Classical Conditioning

UNIT 1 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING BY By Pavlov

PAVLOV
Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Concept of Classical Conditioning
1.3 Pavlov’s Experiment on Classical Conditioning
1.3.1 The Experiment
1.3.2 Interpretation of the Results of the Experiment
1.3.3 Principles of Classical Conditioning
1.4 Implications of Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning in Understanding Personality
1.4.1 Conditioned Emotional Responses – the Case of Little Albert
1.4.2 Classical Conditioning of Social Attitudes
1.4.3 Psychopathological Conditions Explained by Classical Conditioning
1.5 Applications of Classical Conditioning in Psychotherapy
1.6 Critical Evaluation of Classical Conditioning
1.7 Let Us Sum Up
1.8 Glossary
1.9 Unit End Questions
1.10 Suggested Readings
1.11 Answers to Self Assessment Questions

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Does your baby daughter start crying whenever she sees a man with big moustache?
Does your brother fall helplessly in love with every lady who uses a particular
perfume?
The fear of your child, the blind attraction of your brother, may have at their bases,
the principles of classical conditioning. Both of them may have been behaving precisely
like ‘Pavlov’s dog’.
How did your daughter develop the fear? You may recall the incident when your
uncle with a pair of long moustache visited your house. Holding your daughter in his
big burly arms, he had bellowed ‘Hey there - my sweetie’. Even you jumped up at
the sudden sound. Your little girl was terrified and cried out in fear. Your uncle was
a bit embarrassed and tried to soothe the baby. ‘Now, NO - NO… No more
crying ..’ he roared. The baby now got so scared that you had to intervene and take
her from the boisterous grandfather’s arms. Since then she had been scared of any
man who happens to have a bunch of bushy hair below his nose, causing your
anxiety and your uncle’s mortification.
What had happened? The sudden loud sound caused a startle response in the baby
generating the emotion of fear. Every time the frightening sound emerged, the baby
5
Learning and saw a pair of dancing bushy moustaches – the most prominent feature on your
Cognitive Theories
of Personality uncle’s face. So this innocent growth of hair, the sign of pride for your uncle, became
the sign of danger to your daughter. She anticipated the frightening roar whenever
she encountered any man with moustache and cried even before the sound came.
The fact that your daughter has thus acquired this new and uncomfortable association
of the moustache and the sound is an instance of Classical conditioning. But you can
erase this learning, or put new learning in her also. In this Unit, you will know about
Classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is one basic model of learning which
was a landmark in the history of understanding behaviour. The man behind it was a
Russian physiologist named Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. In this Unit, you will learn about
Pavlov’s basic experiment, the concepts emerging thereof, and the application of
classical conditioning in personality theory and psychopathology.

1.1 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
l Define classical conditioning;
l Describe Pavlov’s experiment in classical conditioning;
l Differentiate among unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned
stimulus and conditioned response;
l Draw a schematic diagram of classical conditioning experiment with its essential
elements;
l Explain the implications of Pavlov’s classical conditioning in understanding
personality; and
l Discuss the applications of classical conditioning in psychotherapeutic settings.

1.2 CONCEPT OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Classical conditioning is a learning paradigm from behavioural point of view. Consider
any stimulus (S1) capable of eliciting a natural response (R1). Imagine any other
neutral stimulus (S2) that does not elicit this particular response. Suppose within the
experimental situation, these two stimuli (S1 and S2) are consistently presented
together. After a few exposures of S1 and S2 together, the natural response to the
first stimulus (R1) would occur in the presence of the second stimulus (S2) also,
even if the first stimulus (S1) is absent. Thus after conditioning, the second stimulus,
originally incapable of eliciting the specific response, becomes capable of doing the
same.
Consider the example of the boisterous uncle. The loud voice was the natural stimulus
(S1) that elicited the natural fear response (R1) in the child. The moustache was,
originally, a neutral stimulus (S2) incapable of eliciting fear. But, as it always
accompanied the big sound, it gradually became capable of eliciting the fear, even
when the sound was absent.
The term classical conditioning is define as learning by association, whereby a
neutral stimulus, by virtue of its occurrence in close time and space with a
natural stimulus that gives rise to a natural response, becomes capable of
eliciting that natural response, even in absence of the natural stimulus. Classical
conditioning is applicable only for reflexive and spontaneous responses, and not for
6
voluntary responses.
The phenomenon of classical conditioning was discovered by him in the course of Classical Conditioning
By Pavlov
his work during the turn of the last century. This was reported elaborately in his
paper in 1927 and also illustrated in detail in 1928. In the following section we
would study in more detail the best known experiment by Pavlov.

