Essay On Pavlovian Conditioning

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The conditioned response, or the CR, is the response that occurs whenever the unconditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus (Spielman, 2014). The example of Ivan Pavlov’s study with dog’s can show how this occurs; when food is presented with a bell, the dogs will salivate. Eventually the dogs will salivate when they hear the bell alone. The bell is the neutral stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus is the food, and the conditioned response is the salivating (Spielman, 2014). Extinction occurs when a decrease in the CR occurs because the unconditioned stimulus is not continually presented with the conditioned stimulus (Spielman, 2014). In the example with the dogs salivating because of the bell associated with the food, extinction would occur if someone continually rang the bell but …show more content…

When it comes to Pavlovian conditioning, or classical conditioning, humans will associate a stimuli and anticipate an event (Spielman, 2014). The stimuli can continually change and make us learn and behave in different ways. For example, if some comes home every day and their spouse is nice to them and has dinner ready, they will learn to be excited when they walk in the door. However, if that same person was scared every time they walked in the door, they will learn to be afraid. The way that humans and animals’ learn is much simpler than I thought before I researched more about Pavlovian conditioning. Most animals can be taught through pavlovian conditioning, considering Ivan Pavlov’s experiment on dog’s salivating at a bell is one of the most famous examples of classical conditioning. I can easily teach my dogs how to learn things through Pavlovian conditioning. If I tell my dogs “go to bed” they will run to their beds and wait for a treat. They are so conditioned that even when they go in their bed by themselves they look at me for a