Classical conditioning is a type of learning that had a major influence on the school of thought in

psychology known as behaviorism. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical

conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental
stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.
Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the
environment.
Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment shapes behavior and that taking
internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings, and emotions into consideration is useless in
explaining behavior.
It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally
occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone
and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to food. By associating the neutral
stimulus with the environmental stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone could
produce the salivation response.
In order to understand how more about how classical conditioning works, it is important to be familiar
with the basic principles of the process.
The Classical Conditioning Process
Classical conditioning basically involves forming an association between two stimuli resulting in a
learned response. There are three basic phases of this process:
Phase 1: Before Conditioning
The first part of this process requires a naturally occurring stimulus that will automatically elicit a
response.
Salivating in response to the smell of food is a good example of a naturally occurring stimulus. During
this phase of the processes, the unconditioned stimulus (USC) results in an unconditioned response
(UCR). At this point there is also a neutral stimulus that produces no effect - yet. It isn't until this
neutral stimulus is paired with the UCS that it will come to evoke a response.
The Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
The unconditioned stimulus is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a
response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very
hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus.
The Unconditioned Response (UCR)
The unconditioned response is the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the
unconditioned stimulus. In our example, the feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food is the
unconditioned response.
Phase 2: During Conditioning
During the second phase of the classical conditioning process, the previously neutral stimulus is
repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus. As a result of this pairing, an association between
the previously neutral stimulus and the UCS is formed. At this point the neutral stimulus become
known as the conditioned stimulus (CS).
The Conditioned Stimulus
The conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the
unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. In our earlier example,
suppose that when you smelled your favorite food, you also heard the sound of a whistle. While the
whistle is unrelated to the smell of the food, if the sound of the whistle was paired multiple times with
the smell, the sound would eventually trigger the conditioned response. In this case, the sound of the
whistle is the conditioned stimulus.
Phase 3: After Conditioning
Once the association has been made between the UCS and the CS, presenting the conditioned
stimulus alone will come to evoke a response even in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus. The
resulting response is known as the conditioned response (CR).
The Conditioned Response
The conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. In our example,
the conditioned response would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
It can be helpful to look at a few examples of how the classical conditioning process operates both in
experimental and real-worlds settings:
Classical Conditioning a Fear Response

One of the most famous examples of classical conditioning was John B. Watson's experiment in which
a fear response was conditioned in a young boy known as Little Albert. The child initially showed no
fear of a white rat, but after the presentation of the rat was paired repeatedly with loud, scary sounds,
the child would cry when the rat was present. The child's fear also generalized to other fuzzy white
objects.
Let's examine the elements of this classic experiment. Prior to the conditioning, the white rat was a
neutral stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus was the loud, clanging sounds and the unconditioned
response was the fear response created by the noise. By repeatedly pairing the rat with the
unconditioned stimulus, the white rat (now the conditioned stimulus) came to evoke the fear response
(now the conditioned response).
You can learn more about this famous study in this overview of the Little Albert experimentas well as
some more information on the controversy about Little Albert.
This experiment illustrates how phobias can form through classical conditioning. In many cases, a
single pairing of a neutral stimulus (a dog, for example) and a frightening experience (being bitten by
the dog) can lead to a lasting phobia (being afraid of dogs).
Classically Conditioning Taste Aversions
Another example of classical conditioning can be seen in the development of conditionedtaste
aversions. Researchers John Garcia and Bob Koelling first noticed this phenomenon when they
observed how rats that had been exposed to a nausea-causing radiation developed an aversion to
flavored water after the radiation and the water were presented together. In this example, the
radiation represents the unconditioned stimulus and the nausea represents the unconditioned
response. After the pairing of the two, the flavored water is the conditioned stimulus, while the nausea
that formed when exposed to the water alone is the conditioned response.
Later research demonstrated that such classically conditioned aversions could be produced through a
single pairing of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. Researchers also found that
such aversions can even develop if the conditioned stimulus (the taste of the food) is presented
several hours before the unconditioned stimulus (the nausea-causing stimulus). Why do such
associations develop so quickly? Obviously, forming such associations can have survival benefits for
the organism. If an animal eats something that makes it ill, it needs to avoid eating the same food in
the future to avoid sickness or even death. This is a great example of what is known as biological
preparedness. Some associations form more readily because they aid in survival.
In one famous field study, researchers injected sheep carcasses with a poison that would make
coyotes sick but not kill them. The goal was help sheep ranchers reduce the number of sheep lost to
coyote killings. Not only did the experiment work by lowering the number of sheep killed, it also
caused some of the coyotes to develop such a strong aversion to sheep that they would actually run
away at the scent or sight of a sheep.
Classical Conditioning in the Real World
In reality, people do not respond exactly like Pavlov's dogs. There are, however, numerous real-world
applications for classical conditioning. For example, many dog trainers use classical conditioning
techniques to help people train their pets.
These techniques are also useful in the treatment of phobias or anxiety problems. Teachers are able to
apply classical conditioning in the class by creating a positive classroom environment to help students
overcome anxiety or fear. Pairing an anxiety-provoking situation, such as performing in front of a
group, with pleasant surroundings helps the student learn new associations. Instead of feeling anxious
and tense in these situations, the child will learn to stay relaxed and calm.
More About Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning can be used to increase the amount of a behavior, but it can also be used to
decrease behavior. Learn more about some of the basic principles of classical conditioning.
7.1 Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Describe how Pavlovs early work in classical conditioning influenced the understanding of
learning.
2.
Review the concepts of classical conditioning, including unconditioned stimulus (US),
conditioned stimulus (CS), unconditioned response (UR), and conditioned response (CR).
3.
Explain the roles that extinction, generalization, and discrimination play in conditioned
learning.

