Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is learning by association: a signal that predicts something biologically important starts to produce the response the important thing produces. Pavlov paired a sound with food for dogs, and after enough pairings the sound alone made them salivate. The vocabulary is fixed by convention: the food is the unconditioned stimulus, salivating to food is the unconditioned response, the sound becomes the conditioned stimulus, and salivating to the sound is the conditioned response. Stop pairing them and the learned response fades, which is called extinction.
Why it matters
It was the first demonstration that a piece of learning could be produced, measured, and switched off on a laboratory schedule, which is what let psychology claim to be an experimental science. Exposure therapies for phobias are built directly on extinction.
Also written: Pavlovian conditioning, respondent conditioning
Where it comes up
Read about Classical conditioning on Wikipedia
Sources
- Classical conditioning Wikipedia
- Conditioned Reflexes Classics in the History of Psychology, York UniversityThe full text of Pavlov's 1927 lectures, in which the procedure is described first-hand.
- Behaviorism Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySets conditioning inside the wider argument about whether behaviour is all psychology may study.