1.3 PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENT ON CLASSICAL

CONDITIONING
1.3.1 The Experiment
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849 - 1936) was a Russian physiologist. During the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century Pavlov and his associates were working in a
laboratory at St. Petersburg on the digestive process of dogs. Pavlov was studying
the gastric secretion of the dogs by placing meat powder in their mouth and measuring
the saliva. For the sake of precision of measurement, Pavlov had arranged to give a
signal of light or sound of bell just before placing the meat powder in the animal’s
mouth. However, after a few trials, unexpectedly, the dog started salivating in
anticipation of meat powder. It began to salivate at the signal - light or sound, even
before the meat powder had been given. Thus its salivary response, which should
come naturally only after the meat powder touches the taste buds, started to be
elicited by a neutral visual or auditory stimulus even before the meat powder was
given. Pavlov also noted that the amount of salivation in response to the light or
sound was less in amount than the salivation that occurred in response to meat
powder.
Pavlov was disturbed by the phenomenon. He considered this ‘psychic secretion’ a
hindrance to his scientific work. Later on, however, he attempted to explain the
unexpected turn of affairs. Initially he tried to go by the introspective method and
tried to guess what the dog was ‘thinking’. Soon he abandoned this effort and
emphasised on the association between the natural and neutral stimuli to interpret
the findings.

Before conditioning : Food being shown to the dog ——— The dog salivates
Ring a bell —————non-salivating dog
During conditioning : Ring the bell ——— Give the food —— Dog salivates
(Repeat this many times so that the dog is able to associate the bell with the food
and salivate)
After conditioning : Ring the bell ————Dog salivates
You can see the experiment by Pavlov in the internet by clicking
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoLxEN54ho&feature=related>

He tried out the above experiment in the same manner with a light also. That is light
appearing just before the food is produced. However when the results were seen,
Pavlov noticed as compared to the bell the response to light was not as strong.

1.3.2 Interpretation of the Results of the Experiment

You must be aware by this time that the association between the food (meat powder
used by Pavlov) and bell in time and place was crucial for the results that Pavlov
obtained. The anticipatory salivation was not a natural response to the bell. But after
7
Learning and the association was established, the dog elicited the saliva in response to the bell.
Cognitive Theories
of Personality Thus, it was a new learning for the dog.
Pavlov identified four essential elements of the learning processes. They are:
i) Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): The natural stimulus that elicits a natural
response. In Pavlov’s experiment, the meat powder was the UCS.
ii) Unconditioned response (UCR): The natural response elicited to the natural
stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment, the salivation was the UCR.
iii) Conditioned stimulus (CS): The neutral stimulus that does not naturally elicit
the target response, but may do so after being associated with the UCS for a
number of times. In Pavlov’s experiment, the light or the sound of the bell was
the CS.
iv) Conditioned response (CR): The target response similar to the UCR that
originally occurred to the UCS only, but after conditioning occurred to CS,
even in absence of the UCS. In Pavlov’s experiment, the salivation that occurred
in response to the light or bell was the CR. You must remember here that the
UCR and the CR are similar but not the same. Pavlov noticed that the amount
of salivation was less in response to the light / bell in comparison to the original
salivation in response to meat powder.

