Classical Conditioning Theory

Classical Conditioning

Animals have long been used for the experimentation of psychologist in search of understanding human behavior. Through animal experimentation a well-known theorist, Petrovich Pavlov, developed the theory of classical conditioning based on the manipulation of stimuli and responses. Whether individuals understand it or not classical conditioning is as prevalent in today’s society as Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning. Classical conditioning can be an unconscious action or reaction to a specific stimulus, a mouth watering because of the smell of cookies or an individual’s craving for a cigarette during a stressful situation. Classical conditioning also can be used to condition a change in an individual’s behavior through introducing a stimulus and through multiple trials actively changing the unconditioned response to a preferred conditioned response.

Classical Conditioning Theory

Kowalski and Westen (2009) define classical conditioning as “a procedure by which a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response after it is paired with a stimulus that automatically elicits that response” (p. 158). There are four important terms to understand in classical conditioning; unconditioned stimulus (US), unconditioned response (UR), conditioned stimulus (CS), and the conditioned response (CS). The process of classical conditioning begins with the unconditioned stimulus, which results in the unconditioned response. The smell of fresh baked cookies would be the US and the mouth watering or salivating would be the UR. To condition the response of the mouth watering with a natural stimulus, for example a buzzer, the US needs to be presented at the time of the buzzer. After the buzzer has been presented enough times with the smell of the cookies, the buzzer becomes the CS and produces the CR of the mouth water.

Classical conditioning can happen on a subconscious level as well. Many individuals have already conditioned themselves to respond to a buzzer or timer on a stove. When preparing dinner individuals will set a timer to let them know when the food is done cooking and ready for consumption. The smell of the food cooking increases throughout the cooking time reaching highest sent detection at or near the timer completion. When individuals hear the timer go off indicating the food is ready most will begin to salivate or feel stronger hunger pains because they have conditioned themselves to respond when the timer goes off.

Classical Conditioning Scenario

Lazev, Herzog, and Brandon (2009), report that smoking in response to environmental cues reflects prior classical conditioning. There are many neural stimuli (NS), stress, eating a big meal, drinking, and driving in a car that, over time, when