PAVLOV'S CONDITIONING AND IT SIGNIFICANCE TO PSYCHOLOGY.

Learning is the process by which new knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and ideas are acquired. Learning
can occur through both unconscious and conscious pathways. Classical conditioning is one of those
unconscious learning methods and is the most straightforward way in which humans can learn. Classical
conditioning is the process in which an automatic, conditioned response is paired with specific stimuli.
Although Edwin Twitmyer published findings pertaining to classical conditioning one year earlier, the
best-known and most thorough work on classical conditioning is accredited to Ivan Pavlov, a Russian
physiologist born in the mid-1800s. Pavlov had such a great impact on the study of classical conditioning
that it is often referred to as Pavlovian conditioning.

Classical conditioning was stumbled upon by accident. Pavlov was conducting research on the digestion
of dogs when he noticed that the dogs’ physical reactions to food subtly changed over time. At first, the
dogs would only salivate when the food was placed in front of them. However, later they salivated
slightly before their food arrived. Pavlov realized that they were salivating at the noises that were
consistently present before the food arrived; for example, the sound of a food cart is approaching.

To test his theory, Pavlov set up an experiment in which he rang a bell shortly before presenting food to
the dogs. At first, the dogs elicited no response to the bells. However, eventually, the dogs began to
salivate at the sound of the bell alone.

To understand classical conditioning, it is essential to be familiar with the following terms. A neutral
stimulus is a stimulus that at first elicits no response. Pavlov introduced the ringing of the bell as a
neutral stimulus. An unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus that leads to an automatic response. In
Pavlov’s experiment, the food was the unconditioned stimulus. An unconditioned response is an
automatic response to a stimulus. The dogs salivating for food is the unconditioned response in Pavlov’s
experiment. A conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that can eventually trigger a conditioned response. In
the described experiment, the conditioned stimulus was the ringing of the bell, and the conditioned
response was salivation.

It is important to note that the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus. Furthermore, it is
important to realize that the unconditioned response and the conditioned response are the same except
for which stimulus they are elicited by. In this case, salivation was the response, but the unconditioned
response was triggered by food, whereas the conditioned response was triggered by the bell which
indicated the coming of food.

Pavlov recorded several phenomena associated with classical conditioning. He found that the rate of
acquisition, the initial stages of learning, depended on the noticeability of the stimulus and the time in
between the introduction of the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. In Pavlov’s
experiment, this would translate to the time in between the bell ringing and the presentation of food.
Second, Pavlov observed that the conditioned response was vulnerable to extinction. If the conditioned
stimulus is continuously supplied in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, then the conditioned
response becomes weaker and weaker until it disappears. In Pavlov’s experiment, this would translate
to Pavlov ringing the bell without giving food to the dogs. Eventually, the dogs would stop salivating at
the sound of the bell. However, spontaneous recovery was also observed. Even if a substantial amount
of time had passed, the conditioned response would easily recover if the neutral stimulus and the
unconditioned stimulus were paired again. Lastly, he found that stimulus generalization and stimulus
discrimination can occur. Stimulus generalization occurs when the dog can respond to stimuli that are
similar to the conditioned stimulus. For example, if Pavlov’s dogs salivated at the sound of another
ringing sound such as a cell phone ringing, that would be stimulus generalization. Stimulus
discrimination, on the other hand, is being able to differentiate between similar stimuli and respond
only to the correct stimuli.

People can use classical conditioning to exploit others for their gain. A prominent example of this occurs
in advertising. The advertiser generally attempts to get consumers to associate their product with a
particular response or feeling so they are more likely to buy the product. Advertisers can use music or
mouth-watering food in their ads to create an association with their product. These types of associations
can lead to increased spending as well as poor eating habits especially if the product is unhealthy food.

Most psychologists now agree that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning. Furthermore, it is
well-known that Pavlovian principles can influence human health, emotion, motivation, and therapy of
psychological disorders. There are many clinically related uses of classical conditioning. For example,
former drug users often have a craving when they are in a drug-related environment or around people
that they associate with previous highs. Drug counselors often advise these people to stay away from
settings that could trigger a desire to take drugs again. Also, it has been proven that classical
conditioning can even affect the human immune system. When a particular taste accompanies a drug
that influences an immune response, sometimes the taste itself can induce the immune response at a
later time. Another example can be found in the overcoming of phobias. One patient, who had feared
getting into an elevator for 30 years, forced herself to enter 20 elevators a day. After 10 days, her fear
had almost completely vanished.

