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  University of Idaho
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  Psychology Dept.
  University of Idaho

Classical conditioning and early theories and models of learning really begin with the concepts that were developed with associative learning. With associative learning, we have a variety of different things that can occur. As we see in slide two, it begins with the concept of reflexes. A reflex is basically described as some kind of stimulus always eliciting the same response. Now the strength of the response can occur two ways with experience. We can see that starting on slide three with the concept of habituation.

In habituation there’s a decrease in some response due to repeated exposures to a stimulus. For example, if you walk into a room where there’s sulfur being used, you have a bad odor. Initially, you grimace, get nauseated, puke and on and on and on until you habituate to the smell. But once you habituate, it doesn’t smell as strongly as it did at first.

A second example relates to home when your mom was making chocolate chip cookies. Of course it is a CCC because there’s no other type of cookie that’s out there. (Other cookies are considered to be wafers). But, anyway, you go home and you walk in the door. There’s that aroma, mom has been making chocolate chip cookies for you and the odor comes and hits you. Then it kind of lifts you off your feet, and you float into the kitchen. There they are, those wonderful chocolate chip cookies, just coming out of the oven. You reach over, grab one, and you eat it. But, after about five minutes or so, that smell of those chocolate chip cookies just is not the same as it was anymore. It just kind of goes away.

So in essence, in habituation, there is a decrease in some response, (ala the odor to the chocolate chip cookies) due to repeated exposure of the particular stimulus.

In addition to that, a second concept can occur and this is what we see on slide four. This concept is called sensitization. In sensitization, there is an increase in some response due to repeated exposures to a stimulus. The classic example is when you’re out walking in the woods (and usually at night), you’re having a good time and looking at the stars, on and on and on and on. At first when you’re out there in the woods, you hear everything, every little twig snap and you’re scared and assorted other things. But as you continue on for a period of time, the noises begin to die down. That is, you begin to habituate. Then it happens. You are out there in the woods, you’ve habituated and things are going along really, really well and a twig snaps. You become extremely alert and responsive again. So these signals that we talk about in sensitization may be potential dangers that are out there. That is in essence what they are used for. But they are associations. So again, when you talk about the reflexive types of things, the stimulus is always in essence going to cause the same response.

Now as we can see on slide five, habituation and sensitization often occur very rapidly and they're usually not caused or decreased by fatigue. Usually they’re associated with some kind of stimulus out there that can be harmful to an organism. That is, they can kill you, or eat you, or some other kinds of things.

So in essence, what is associative learning? We begin our discussion on slide six. Basically associative learning is described as the relationship between two stimuli. That is, stimulus one becomes associated with stimulus two. And the stimuli to which associations can develop can be anything. Ultimately, there are several types of associative learning that we can describe and develop. The first one of these is what we’re going to talk about starting in the next section and a little bit later today. That concept of the learning of what we call classical conditioning.

In classical conditioning, the focus is on the relationship between the first stimulus and second stimulus. That is, a stimulus - stimulus relationship. Everything that’s going on happens before the response. So in essence, what we do is analyze characteristics of each of these stimuli and how they influence a particular response.

Now, that’s in contrast to a second type of associative learning called instrumental conditioning. In instrumental conditioning, there’s a stimulus - response focus. That is, one how does one particular stimulus influence a particular response. So, the focus in instrumental conditioning is what the stimulus is, and how it influences that particular response.

The next type of associative learning, as we see in slide nine, is operant conditioning. And in operand conditioning what we have is a response - stimulus focus. So, we have some initial stimulus, we make some kind of particular response. Then we have some consequence stimulus. What operant conditioning in essence does is focus on what this consequence stimulus does, and how that influences a particular response.

Now, that is in contrast to another type of associative learning called cognitive learning. In cognitive learning, what we have is a stimulus – organism - response focus, and the focus in essence is what goes on inside the organism. There are two different cognitive forms that we talk about.

The first form is a stimulus – organism - response focus. So, what we do is examine how some internal variable, (such as locus of control, expectancy, or whatever), and how that influences some particular response. So again, the focus is on the internal variable and how that influences response.

