First a little review of classical conditioning that is hopefully useful:
Classical Conditioning: We learn by association, usually involves feelings and involuntary responses. As an example, the chapter talks about how classical conditioning has been utilized in advertising! These are the different parts of classical conditioning:
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Something that causes a reaction, regardless of any prior learning. These are situations or things that happen that would cause anybody to have a reaction (car accident, loud noise, sight of delicious food, food poisoning, etc.)
Unconditioned Response (UCR): Your natural reaction to the UCS (pain, fear, joy, vomiting)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Something that was originally neutral, but comes to be associated with the first experience (the corner where the accident occurred, the sight of a big dog, the smell of a particular food, the smell of a hospital). These are not things that would normally cause a reaction, but because they were associated with the original event, they come to evoke a response.
Conditioned Response (CR): Your learned response to the CS (fear, anxiety, happiness, nausea)
NOTE THAT THE UCR AND THE CR ARE THE SAME RESPONSE! For example, in a classical conditioning scenario, both the UCR and the CR might be FEAR.
Come up with your own personal example of classical conditioning, something that was initially neutral to you, but you learned to fear, like, dislike, avoid, or feel warmly toward it because you associated it with some UCS that naturally produces a response.
a. Describe your example
b. Label the parts of your example like this, so that it’s easy for others to recognize the different components of a classical conditioning scenario:
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) =
Unconditioned Response (UCR) =
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) =
Conditioned Response (CR) =