Box 1
Before conditioning:
UCS (food) ————UCR (salivation)
NS (bell) ————————No salivation
During conditioning
CS (bell) ———— UCS (food) ————UCR (salivation)
After conditioning
CS (bell) ————CR (salivation)

(UCS -unconditioned stimulus, UCR- unconditioned response, NS- neutral stimulus,

CS- conditioned stimulus, CR -conditioned response)
You must remember that classical conditioning is not limited to salivation and similar
other anticipatory approach responses only. One may condition anticipatory
withdrawal responses as well. Pavlov examined this phenomenon by delivering an
electric shock to the paw of the dog. On each learning trial, the bell rang and the
shock was delivered immediately after. The reflexive withdrawal of the paw, a natural
response to the shock, now started to take place after the sound of the bell and
before delivery of the actual shock.

Box 2
Before conditioning : An electric shock given to the dog ——— Dog
withdrawing its paw Ring the bell ————No withdrawal of the paw by dog
During conditioning :
Ring the bell ——— Give electric shock to the paw of the dog ———dog
withdraws its paw
After conditioning :
Ring the bell ——————————— Dog withdraws its paw
8
Pavlov used the term ‘acquisition’ to denote the new learning. In classical conditioning Classical Conditioning
By Pavlov
the acquisition occurs due to temporal contiguity of the stimuli, or association in
time. In the following section we would see how varying this association may influence
the learnt behaviour.

Self Assessment Questions 1

1) Who was Ivan Petrovich Pavlov? What is he famous for?
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2) What is classical conditioning?
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3) Tick the correct answer for questions a, b and c :
a) In Pavlov’s experiment, the sound of the bell was the
(i) UCS (ii) CS (iii) UCR (iv) CR
b) In Pavlov’s experiment, food was
(i) UCS (ii) CS (iii) UCR (iv) CR
c) In Pavlov’s experiment salivation is the index of
i) both UCS and UCR and they are identical.
ii) both UCS and CR and they are identical.
iii) both UCS and CS but they are not identical.
iv) both UCR and CR but they are not identical.

