Understanding Classical Conditioning: A Daily Phenomenon

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Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning is something that happens on a daily basis, it is a part of life. It can occur anywhere. Classical conditioning is a form of learning that occurs when two stimuli are presented, and then become associated with one another. In classical conditioning, two stimuli are linked in order to achieve a new behavior or response. There are three phases in the conditioning process; first, before starting the conditioning, there is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that initiates an unconditioned response (UCR). This stimulus creates a response that happens naturally. The second phase during the conditioning process, is that an additional stimulus is presented, this is known as the conditioned stimulus (CS). …show more content…

During this time he conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell. Pavlov discovered that dogs salivation started before eating food. With this discovery Pavlov introduced a bell noise along with the unconditioned stimulus, or meat powder. He repeated this until the dogs learned the association between the bell noise and the meat powder. This would produce a conditioned response (salivation) after the conditioned stimulus (the bell) without the pairing of meat powder. This work laid the groundwork for behaviorism which became the dominant method in psychology during the late 19th century through the early 20th …show more content…

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