O.H Mowrer discovered that certain behaviors can be reconditioned when he successfully developed a
therapy for bed-wetters. In his therapy, the child would sleep on a liquid-sensitive pad connected to an
alarm. Once moisture was detected, the alarm would go off. After repetition, bladder relaxation became
associated with waking up and 75% of the time, frequent bed-wetters were healed and longer wet the
bed while they slept.

Another example of an effective therapy that is used to cure phobias is counterconditioning, which pairs
the trigger stimulus with a response that is contrary to fear. Two counterconditioning techniques that
have been proven to be effective are exposure therapy and aversive therapy. In general, exposure
therapies are therapies that expose people to what scares them. Two types of exposure therapies are
systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy. In systematic desensitization, a pleasant,
relaxed state is associated with increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. This therapy is common in the
treatment of phobias. Virtual reality exposure follows the same concept as general exposure therapy
but uses virtual reality to do instead of real-life situations. Aversive conditioning has the goal of
substituting a negative response for a positive response to a harmful stimulus. This is essentially the
reverse of systematic desensitization in which a positive response is replaced with a negative response
to a harmless stimulus. One common example of aversive conditioning is mixing alcohol with an
extremely bitter taste or lacing fingernails with something that causes severe nausea. The problem with
this therapy is that patients can differentiate between situations inside and outside of the psychiatrist’s
office. An alcoholic understands that if he drinks alcohol, it will normally not have that bitter taste. For
this reason, a combination of conditioning therapies is the best approach to treat certain issues.

A combination of both behavior modification therapy with medications can lead to better clinical
outcomes than if either option is used alone. Some studies show enhanced outcomes when certain
drugs are used in the psychological treatment of anxiety disorders and even post-traumatic stress
disorders. Despite the clinical efficacy of these studies, it should be noted that each individual can have a
different treatment plan that is optimal to only them. Some people might respond better to only therapy
or medications rather than a combination of both. Furthermore, combination treatments can be more
of a "mix and match" treatment where two patients can have similar amounts of treatment success but
use different medications and therapy options.

The importance of Pavlov's experiment rests in the fact that it offered a clear-cut illustration of the
fundamental concepts of learning. It demonstrated how associations can be used to learn and how
environmental cues can influence behavior. Since then, this experiment has been used to investigate a
number of psychological problems, such as addiction, anxiety disorders, and phobias. For instance,
phobias are frequently linked to a traumatic event that involved a specific object or circumstance. This is
an illustration of classical conditioning since the person has come to identify the thing or circumstance
with fear. Similar to this, addiction can be viewed as the outcome of classical conditioning because the
person has come to equate using drugs or alcohol with enjoyment.

Pavlov's experiment has also contributed to the development of the field of behaviorism, which focuses
on the study of observable behavior. This approach to psychology was popular in the early 20th century
and emphasized the role of environmental stimuli in shaping behavior. It also influenced the
development of many behavioral therapies, such as operant conditioning and systematic
desensitization.

Operant conditioning is one type of behaviorism that emphasizes the connection between behavior and
its results. According to this theory, conduct can be changed by rewarding or punishing it. Anxiety and
depression are just two of the psychological diseases for which this method has been employed in
treatment.On the other side, behavior therapy known as systematic desensitization is used to cure
phobias. It entails educating the person to relax while introducing them gradually to the frightened
object or circumstance. The goal of this strategy is to alter the association between the feared item and
fear. It is based on the theory of classical conditioning.

In conclusion, one of the most influential psychological investigations is believed to be Pavlov's

experiment. It gave a clear and concise exposition of the fundamentals of classical conditioning as well
as a demonstration of the learning by association process. The research has since been used to the
investigation of numerous psychological problems and has had an impact on the creation of a number of
behavioral therapies. Classical conditioning is still a crucial idea in psychology today and continues to
influence how we perceive human behavior.

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