1.3.3 Principles of Classical Conditioning

Now you know that the food was given to the dog just after the light / sound of the
bell and conditioning resulted. Have you thought what would happen if the sound of
the bell came after the food? Have you considered whether the bell would continue
to elicit salivation if meat powder was not given to the dog for a number of times?
After formulation of basic principles of classical conditioning, Pavlov engaged himself
in exploring and illustrating some of principles of classical conditioning. In the following
sections you would learn about some such principles.
i) Reinforcement: You know that you can elicit a conditioned response by the
pairing of CS and UCS. Since UCS (meat powder) comes later than CS (bell),
the presentation of CS alone elicits salivation. But you need to give the dog the
UCS consistently after the bell. So here meat powder serves as the reinforcer,
as it strengthens the bond between the CS and the UCR (salivation in this
case).
Reinforcement is a very important concept in conditioning. Reinforcement refers
to the presentation or removal of a stimulus to maintain or increase the probability
of a target response. Reinforcement may be primary or secondary and positive
or negative. Primary reinforcers are those that satisfy a basic need. The food in
9
Learning and Pavlov’s experiment is a primary reinforcer. If the same experiment is conducted
Cognitive Theories
of Personality on a child and she is handed over a chocolate as her reward, that will be
secondary reinforcer, as chocolates are not essential for survival. Secondary
reinforcers are rewarding or punishing because they have been associated with
a primary reinforcer earlier in time. A positive reinforcer is one that is pleasurable
to the organism. A negative reinforcer is one which is unpleasurable to the
organism. While food is a positive reinforcer to connect salivation with sound,
electric shock might be a negative reinforcer to connect paw flexion with sound.
Timing of reinforcement is important. It has been observed that the first few
trials of the conditioning experiment are of special importance. The major bulk
of acquisition occurs during this period. A plateau may be seen in the learning
curve during the later trials. Also, the CS must precede or occur almost
simultaneously with the UCS. It loses much of its conditioning power if it is
presented after the UCS.
ii) Extinction: What will happen if you do not reinforce the association between
the CS and UCS? In other words, after conditioning is established, you sound
the bell but do not reward the dog by giving meat powder? You will observe
that after a few such trials with no reinforcer, the salivation still occurs, but in a
decreased amount. Gradually, as the unreinforced trials continue, the dog would
stop salivating in response to the sound of the bell. What you have here is a
case of extinction. The conditioned response has been made extinct, or in other
words, deconditioning has taken place as a result of failure to reinforce the
association.
iii) Spontaneous recovery: Sometimes, after extinction, and after a time interval
with no exposure to CS, the conditioned response may suddenly come back if
the CS is given once again. The dog’s salivation to the bell has been stopped.
The bell has also not been sounded for a considerable time. If after this gap the
bell is suddenly sounded, the dog may start salivating once again. Since this
phenomenon of reappearance seems to appear from no known cause, it is
referred to as spontaneous recovery. However, the intensity of this recovered
response is usually less than the original response. After spontaneous recovery,
if the CR is reinforced, the learning comes back. If reinforcement is still not
given, permanent extinction may take place.
iv) Stimulus generalisation: Will the dog salivate only in response to the sound
of the specific bell or to the specific light? Will it respond by salivating to other
bells as well? Pavlov conducted further experiments to examine these questions.
He initially made a standard UCS-CS connection of food and a specific sound
of a bell. On test trials, he substituted the original sound with other sounds
varying in similarity. He found that the dog salivated to other sounds as well,
but the amount of salivation was proportional to the similarity of the sound of
the bell to the original CS. More similar the sound to the original CS, greater
the amount of salivation, and less similar the sound, less is the salivation. This
phenomenon is known as stimulus generalisation.
The dogs was not given any food as reinforce during test trails; that is no new
association of the second sound with food was established. Generalisation
occurred spontaneously from the original learning trials. From the generalisation
to stimuli of different degrees of similarity with the original CS, a gradient of
conditioned response can also be obtained. After conditioning the salivation of
the dog to the sound of the bell, you can give another sound of the test trial,
10 which is slightly different in pitch from the original bell. The amount of salivation
 will be slightly less than the conditioned response. If on another test trial you Classical Conditioning
By Pavlov
expose the dog to even another sound which is a bit more dissimilar to the
original CS, the amount of salivation will be even less. Thus for successively
less similar stimuli, decreasing amount of salivation will be obtained. You will
get, as a result, a gradient of conditioned response.
v) Discrimination: This is the opposite of generalisation. You have learnt that
generalisation occurs to stimuli similar to the CS. But if stimuli similar to the CS
and eliciting the CR are presented repeatedly without ever being associated
with the UCS, those stimuli will cease to elicit the CR, thus enabling discrimination
between similar stimuli. Suppose the original CS is the sound of a bell that we
call B. The dog learns to salivate to B, and also salivates to B1 and B2 through
generalisation. However, if B1 is systematically reinforced and B2 is not
reinforced, then the dog will respond differentially to B1 and B2. It will salivate
to B1 and not to B2.
vi) Counter conditioning: Once conditioned, ever conditioned? Of course not.
As you can extinct an acquired learning, you can also counter condition it by
associating the CS with UCS of different nature. For example, you can first
condition a dog to withdraw its paw at the sound of a bell, as the bell is
systematically followed by a shock. Then you can countercondition it by
systematically pairing the same sound to food. Now the dog may be conditioned
to salivate to the sound of the bell.

Self Assessment Questions 2

1) Write True (T) or False (F) beside each statement:
a) Repeated exposure of the CS without reinforcement will lead to
extinction ( )
b) The animal, after conditioning will respond with the conditioned response
to the specific stimulus only and not to other similar stimuli ( )
c) Once conditioning has taken place, it cannot be changed ( )
2) Tick the correct answer
a) A cat has been subjected to a red light immediately before an electric
shock. As a result it has learnt to withdraw its paw when it sees the red
light. Subsequently it is being exposed to a red light immediately before
getting food.
This is an example of (i) reinforcement (ii) counter conditioning
(iii) discrimination (iv) extinction.
b) A rabbit has been exposed to a red light before being delivered a pellet
of cabbage leaf. As a result it salivates to red light alone. Subsequently
the experimenter wants to see if it can generalise its learning.
Which of the following stimuli would be appropriate to demonstrate
generalisation?
(i) cauliflower leaf (ii) blue light (iii) pieces of carrot (iv) orange light