Pavlov Demonstrates Conditioning in Dogs

In the early part of the 20th century, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (18491936) was studying the
digestive system of dogs when he noticed an interesting behavioral phenomenon: The dogs began to
salivate when the lab technicians who normally fed them entered the room, even though the dogs had
not yet received any food. Pavlov realized that the dogs were salivating because they knew that they
were about to be fed; the dogs had begun to associate the arrival of the technicians with the food that
soon followed their appearance in the room.
Figure 7.2 Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlovs research made substantial contributions to our understanding of learning.
Source: Photo courtesy of LIFE Photo
Archive,http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ivan_Pavlov_LIFE.jpg.
With his team of researchers, Pavlov began studying this process in more detail. He conducted a
series of experiments in which, over a number of trials, dogs were exposed to a sound immediately
before receiving food. He systematically controlled the onset of the sound and the timing of the
delivery of the food, and recorded the amount of the dogs salivation. Initially the dogs salivated only
when they saw or smelled the food, but after several pairings of the sound and the food, the dogs
began to salivate as soon as they heard the sound. The animals had learned to associate the sound
with the food that followed.
Pavlov had identified a fundamental associative learning process called classical
conditioning. Classical conditioning refers to learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus (e.g., a
tone) becomes associated with a stimulus (e.g., food) that naturally produces a behavior. After the
association is learned, the previously neutral stimulus is sufficient to produce the behavior.
As you can see in Figure 7.3 "4-Panel Image of Whistle and Dog", psychologists use specific terms to
identify the stimuli and the responses in classical conditioning. The unconditioned stimulus
(US) is something (such as food) that triggers a natural occurring response, and the unconditioned
response (UR) is the naturally occurring response (such as salivation) that follows the unconditioned
stimulus. The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a neutral stimulus that, after being repeatedly presented
prior to the unconditioned stimulus, evokes a similar response as the unconditioned stimulus. In
Pavlovs experiment, the sound of the tone served as the conditioned stimulus that, after learning,
produced the conditioned response (CR), which is the acquired response to the formerly neutral
stimulus. Note that the UR and the CR are the same behaviorin this case salivationbut they are
given different names because they are produced by different stimuli (the US and the CS,
respectively).
Figure 7.3 4-Panel Image of Whistle and Dog

Top left: Before conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (US) naturally produces the unconditioned
response (UR). Top right: Before conditioning, the neutral stimulus (the whistle) does not produce the
salivation response. Bottom left: The unconditioned stimulus (US), in this case the food, is repeatedly
presented immediately after the neutral stimulus. Bottom right: After learning, the neutral stimulus
(now known as the conditioned stimulus or CS), is sufficient to produce the conditioned responses
(CR).

