the US, until the
subject responds to either one with an involuntary / reflexive reaction
o The conditioned response (CR)
▪ The UR … but in response to the CS alone
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2
Classical Conditioning Example
• A sudden water temperature change when you are in the shower, which makes you jump
out of the water (and cuss)
o US: water temperature change
o UR: jump out of the water (and cuss), in response to the water
temperature change
• Over repeated “trials,” we learn that it’s someone flushing a toilet that causes the shower
water to change temperature
• Eventually, we jump out of the water (and cuss) as soon as we hear the toilet flush … even
before the water temperature changes
o US: water temperature change
o UR: jumping out of the changed water (and cussing)
o CS: sound of the toilet flushing
o CR: jumping out of the changed water, to the sound of the toilet
flushing
Classical Conditioning Second example …
• In reality, MONEY is just piece of paper/cloth with some ink on it. But we’ve been
conditioned to respond to the value that has been repeatedly paired with this stimulus.
Localized Representations of Memory
• Instrumental conditioning (Also known as operant conditioning)
o Individual’s response followed by reinforcer or punishment
o Reinforcers: Events that increase the probability that the response will occur
again
o Punishment: Events that decrease the probability that the response will occur
again
Operant Conditioning
• Your General / Intro Psych text credited John Watson… (The “father of behaviorism”)
o DID two important things
▪ As the president of the APA, wrote an opinion paper stating that operant
conditioning was the most important advance of all time in psychology
▪ Conducted the (in)famous Little Albert experiments
Operant Conditioning
• However, there are several reasons to consider Watson a trivial figure, if not an outright
fraud
o Only published three things on operant conditioning in his lifetime
o Hid the fact that Little Albert was a developmentally abnormal child
o Evidence strongly suggests he cherry-picked which Little Albert results he
published
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Operant Conditioning
• So if Watson’s not the “Father of Behaviorism,” who is?
• Next up in your Intro Psych book was … B.F. Skinner
o The first (and most famous) “radical behaviorist”
o Prolific author
o Lifetime champion of the notion that all learning and memory could be explained
by conditioning
Operant Conditioning
• Look at all the great things Skinner did!
o Created the “Skinner Box”
o Established (with theory AND evidence) the principle that reinforcement and
punishment would work equally well, if done correctly
o Systematically showed that more practice = better learning
o Showed that we can learn without getting the “reinforcer” every trial (called
partial reinforcement schedule)
o The only problem is that Skinner didn’t actually do any of those things
first
• Introducing the actual Father of Behaviorism … E.L. Thorndike
o Thorndike worked with cats
o Built ever-more elaborate escape mechanisms from the cages
o Timed the cats in solving the cages … and in whether the cats remembered the
solution after days, weeks, or months
o ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE AT WRITING included so much detail its
overwhelming
Operant Conditioning
• Operant conditioning is voluntary learning
o Reinforcement
▪ If you want to increase a target behavior, you provide the subject a
stimulus (incentive) that will motivate them to do so
o Punishment
▪ If you want to decrease a target behavior, you provide the subject a
stimulus that will motivate them to do so
• Reinforcement and punishment also come in two varieties each: positive and negative
o Positive Reinforcement
▪ If you do what I want you to, I will give you a reward (allowance, food
pellet, gold star)
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