11
Learning and
Cognitive Theories
of Personality
1.4 IMPLICATIONS OF PAVLOV’S CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING IN UNDERSTANDING
PERSONALITY
So far we had been dealing with dogs. But we started the chapter with your little
daughter. How do we pass on from the dog’s saliva to the baby’s fear? How far this
fear conditioned in your daughter may make her an anxious woman throughout her
life? In this section, you will learn about the application of classical conditioning
principles to complex human behaviour and personality characteristics.
Pavlov’s lead was followed by a number of behaviourists. They conducted
experiments with conditioning and deconditioning of various emotional and social
behaviours. Among the earlier works in this direction, the most famous is the case of
Little Albert reported by John Broadus Watson (1878 - 1958).

1.4.1 Conditioned Emotional Responses - the Case of Little

Albert
A classic experiment conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920.
Watson was an ardent behaviourist and a critic of complex psychoanalytical
explanation of emotion (Watson, 1913, 1920). They worked with an 11 month old
boy called Albert. Watson and Rayner were able to instil fear of rats in the boy.
Initially, Albert was not afraid of rats and used to play with rats fondly. Watson and
Rayner exposed the boy to white rats and simultaneously made a very loud sound
by the bang of a hammer on a suspended steel rod. The loud sound produced a
startle response in the boy. After a series of such exposures, Albert showed signs of
fear of rats. Gradually his fear was generalised to many other furry objects like
rabbit, dog and also cotton balls.
Watson and Rayner claimed that this experiment proved that irrational fear of
apparently harmless things is not due to deep emotional complexes but owing to
simple temporal association of fear generating objects.
Although you might think that the results are straight forward enough, actually there
a few gaps. Later investigations suggested that Albert’s fear was perhaps neither as
strong as claimed, nor as much generalised. There was a gross ethical violation
involved as well, at least by today’s standard. Albert’s fear was never de conditioned.
(Source: You can see the experiment of Albert by Watson and Rayner in the internet
by clicking <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYElUVByBGc>)
Watson and Reyner succeeded to show that at least some degree of conditioning of
emotional reactions is possible. It has further been supported by the clinical cases
where de conditioning of irrational fear has been made. In 1924, Mary Cover Jones
reported de conditioning of a 3 year old boy’s fear of rabbit. This boy, called Peter
was exposed to other children who were not afraid of rabbits. The presence of
rabbit was also associated in time with pleasurable activities and playful words.
Gradually through a repeated association of rabbit with pleasant things, Peter could
outgrow his fear. This experiment also paves the way for using classical conditioning
principles in therapeutic setting. In the following section, we will learn about the
classical conditioning of attitudes.

12
 Classical Conditioning
1.4.2 Classical Conditioning of Social Attitude By Pavlov

Suppose you meet a person for the first time in your life during a lunch session of
workshop or a seminar. After a brief discussion / interaction what are your reactions
about the person. How do you judge the person? Exactly this question has been
explored by Gregory Razran in the late 30s. Razran (1940) elicited the ethnic bias
for or against certain photographs of women. Initially he found that his subjects
rather disliked women of ethnic minority origin and considered Jewish women and
intelligent and ambitious in comparison to the Italian women. However, when the
subjects judged the same pictures during a nice free lunch, the differences in attitude
reduced considerably. Razran concluded that the positive association with food
reduces the negative bias considerably.
The modern management gurus have embraced the implications. They call it the
‘luncheon technique’ As you know, many business deals are finalised over a
sumptuous dinner. Association of gastronomic pleasure increases the probability of
looking at the proposal in a more positive way.