The second form basically examines how some consequence stimulus influences the internal variable which then influences the response. That’s described as an S-O-R-S type of model. In this case, what we look at is what the consequence stimulus does, (that is, a reward or a punishment that you may receive), and how that stimulus influences the internal variable which is in there (such as an expectancy of something happening) and then what happens to the particular response. So, again, in both of these, the focus is really what is going on with inside the organism and how that impacts the system.

So, ultimately, when we talk about all these different types of associative learning, (and it doesn’t matter which particular type they are), we concentrate on where the different focus is placed. That is really where we begin talking about early classical conditioning and influences from that.

And so let’s begin by discussing early classical conditioning ideas which begin on slide 11. Initially, early classical conditioning begins back in the time of Descartes with the concept of the reflex. As we remember from last time, or a couple times ago, the senses and muscles were connected by a set of complex nerves. What we had were some animal spirits that flowed through these nerves and it made it possible for some kind of instinctive reaction to take place. For example, we step on a sharp stick and the nerves in the foot send the signal to the brain. Through the Pineal gland released an animal spirit into the nerve, which ultimately flowed down to the muscle. The muscle would then swell up, causing the foot to be pulled off the stick.

Now again, as we talked about last time and as we see on slide 13, we have two different types of reflexes. We have voluntary reflexes, and again these were problematic because the mind and body were separate. Again, the body was controlled by physical mechanisms while the mind was controlled by the soul. Finally, the mind and body were influenced by the Pineal gland which we see on slide 14. Again the Pineal was the container that held the animal spirits. If you pushed the Pineal in the right direction, the soul then pushed the fluids in the right direction. Then, the fluids would move down to the correct muscle and the movement would occur.

Then again, as we talked about last time, the Pineal gland for Descartes was the connecting system for both the mind and the body.

Now, later concepts that are going to have major implications within classical conditioning are going to come from physiology and reflexology. And so let’s talk about reflexes first. And this begins in slide 17. The early experimental studies of reflexes basically began with casual observations. The classic example was if you stimulated a muscle, you got some kind of contraction. The first person to really do this systematically was Hall. What Hall would do is decapitate nutes and snakes. He found when you presented some kind of stimulus, you would get a widespread response to the stimulus, even though it was some distance away from the stimulus site.

In addition to that, as we see in slide 18, Sherrington also developed some major impacts that will have impacts in classical conditioning. Sherrington was an English physiologist and for psychology, he developed a major concept. That is, that neurological impulses and pathways basically extended from sense organs and glands and ultimately resulted in an automatic reaction to a particular stimulus. These are the classic reflexes that we call spinal reflexes today. What you have is some kind of stimulus, for example, you step on a pin, that information goes up to your spinal cord, and then it goes back down to a muscle. The signal goes to a muscle group and you start taking your foot off the particular nail or the sharp object. So as a result, it doesn’t take very much time and it helps you to not damage yourself as well.

The next major player in reflexology was Sechenov. As we see in slide 19, Sechenov is basically the father of reflexology. He wrote a book called “Reflexes of the Brain” and basically argued the psychology should be studied by using the objective methods of physiology. Again, he independently worked with reflexes. He contended that all acts of consciousness or unconscious life were basically reflexes. Thus, all mental processes that we have; learning, memory, thoughts, are basically complex chains of reflexes. For thoughts, the motor aspects were inhibited, so you basically shut down the system.

Now that was in contrast, as we see on slide 21, to other research efforts of his time. In essence Sechenov was basically considered to be immoral, materialistic, and basically trying to picture the world in a purely physiological context. Basically they argued and ultimately concluded, that actions were attributed to mental events, and observed events were objective behaviors. Since science was a natural science and relied on objective observations, psychology needed to use these as well. So Sechenov is going to have a major impact in the development of aspects that are going to occur in psychology, primarily classical conditioning and the behaviorists.

So in summary, we have a variety of different people that are going to have an impact into the model and the concept that we are going to call classical conditioning. These different aspects of associationism and reflexology will ultimately continue even into present theories today.

Next time, we will begin talking about classical conditioning, what it specifically is, and how it developed. So until that time, we hope you have a good day and we will see you soon.