Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov:
1. What was Pavlov actually studying when he developed his theory of classical conditioning?
It was in 1904 when Pavlov won a noble prize for his work on studying digestive processes in dog. While he was in his study of  digestion he noticed in his dogs that every time one of his assitants entered their room, they salivated.
2. Explain (in detail) how Pavlov's experiment was conducted.
Pavlov noted that his dogs would begin to salivate when food and it smell was brought to them. He noticed that this was not due to a physiological process.Based on his observations, Pavlov suggested that the salivation was a learned response. The dogs were responding when they saw the researchers and assistants white lab coats which they related to food.
3. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Pavlov's experiment.
Pavlov focused on investigating how these conditioning responses are learned or acquiered. He makes an experiment and uses food as the unconditioned stimulus, or the stimulus that brings to a response naturally and automatically. The sound of a metronome was chosen to be the neutral stimulus. The dogs would first be exposed to the sound of the ticking metronome, and then the food was immediately presented. So the unconditioned stimulus was the food, then the metronome which was chosen to be the neutral stimilus had become as the dog associates the metronome with food, to be the conditioned stimulus that provoked the conditioned response which was sthe salivation of the dog.
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm

4. Explain what extinction means in relation to classical conditioning.
Extinction occurs when a conditioned response decrease or disappear. This happens when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus
5. Explain what stimulus generalization means in relation to classical conditioning.
Stimilus generalization is when the conditioned stimulus revokes to similar responses from similar ojects to the conditiones stimulus itself.
6. Explain what stimulus discrimination means in relation to classical conditioning.
Discrimination  is being able to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that are similar to it.
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcondbasics.htm

7. Explain at least two limitations of this experiment.
The limitations are that he did the experiment only with dogs and it required a surgical procedure.

8. Explain what Pavlov theorized about how we learn.
He created the first learning theory which precedes the reinforcement learning theory. Classical conditioning does not include rewards and punishments which are key terms in the reinforcement learning theory. Classical conditioning is creating relationships by association.
http://www.psychologicalharassment.com/ivan_pavlov.htm


John B Watson:
1. Explain (in detail) how Watson's "Little Albert" study was conducted.
Little Albert was a 9month old baby that was chosen from a hospital for the study. He was given a battery of baseline emotional tests; the infant was exposed, briefly and for the first time, to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers, etc. He didn't show any fear at all.They begin to condition Little Albert until approximately two months later, when he was 11 months. The experiment began with putting Albert in a room with a table.A white rat was placed near him and he was allowed to play with it. He did not show any fear at all at the beggining but then  Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert's back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer when the baby touched the rat. Not surprisingly Albert showed fear and began to cry.

2. Identify the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response from Watson's study.
white rat (original neutral stimulus, now conditioned stimulus)
the loud noise (unconditioned stimulus)
emotional response of crying and fear (originally the unconditioned response to the noise, now the conditioned response to the rat).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment
3. Explain at least two limitations of this study.
The limitations were that the experiment was made just in a child and not in a bigger kid, teenager or adult and that their was also other sound besides the one they made.

4. Explain Watson's law of frequency.
Stated that the more often two things are linked the association will be more powerful.
5. Explain Watson's law of recency.
Refers to the responds that have occured after a stimulus.
6. Explain the basic assumptions of behaviorism according to Watson.
According to him behavior can be reduced to its basic components.