1.4.3 Psychopathological Conditions Explained by

Classical Conditioning
Pavlov himself attempted to explain ‘experimental neurosis’. In 1921 an experiment
with dogs had been conducted by Shenger-Krestovnikova. A dog was initially trained
to respond by producing excitatory salivation to a circular stimulus. Then it was
trained to produce inhibitory withdrawal response to an elliptical stimulus.
Subsequently the difference between the circle and the ellipse were reduced. The
dog reacted by howling and struggling – a behaviour that resembles human
psychopathology. Pavlov reasoned that the dog’s neurosis was due to a collision of
excitatory and inhibitory tendencies.
More sophisticated explanation of psychopathology using the classical conditioning
paradigm has been offered as the knowledge of conditioning of emotions and attitudes
have grown. Indeed, the case of Little Albert, or of your daughter, is an example of
phobia made into the child through classical conditioning. Phobia and other anxiety
disorders are sometimes explained by the principles of classical conditioning.
Another common example of classical conditioning may be enuresis. Enuresis means
inability to control urination in older children or adults, especially during sleep. You
may interpret enuresis as inadequate bodily conditioning to wake up when the bladder
is full. Normally we are conditioned to wake up when urination is about to take
place. For the patient of enuresis this conditioning might be absent or faulty. If this
explanation is accepted, you can plan treatment of enuresis by establishing classical
conditioning.
Actually that is what the doctors suggest for treating enuresis. The standard instruction
by the doctor to family members is to awaken the patient at fixed times during the
night and take her to the toilet. Gradually the patient becomes conditioned to wake
up after the specific time interval following going to bed.
Other examples may be obtained from the group of somatoform disorders. Take
somatoform pain disorder as an instance. You may recall your school friend who
always suffered form a stomach ache whenever she had to attend the class of a
particular teacher. Of course, the teacher and some of the classmates also considered
it a feigned complain. Yet you remember how she always vouched for the stomach
ache to be a real one. One possibility is that she had some repeated unpleasant 13
Learning and encounters with the teacher. The tension associated in those instances caused severe
Cognitive Theories
of Personality gastric contraction in her for a few times. Then it got conditioned to the teacher’s
presence, and each time she had to encounter this teacher, she felt the gastric
contraction, even though the events for tension were absent.
You must remember that while the explanation by classical conditioning may be
tenable in some instances of psychopathology, in most cases, the causes are much
more complex. However, attempt to treat such pathologies with deconditioning of
faulty acquisition and counter conditioning in a desirable manner has been successful
at least partially in treatment of such disorders. In the next section we shall get
acquainted with such principles of psychotherapeutic intervention based on classical
conditioning.

1.5 APPLICATION OF CLASSICAL

CONDITIONING IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
Let us discuss the therapeutic techniques that utilise the principles of classical
conditioning. The most well known application is in case of systematic desensitisation.
Consider a case of phobia. In phobia, as in case of Little Albert, the person is
irrationally afraid of certain neutral things. You may assume that the fear is the result
of some kind of classical conditioning. Therefore the principles of extinction and
counter conditioning may be used to free the person from the irrational fear.
The technique of systematic desensitisation was introduced by a psychologist named
Joseph Wolpe (1915-1997). In this technique, the subject is exposed to the object
of fear in a graded manner. Suppose, as in Albert’s case, the rat is the object of
irrational fear. As therapist you must design a step by step exposure to rat. Initially
you may show him a picture of the rat from a distance and ensure he is fully relaxed.
When the picture is acceptable to the child and he is relaxed enough, a plastic model
of rat may be shown to him. Gradually you may try a live rat, but from a distance so
that the child is not traumatized. When the child accepts the rat at a distance, you
may gradually think of bringing it closer to him. This is utilisation of the principle of
extinction. But your work will be facilitated if you also associate something pleasant
with the rat. For example, every time the picture of the rat is shown to the child, you
may offer him a candy. The child will learn to associate rat with something pleasant.
Thus along with extinction, you may also utilise the principle of counter conditioning.

Self Assessment Questions 3

1) Tick the correct answer
a) The case of Little Albert demonstrates that
i) social attitudes can be conditioned, ii) emotions can be conditioned,
iii) fear can be de conditioned, iv) classical conditioning can be
used in therapy.
b) The psychologist who developed the notion of systematic desensitization
was:
i) Joseph Wolpe, ii) Gregory Razran, iii) Rosalie Rayner, iv) Ivan
Pavlov.
c) Social attitudes can be brought in one’s favour by associating the object
of attitude with (i) unpleasant stimuli (ii) systematic graded exposure
(iii) pleasant stimuli (iv) persuasion.
14
 Classical Conditioning
2) Give the suitable answers to the following: By Pavlov

i) What is Luncheon technique?

