Question

In your own words, Create an example of classical conditioning. Identify the unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response. Explain how these elements work together to create classical conditioning.

Answer 1

• Classical conditioning is a type of learning given by Pavlov which focuses on how environment stimuli shapes our behaviour through association.
• For example,I have been conditioned to eat dinner at particular time and this is because of classical conditioning.Whenever the smell of food comes from the kitchen,I start to feel hungry,which is around 8pm.Food is the naturally occuring stimulus also called the unconditioned stimulus.The UCS(smell of food) results in my UCR(salivation and feeling hungry).UCR is the unconditioned response which gets automatically triggered by UCS.
• Now,after repeated pairings of the neutral stimulus with UCS becomes conditioned stimulus (CS),which leads to conditioned response (CR).So,when the smell of food comes from the kitchen,along with it my alarm goes off that its dinner time.Now,initially the alarm made no difference and was unrelated to the smell of food.But if everytime it went off when the food was prepared then it is getting associated with the smell.
• After multiple associations or pairings of the alarm with the smell of home cooked food,would eventually lead to my conditioned response(CR) of feeling hungry.My alarm tone becomes the conditioned stimulus.(CS)
• Once the association has been created between UCS and the CS,presenting the CS alone will evoke my response even without the UCS.The resulting response is known as the CR.So in our example,my CR would be feeling hungry when I hear alarm going off.