Conditioning is evolutionarily beneficial because it allows organisms to develop expectations that help
them prepare for both good and bad events. Imagine, for instance, that an animal first smells a new
food, eats it, and then gets sick. If the animal can learn to associate the smell (CS) with the food (US),
then it will quickly learn that the food creates the negative outcome, and not eat it the next time.
The Persistence and Extinction of Conditioning
After he had demonstrated that learning could occur through association, Pavlov moved on to study
the variables that influenced the strength and the persistence of conditioning. In some studies, after
the conditioning had taken place, Pavlov presented the sound repeatedly but without presenting the
food afterward. Figure 7.4 "Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery" shows what happened.
As you can see, after the intial acquisition (learning) phase in which the conditioning occurred, when
the CS was then presented alone, the behavior rapidly decreasedthe dogs salivated less and less to
the sound, and eventually the sound did not elicit salivation at all. Extinction refers to the reduction in
responding that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the
unconditioned stimulus.
Figure 7.4 Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery

Acquisition: The CS and the US are repeatedly paired together and behavior increases. Extinction: The
CS is repeatedly presented alone, and the behavior slowly decreases. Spontaneous recovery: After a
pause, when the CS is again presented alone, the behavior may again occur and then again show
extinction.
Although at the end of the first extinction period the CS was no longer producing salivation, the effects
of conditioning had not entirely disappeared. Pavlov found that, after a pause, sounding the tone
again elicited salivation, although to a lesser extent than before extinction took place. The increase in
responding to the CS following a pause after extinction is known as spontaneous recovery. When
Pavlov again presented the CS alone, the behavior again showed extinction until it disappeared again.
Although the behavior has disappeared, extinction is never complete. If conditioning is again
attempted, the animal will learn the new associations much faster than it did the first time.
Pavlov also experimented with presenting new stimuli that were similar, but not identical to, the
original conditioned stimulus. For instance, if the dog had been conditioned to being scratched before
the food arrived, the stimulus would be changed to being rubbed rather than scratched. He found that
the dogs also salivated upon experiencing the similar stimulus, a process known
asgeneralization. Generalization refers to the tendency to respond to stimuli that resemble the
original conditioned stimulus. The ability to generalize has important evolutionary significance. If we
eat some red berries and they make us sick, it would be a good idea to think twice before we eat
some purple berries. Although the berries are not exactly the same, they nevertheless are similar and
may have the same negative properties.
Lewicki (1985) [1] conducted research that demonstrated the influence of stimulus generalization and
how quickly and easily it can happen. In his experiment, high school students first had a brief
interaction with a female experimenter who had short hair and glasses. The study was set up so that
the students had to ask the experimenter a question, and (according to random assignment) the
experimenter responded either in a negative way or a neutral way toward the students. Then the
students were told to go into a second room in which two experimenters were present, and to
approach either one of them. However, the researchers arranged it so that one of the two
experimenters looked a lot like the original experimenter, while the other one did not (she had longer
hair and no glasses). The students were significantly more likely to avoid the experimenter who looked

