Pavlov came to the conclusion that the conditioning process creates a new connection in the brain between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. Once conditioning is complete whenever the conditioned stimulus is present the unconditioned stimulus is activated via this new connection, which in turn activates the unconditioned response and conditioned response.
What needs to be however realised is that it is not a response that once learnt is never forgotten. A process of extinction can occur. This would occur if the unconditioned response was taken away. The dog would eventually learn that the connection didn’t exist anymore. However Pavlov didn’t believe this was a permanent extinction but that another connection had been added with equal and opposite forces to the conditioning force.
This process can then be taken further by introducing what is known as higher order conditioning. This is where the conditioning is taken to three, four or even five levels. After the dog has learnt that the bell means food, a new conditioning stimulus for example a light flashing could be introduced. The dog then pairs this new stimulus with the bell and soon learns the association. This chain of events can have many levels in humans however in animals like dogs after about three levels they cannot make the connection anymore.
After Pavlov discovered this, E.L.Thorndike (1874 - 1949) went onto introduce a different law –the law of effect. This varies quite a lot from Pavlov’s theory. In his theory he discovered that there is an initial response which is then followed by the unconditional stimulus and then by the unconditional response. This can be easily explained again using the example of the dog. The dog treads on the lever – Response – which then gives him access to his food – unconditioned stimulus – which then causes him to salivate – unconditioned response. These two theories are actually quite different because of the key principle in Thorndike’s operant theory – the relationship between Response and unconditioned Stimulus whereas in classic conditioning it is the relationship between conditioned Stimulus and the unconditioned Stimulus that is essential.
Classic conditioning is a way of controlling and effecting human behaviour. There are many ways in which this can be achieved. One of them is the conditioning and de-conditioning of emotional responses as seen in the case of the Albert and the white rat (Watson Rayner 1920).
Conditioned fear can also happen in animals as well as humans and can explain some psychological conditions present in humans. Conditioned fear can be best explained using the case of a rat.
An experiment was performed with a rat. Before the experiment begins the rat is conditionally trained that when a light flashes he receives a large electric shock. If the rat was hungry and wanted food and knew that to get it he had to press a lever down, he would soon learn to do this. This is classic conditioning. If then the rat has then a choice of three or four levers, where only one will actually give food he will press them at a high rate. Whilst the rat is doing this conditioning trials are introduced - Whist he is pressing the lever a light flashes and he is shocked. Whilst the light is on, the rate at which he presses the lever slows and stops and he suppresses it. This is known as conditioned suppression. The rat stops pressing the lever because he anticipates the shock and pain and fears it so much that he looses interest in the food.
Suppression can be measured as follows.
Rate of response during the conditioned stimulus
Rate during the conditioned stimulus and the rate with the conditioned stimulus absent.
This is important because it shows that conditioning can affect voluntary, goal directed activity. This is therefore important when looking at human behaviour as it can explain conditions and how they affect human behaviour. With claustrophobia for example a person may find it hard to concentrate on an important meeting if they are in an enclosed room. This proved that conditioning effects not only reflexes and is therefore a very important process.
Pavlov also showed that experimental neurosis could be caused by classic conditioning. His theory was that, if a dog learnt that when he saw a picture of a circle he received food and salivates. However when he saw a picture of an ellipse he didn’t receive food and so didn’t salivate. Using this process he was classically conditioned. However if the circle then changed its shape slightly, so that it looked slightly like an ellipse and the ellipse changed so that it looks almost like a circle the dog learnt to tell the difference even though they were now so similar. Finally a new pair of ellipses is chosen and at this point the dog finds it impossible to tell the difference. Now the dog doesn’t salivate for either picture but is aggravated and barks and is distressed as a way of trying to get away from this problem. If the dog is then at this point shown the original pictures he is unable to tell the difference and in effect has broken down. We don’t at present known if experimental neurosis is at all connected to neurosis in humans however it is not impossible that a specific conditioning process could cause human neurosis and cause long-term behaviour effects as it can in animals.
This all shows that conditioning is a very important process and that it can affect human behaviour in a good way by helping you overcome a problem by the process of de-conditioning. However it also shows that these problems might never have originally occurred if it had not been for a classic conditioning process, which could have occurred earlier in life. It is a useful method in training animals and humans and is often used in teaching young children to speak or to learn by a system of rewards. All this shows the vital importance that classic conditioning has in modern psychology.
Sources
Barry Schwartz Psychology of learning and behaviour - Third edition
Howard Rachlin Introduction to modern behaviourism – Third edition
Ann Neel Theories of psychology: A handbook
