PSYCH 1F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Classical Conditioning, Learning, Normal Distribution
2 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
Classical conditioning: reflective learning is vital to the survival of a species, classical conditioning allows us to associate to related events. Instrumental conditioning allows us to associate actions and consequences. Ivan pavlov: created foundations of classical conditioning in the 1890"s and 1900"s. Classical conditioning is also called pavlovian conditioning to honour his contributions. Pavlov was interested in the stages of digestion, which began with salivation in the mouth as food was first ingested. Pavlov made an extraordinary observation: dogs would begin to salivate even before any food reached their mouth. It was as if an early step in the process of digestion was triggered even before the food stimulus arrived. Intrigued, pavlov focused the latter part of his brilliant career investigating this new phenomenon. He was studying a contingent, one stimulus lead to presentation of another. The sound of a metronome would indicate feeding time for dogs. This conditional response is often predatory in nature and promotes survival.