like the earlier experimenter when that experimenter had been negative to them than when she had
treated them more neutrally. The participants showed stimulus generalization such that the new,
similar-looking experimenter created the same negative response in the participants as had the
experimenter in the prior session.
The flip side of generalization is discriminationthe tendency to respond differently to stimuli that are
similar but not identical. Pavlovs dogs quickly learned, for example, to salivate when they heard the
specific tone that had preceded food, but not upon hearing similar tones that had never been
associated with food. Discrimination is also usefulif we do try the purple berries, and if they do not
make us sick, we will be able to make the distinction in the future. And we can learn that although the
two people in our class, Courtney and Sarah, may look a lot alike, they are nevertheless different
people with different personalities.
In some cases, an existing conditioned stimulus can serve as an unconditioned stimulus for a pairing
with a new conditioned stimulusa process known as second-order conditioning. In one of Pavlovs
studies, for instance, he first conditioned the dogs to salivate to a sound, and then repeatedly paired a
new CS, a black square, with the sound. Eventually he found that the dogs would salivate at the sight
of the black square alone, even though it had never been directly associated with the food. Secondary
conditioners in everyday life include our attractions to things that stand for or remind us of something
else, such as when we feel good on a Friday because it has become associated with the paycheck that
we receive on that day, which itself is a conditioned stimulus for the pleasures that the paycheck buys
us.
The Role of Nature in Classical Conditioning
As we have seen in Chapter 1 "Introducing Psychology", scientists associated with the behavioralist
school argued that all learning is driven by experience, and that nature plays no role. Classical
conditioning, which is based on learning through experience, represents an example of the importance
of the environment. But classical conditioning cannot be understood entirely in terms of experience.
Nature also plays a part, as our evolutionary history has made us better able to learn some
associations than others.
Clinical psychologists make use of classical conditioning to explain the learning of a phobiaa strong
and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation. For example, driving a car is a neutral
event that would not normally elicit a fear response in most people. But if a person were to experience
a panic attack in which he suddenly experienced strong negative emotions while driving, he may learn
to associate driving with the panic response. The driving has become the CS that now creates the fear
response.
Psychologists have also discovered that people do not develop phobias to just anything. Although
people may in some cases develop a driving phobia, they are more likely to develop phobias toward
objects (such as snakes, spiders, heights, and open spaces) that have been dangerous to people in
the past. In modern life, it is rare for humans to be bitten by spiders or snakes, to fall from trees or
buildings, or to be attacked by a predator in an open area. Being injured while riding in a car or being
cut by a knife are much more likely. But in our evolutionary past, the potential of being bitten by
snakes or spiders, falling out of a tree, or being trapped in an open space were important evolutionary
concerns, and therefore humans are still evolutionarily prepared to learn these associations over
others (hman & Mineka, 2001; LoBue & DeLoache, 2010). [2]
Another evolutionarily important type of conditioning is conditioning related to food. In his important
research on food conditioning, John Garcia and his colleagues (Garcia, Kimeldorf, & Koelling, 1955;
Garcia, Ervin, & Koelling, 1966) [3] attempted to condition rats by presenting either a taste, a sight, or
a sound as a neutral stimulus before the rats were given drugs (the US) that made them nauseous.
Garcia discovered that taste conditioning was extremely powerfulthe rat learned to avoid the taste
associated with illness, even if the illness occurred several hours later. But conditioning the behavioral
response of nausea to a sight or a sound was much more difficult. These results contradicted the idea
that conditioning occurs entirely as a result of environmental events, such that it would occur equally
for any kind of unconditioned stimulus that followed any kind of conditioned stimulus. Rather, Garcias
research showed that genetics mattersorganisms are evolutionarily prepared to learn some
associations more easily than others. You can see that the ability to associate smells with illness is an
important survival mechanism, allowing the organism to quickly learn to avoid foods that are
poisonous.
Classical conditioning has also been used to help explain the experience of posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), as in the case of P. K. Philips described in the chapter opener. PTSD is a severe
anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a fearful event, such as the threat of death

(American Psychiatric Association, 1994). [4] PTSD occurs when the individual develops a strong
association between the situational factors that surrounded the traumatic event (e.g., military
uniforms or the sounds or smells of war) and the US (the fearful trauma itself). As a result of the
conditioning, being exposed to, or even thinking about the situation in which the trauma occurred (the
CS), becomes sufficient to produce the CR of severe anxiety (Keane, Zimering, & Caddell, 1985). [5]
Figure 7.5
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) represents a
case of classical conditioning to a severe trauma that
does not easily become extinct. In this case the
original fear response, experienced during combat,
has become conditioned to a loud noise. When the
person with PTSD hears a loud noise, she
experiences a fear response even though she is now
far from the site of the original trauma.