classical conditioning
A scientist uses classical conditioning to train a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell.
Noun: A basic form of learning in which an originally neutral stimulus (one that does not naturally elicit a response) is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (one that naturally and automatically triggers a reflex). After repeated pairings, the previously neutral stimulus alone comes to elicit a conditioned response, which is similar to the original reflex.
This term is used primarily in the field of psychology and behavioral science to describe a fundamental associative learning process. - It explains how automatic, involuntary responses can become linked to new stimuli. - It is a core concept for understanding learned behaviors and emotional reactions.
- In Psychology:
- In Everyday Learning:
- In Academic Writing:
- Higher-Order Conditioning: A process where a stimulus that has become a conditioned stimulus (CS) through classical conditioning is then paired with a new neutral stimulus, which in turn becomes a CS. For example, if a light is conditioned to predict a bell (which already predicts food), the light may eventually also elicit salivation.
- Extinction: The gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.
- Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period.
- Conditioning (n): The broader process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses.
- Operant Conditioning (n): A different type of learning where behavior is strengthened or weakened by its consequences (rewards or punishments).
- Unconditioned Stimulus (US) (n): A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without prior learning.
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS) (n): An originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.
- Conditioned Response (CR) (n): The learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.
- Pavlovian conditioning: A direct synonym, named after Ivan Pavlov, the physiologist who first described the phenomenon.
- Respondent conditioning: Another synonym emphasizing that the learned behavior is an automatic "response" to a stimulus.
- To be conditioned to: To have learned a specific association through this process.
- The patients had been classically conditioned to feel anxious upon hearing the dental drill.
- Conditioned reflex: The automatic response elicited by the conditioned stimulus.
- The flinch at the sound of a slammed door was a conditioned reflex from past trauma.
A scientist uses classical conditioning to train a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell.
- conditioning that pairs a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that evokes a reflex; the stimulus that evokes the reflex is given whether or not the conditioned response occurs until eventually the neutral stimulus comes to evoke the reflex