Classical Conditioning?

James Langmyer: Okay, I'm going to use Pavlov's experiment to illustrate what these terms mean. It might help to always use his experiment as a way to remember what the terms mean so you can apply them to new ones (like the spider case you've been given).So imagine bearded Pavlov with his dog (let's call him Snuffles). Pavlov notices that whenever he brings Snuffles his food, Snuffles starts salivating everywhere in anticipation (have you ever noticed you salivate when you're really hungry too?). Already, we can see that the 'unconditioned stimulus' is the food - it 'stimulates' Snuffles to salivate in a way that is simply natural and hasn't been conditioned to occur by anyone (i.e. it is 'unconditioned').The salivation, in turn, is the 'unconditioned response' - Snuffles can't help but salivate in response to the food, and once again, this is natural and therefore unconditioned.Next, imagine that Pavlov also likes to ring a bell now and again. Snuffles really couldn't ca! re less about the bell either way - it means nothing to him. Thus, the ringing of the bell is a 'neutral stimulus' - Snuffles is neutral to it.Now, through some stroke of luck or cleverness or insanity, Pavlov figured out that after presenting the food each day while ringing bell at the same time, Snuffles began to salivate merely when hearing the bell (yet no food was in sight). Now, the ringing of the bell becomes a 'conditioned stimulus' because Snuffles salivates to the bell - it's not natural for dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, thus is has been 'conditioned' to cause this reaction in Snuffles. Similarly, Snuffles' salivation to the bell becomes the 'conditioned response', because now he is salivating in a way that has been conditioned and isn't natural to him.Sooo....... I hope this helped. In applying it to learning how to fear spiders, imagine how a person might connect a neutral stimulus (the spider) with a natural response (unconditioned response) to somet! hing scary or painful (unconditioned stimulus), so that they b! egin to feel scared (conditioned response) of the spider (conditioned stimulus).Sorry if I've just confused you more. Good luck. :D...Show more

Keven Woodington: Basically, the unconditioned response, unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus are what you have before any conditioning takes place. Basically you salivate at the smell of good food from birth. It doesn't require any conditioning to make that happen. So the smell is the unconditioned stimulus, and the salivation is an unconditioned response. A neutral stimulus is a thing that happens that doesn't evoke any particular response one way or the other. A ringing bell has no association with food smell or salivation, so it is just there. Classical conditioning happens when you combine the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus. The neutral stimulus becomes so associated with the unconditioned response that it begins to have the same effect in evoking the unconditioned response. Once that happ! ens, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus, which evokes the conditioned response. So let's say you're a child with no negative association with spiders. Since the spider doesn't evoke any particular response, it is a neutral stimulus.In order to create a phobia through classical conditioning, you must pair that neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus that causes an unconditioned response of fear. Let's say you are bitten by a black widow and become very ill. That unconditioned stimulus (pain) causes an unconditioned response (fear). If it is traumatic enough, it could create an association with the neutral stimulus (the spider). The spider then becomes the conditioned stimulus, and the fear of it the conditioned response.You could even create the same effect by observing someone else who was terrified of spiders. A child sees her mother terrified of a spider and it evokes fear, which is then conditioned to the sight of a spider....Show more