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ii) What is aversion therapy?
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1.6 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF CLASSICAL

CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning has been criticized for providing a mechanical view of human
behaviour. It ignores the role of cognitive factors in learning. There are ample evidences
that cognitive factors like motivation, expectation and attitudes help or hinder learning.
Particularly in the case of human beings, cognitive factors are of immense importance.
In fact, it has been observed that if a stimulus is well exposed to the animal or human
before conditioning, then it cannot be used easily as a conditioned stimulus (CS).
That is already formed ‘attitudes’ hinder its use as a CS. Thus classical conditioning
is not as simple and mechanistic as it seems. Consider the case of the child suffering
from oppositional defiance disorder. The aggressive motive of the child may far
surpass the impact of simple reinforcements and the disruptive behaviour continues
till the cognitive and affective parts are taken care of. Similarly, consider the case of
physically challenged persons like Helen Keller who, by sheer motivation and grit
succeeded to overcome the handicaps. Perhaps, the principles of classical conditioning
are not adequate for explaining such cases.
A second criticism has come from the strict biological standpoint. You cannot
condition any species beyond its biological limitation. Furthermore the biological
instinct to survive interacts with the conditioning paradigm. It is easy to condition a
person to hate and avoid specific food, but conditioning the same person to hate
and avoid flowers would be much more difficult. One is biologically more predisposed
to be afraid of poisoned food for basic survival reasons than of poisoned flowers.
The critics assert that classical conditioning in such cases is just working on the
biological predispositions.
A third critique of application of classical conditioning has come from ethical
perspective. There have been unconfirmed reports of classical conditioning being
used unethically on war prisoners of different countries, and unethical use of classical
conditioning in advertisements.
All of these criticisms point out correctly to the limitation of classical conditioning
principles. But that hardly makes it redundant. In fact, in recent years, the interest
in classical conditioning principles has been renewed, as it has been observed that
our immunity system may be classically conditioned (Ader and Cohen, 2001; Niemi,
15
2006) and therefore, these principles seem to have impact on our health.
Learning and
Cognitive Theories
of Personality
1.7 LET US SUM UP
What did we learn in this Unit? We have learnt about the concept of classical
conditioning as the acquisition of a response to a neutral stimulus when the neutral
stimulus has been associated temporally with a stimulus that naturally elicits the specific
response. In this context we have learnt about the work of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
and his famous experiment. We have learnt that classical conditioning occurs for
reflexes and is maintained by a CS-UCS bond in time, the UCS serving as the
reinforcement. We have also covered the principles of classical conditioning,
particularly extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalisation and discrimination, and
counter conditioning. We have learnt how emotions and social attitudes can be
conditioned. In this context, we have read the experiment of Watson and Reyner on
Little Albert. Then we have learnt how different psychopathological conditions can
come about through classical conditioning and as examples we have discussed phobia,
enuresis and somatoform disorders. We have learnt how classical conditioning
principles can be used for therapeutic purposes, through systematic desensitisation
and aversion therapy. Finally we have discussed the major critics of classical
conditioning from cognitive, biological and ethical perspectives and have concluded
that despite limitations, the significance of classical conditioning in human behaviour
cannot be denied.

