©Ane Venter
Chapter 6
Conditioning & Learning
Lecture notes are in RED
Extra notes are in BLUE
1
,©Ane Venter
What is learning?
→ The formal or informal situation in which a person obtains knowledge / skills at school / university
or the workplace.
○ Knowing something you didn’t know before
○ Being able to do things you couldn’t do before
→ Behavioural changes have something to do with learning
→ Fundamental concept that is at the core of psychology.
→ Can shape habits, beliefs, personality traits, emotional responses, and personal preferences.
→ Animals can learn too:
○ Observational learning
○ Modelling
○ Most knowledge of human behaviour comes from research performed on animals.
→ Conditioning:
Process of learning associations between events within the environment.
Classical Conditioning
→ Phobia:
Irrational fear of specific objects / situations
○ Mostly acquired through classical conditioning.
→ Classical conditioning:
Type of learning in which a stimulus obtains the capacity to create a certain response that was
originally created by another stimulus.
Ivan Pavlov &
Classical conditioning
→ Observed the process of classical conditioning during his discovery of
“psychic reflexes”.
→ Researched the role of saliva in the digestive processes of dogs.
○ Restrained dogs in a chamber + collected saliva using a
surgically implanted tube in the salivary gland
○ Present meat powder and collect saliva.
2
, ©Ane Venter
Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning apparatus
→ Noticed dogs grew accustomed to the procedure
○ They would start salivating before the powder was presented.
○ E.g., salivate at the sound the apparatus makes before presenting the meat powder.
→ The sound started out as a neutral stimulus
○ It didn’t initially produce the response of salivation
○ By pairing the sound with a stimulus that did produce salivation response = sound gained
ability to trigger the response of salivation.
→ “conditioning” comes from Pavlov’s desire to explore “conditions” of learning.
→ Pavlov demonstrated how learned behaviour can be formed in one’s environment.
○ Showed how response associations = basic building blocks of learning.
○ Associations are formed in our environment.
Terminology and Procedures
Association Link / relationship made between one or more event, object, or subject.
An object, behaviour, or event that triggers, or is conditioned to
Stimulus
trigger, a response.
A natural, unlearned association
Unconditioned Associations - Did not have to be created through conditioning
- Relationship is biological
A stimulus that creates a spontaneous response without previous
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
conditioning.
3
Chapter 6
Conditioning & Learning
Lecture notes are in RED
Extra notes are in BLUE
1
,©Ane Venter
What is learning?
→ The formal or informal situation in which a person obtains knowledge / skills at school / university
or the workplace.
○ Knowing something you didn’t know before
○ Being able to do things you couldn’t do before
→ Behavioural changes have something to do with learning
→ Fundamental concept that is at the core of psychology.
→ Can shape habits, beliefs, personality traits, emotional responses, and personal preferences.
→ Animals can learn too:
○ Observational learning
○ Modelling
○ Most knowledge of human behaviour comes from research performed on animals.
→ Conditioning:
Process of learning associations between events within the environment.
Classical Conditioning
→ Phobia:
Irrational fear of specific objects / situations
○ Mostly acquired through classical conditioning.
→ Classical conditioning:
Type of learning in which a stimulus obtains the capacity to create a certain response that was
originally created by another stimulus.
Ivan Pavlov &
Classical conditioning
→ Observed the process of classical conditioning during his discovery of
“psychic reflexes”.
→ Researched the role of saliva in the digestive processes of dogs.
○ Restrained dogs in a chamber + collected saliva using a
surgically implanted tube in the salivary gland
○ Present meat powder and collect saliva.
2
, ©Ane Venter
Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning apparatus
→ Noticed dogs grew accustomed to the procedure
○ They would start salivating before the powder was presented.
○ E.g., salivate at the sound the apparatus makes before presenting the meat powder.
→ The sound started out as a neutral stimulus
○ It didn’t initially produce the response of salivation
○ By pairing the sound with a stimulus that did produce salivation response = sound gained
ability to trigger the response of salivation.
→ “conditioning” comes from Pavlov’s desire to explore “conditions” of learning.
→ Pavlov demonstrated how learned behaviour can be formed in one’s environment.
○ Showed how response associations = basic building blocks of learning.
○ Associations are formed in our environment.
Terminology and Procedures
Association Link / relationship made between one or more event, object, or subject.
An object, behaviour, or event that triggers, or is conditioned to
Stimulus
trigger, a response.
A natural, unlearned association
Unconditioned Associations - Did not have to be created through conditioning
- Relationship is biological
A stimulus that creates a spontaneous response without previous
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
conditioning.
3
