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Famous Psychology Experiments

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Ivan Pavlov

• Classical Conditioning

• Experiments on dogs

• Smarty Pants: Nobel Prize - 1904 Dog

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Classical Conditioning and Pavlov’s Dogs: Hypothesis

• Observations: Dogs salivate when food is placed in their mouths

• Dogs salivate at mere sight of food

• Hypothesis: Dogs can be trained, or conditioned, to salivate when exposed to an external (neutral) stimulus

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Pavlov’s Methodology and Results

• Present external (neutral) stimulus (bell) immediately before giving food. Order is important

• Results: After a few trials, the dog salivates upon hearing the bell

• Works with other stimuli as well

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Classical Conditioning Components

• CS-Conditioned Stimulus– Learned trigger (initially

neutral)

• UCS- Unconditioned Stimulus– Automatically triggers a

response

• UCR- Unconditioned Response– Naturally occurring response

• CR- Conditioned Response– Learned response

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Altoid Theory – The Office

• After viewing the clip be able to identify the components of classical conditioning.

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Pavlov’s Conclusions

Unconditioned Response

(UCR)

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

Conditioned Response

(CR)

Conditioned Stimulus

(CS)

because of because of

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Continuing Pavlov’s Experiment

• Acquisition– Learning the pairing CS+ UCS– Making the association

• Extinction– Represses CR (not eliminated)

• Spontaneous Recovery– After extinction, time passes,

recurring of the CR w/o UCS• Generalization

– CR to stimuli that are similar• Discrimination

– CR to a particular stimulus only

Other Aspects of Classical Conditioning

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John Watson and Rosalie Rayner: Hypothesis, Methodology, Results

• After a few tries, Albert was afraid of the rat

+ =

• Conditioned fear into an infant

• Presented a rat immediately followed by a loud noise, startling the baby

• Albert generalized his fears to other furry objects

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Mary Cover Jones• Colleague of Watson

• Deconditioned 3-year-old Peter from his fears by gradually moving a rabbit (and other things) closer to him while he was eating

DAY 1 DAY 3DAY 2

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B.F. Skinner and Operant Conditioning

• Classical conditioning involves an automatic response to a stimulus

• Operant conditioning involves learning how to control one’s response to elicit a reward or avoid a punishment

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The “Skinner Box”: Skinner’s Hypothesis, Methodology, and

Results• Rats placed in

“Skinner boxes” • Shaped to get closer

and closer to the bar in order to receive food

• Eventually required to press the bar to receive food

• Food is a reinforcer