1.8 GLOSSARY
Classical conditioning : Classical conditioning is an associative learning
technique where a naturally occurring stimulus
generating a specific response is paired with a neutral
stimulus. After repeated pairing, the previously neutral
stimulus elicits the specific response even in absence
of the naturally occurring stimulus.
Unconditioned stimulus : In the classical conditioning paradigm, an
unconditional stimulus is the natural stimulus that
evokes a natural response.
Conditioned stimulus : In the classical conditioning paradigm, a conditional
stimulus is the previously neutral stimulus which, after
conditioning, is capable of evoking a response that
occurred earlier only to the natural (unconditional)
stimulus.
Unconditioned response : In the classical conditioning paradigm, an
unconditional response is the natural response that is
evoked by a natural stimulus.
Conditioned response : In the classical conditioning paradigm, a conditional
response is the response which occurred earlier only
to natural stimulus, but after conditioning is evoked
by the conditioned stimulus, which was, earlier, a
neutral stimulus.
Reinforcement : Reinforcement is an event or a condition that increases
the likelihood of a specified response. In the classical
conditioning paradigm, the unconditioned stimulus
16 itself acts as reinforcement.
Extinction : In the classical conditioning paradigm, when a Classical Conditioning
By Pavlov
conditioned stimulus ceases to be paired with an
unconditioned stimulus for a number of times the
occurrences of a conditioned response decrease or
disappear. This is known as extinction.
Spontaneous recovery : In the classical conditioning paradigm, spontaneous
recovery is the sudden reappearance of the
conditioned response following a rest period after
extinction.
Stimulus generalisation : In classical conditioning paradigm, stimulus
generalisation is the tendency of the conditioned
response to occur to stimulus similar to the
conditioned stimulus.
Discrimination : In classical conditioning paradigm, discrimination
refers to the condition where an organism learns to
produce a conditioned response to one stimulus but
not to another similar stimulus, as the latter has been
systematically kept non-reinforced.
Counter conditioning : Counter conditioning is a replacement of an
undesirable conditioned response by a desirable one,
by changing the association of conditioned and
unconditioned stimulus.
Systematic desensitisation :A therapeutic technique based on classical
conditioning. The client is exposed to the phobic
object or its image in graded stages, starting from a
point where she is fully relaxed, and then guided
progressively toward staying relaxed even in situations
where she experienced intense fear.
Aversion therapy : A therapeutic technique used to modify undesirable
habits. The client’s real or imagined undesirable
behaviour is associated with an aversive or painful
stimulus. It is expected that after repeated pairing
the aversive response would be generated by the
undesirable habit itself.

1.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Examine the role of reinforcement in classical conditioning.
2) Define and give examples of extinction and spontaneous recovery.
3) Differentiate between extinction and counterconditioning.
4) Differentiate between generalisation and discrimination in classical conditioning.
5) Discuss with suitable examples, the classical conditioning of psychopathology.
6) ‘Systematic desensitisation is an example of application of classical conditioning
in therapy’ - illustrate with example.
7) Discuss the criticisms of classical conditioning.

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Learning and
Cognitive Theories
of Personality
1.10 SUGGESTED READINGS
Hall,C.S. and Lindzey, A. (1997). Theories of Personality, New York, Wiley
Liebert, R. M. & Spiegler, M. D. (1987) Personality: Strategies and Issues.
Homewood, IL: The Dorsey Press.
Pervin, L. A. & John, O. P. (1997) Personality: Theory and Research. New
York: John Wiley & Sons.
Internet source: http:// www. Youtube.com/watch? v=CpolxEN54ho&
feature=related.

1.11 ANSWERS TO SELF ASSESSMENT

QUESTIONS
Self Assessment Questions 1
1) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist. He is famous for his
experiment on classical conditioning using dog’s salivary response.
2) Classical conditioning is learning by association, whereby a neutral stimulus, by
virtue of its occurrence in close time and space with a natural stimulus that gives
rise to a natural response, becomes capable of eliciting that natural response,
even in absence of the natural stimulus.

Correct answers are:

i) both UCS and UCR and they are identical.
ii) both UCS and CR and they are identical.
iv) both UCR and CR but they are not identical

Self Assessment Questions 2

1) a) True b) False c) False
2) a) counter conditioning b) orange light

Self Assessment Questions 3

1) a) emotions can be conditioned
b) Joseph Wolpe
c) pleasant stimuli
2) i) Luncheon technique is a management technique based on classical
conditioning principle. Here a business proposal is presented with a well
arranged lunch or dinner party, so that the association of good food makes
the key decision makers more inclined toward accepting the proposal.
ii) Aversion therapy is a technique based on classical conditioning. Here, the
undesirable behaviour which the therapist wants removed is paired with
an aversive stimulus, so that the undesirable behaviour it self turns out to be
aversive to the subject.

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