Classical Conditioning Examples

1.Classical conditioning theory involves learning a new behavior via the process of association. In simple terms two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal. There are three stages to classical conditioning. In each stage the stimuli and responses are given special scientific terms:
2. Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning) is a form of learning in which one stimulus, theconditioned stimulus or CS, comes to signal the occurrence of a second stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus or US. The US is usually a biologically significant stimulus such as food or pain that elicits a response from the start; this is called the unconditioned response or UR. The CS usually produces no particular response at first, but after conditioning it elicits the conditioned response or CR. Classical conditioning differs from operant or instrumental conditioning, in which behavior emitted by the organism is strengthened or weakened by its consequences (i.e. reward [1] or punishment). Conditioning is usually done by pairing the two stimuli, as in Pavlovs classic experiments. Pavlov presented dogs with a ringing bell (CS) followed by food (US). The food (US) elicited salivation (UR), and after repeated bell-food pairings the bell also caused the dogs to salivate (CR).
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3. Pavlovs Experiment: Pavlov did famous experiments with dogs, ringing a bell and then feeding them. After a while, he could ring the bell and their mouths would salivate. He demonstrated what he meant by conditioned learning in this studies with dogs. In his experiments, Pavlov sounded a bell and then immediately applied a meat paste to the dogs tongue, which caused then to salivate. Learning (conditioning) occurred when after a sufficient number of repetitions of the bell sound followed almost immediately by food, the bell sound alone caused the dogs to salivate. The dog associated the bell sound ( the conditioned stimulus) with the meat paste (the unconditioned stimulus) and after a number of pairings, gave the same conditioned response (salivation) to the bell alone as they did to the meat paste. The unconditioned responses to the meat paste become the conditioned response to the bell. Group Influences Humans are inherently social animals, and individuals greatly influence each other.

A useful framework of analysis of group influence on the individual is the so called reference groupthe term comes about because an individual uses a relevant group as a standard of reference against which oneself is compared. Reference groups come in several different forms.

The aspirational reference group refers to those others against whom one would like to compare oneself. For example, many firms use athletes as spokespeople, and these represent what many people would ideally like to be. Associative reference groups include people who more realistically represent the individuals current equals or near-equalse.g., coworkers, neighbors, or members of churches, clubs, and organizations. Paco Underhill, a former anthropologist turned retail consultant and author of the book Why We Buy has performed research suggesting that among many teenagers, the process of clothes buying is a two stage process. In the first stage, the teenagers go on a "reconnaissance" mission with their friends to find out what is available and what is "cool." This is often a lengthy process. In the later phase, parentswho will need to pay for the purchases are brought. This stage is typically much briefer. Finally, the dissociative reference group includes people that the individual would not like to be like. For example, the store literally named The Gap came about because many younger people wanted to actively dissociate from parents and other older and "uncool" people. The Quality Paperback Book Club specifically suggests in its advertising that its members are "a breed apart" from conventional readers of popular books.

Reference groups come with various degrees of influence. Primary reference groups come with a great deal of influencee.g., members of a fraternity/sorority. Secondary reference groups tend to have somewhat less influencee.g., members of a boating club that one encounters only during week-ends are likely to have their influence limited to consumption during that time period. Another typology divides reference groups into the informational kind (influence is based almost entirely on members knowledge), normative(members influence what is perceived to be "right," "proper," "responsible," or "cool"), or identification. The difference between the latter two categories involves the individuals motivation for compliance. In case of the normative reference group, the individual tends to comply largely for utilitarian reasonsdressing according to company standards is likely to help your career, but there is no real motivation to dress that way outside the job. In contrast, people comply with identification groups standards for the sake of belongingfor example, a member of a religious group may wear a symbol even outside the house of worship because the religion is a part of the persons identity.