Page 3 - LN 1_Learning

▪ The dog still salivated to the sound of the bell, expecting presentation of the
meat powder as the sound of bell had come to be connected with it.
▪ This association between the bell and food resulted in acquisition of new

response by the dog, i.e. salivation to the sound of the bell.
▪ This has been termed as CONDITIONING.

Before Conditioning:
Food is thus an Unconditioned Stimulus (US) and
Salivation which follows it, an Unconditioned Response (UR).
After conditioning,
Salivation started to occur in the presence of the sound of the bell.

The bell becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) and
Saliva secretion a Conditioned Response (CR).
This kind of conditioning is called classical conditioning.

▪ It is obvious that the learning situation in classical conditioning is one of

▪ S–S learning in which
▪ one stimulus (e.g., sound of bell) becomes a signal for another stimulus (e.g.,
food).
▪ Here one stimulus signifies the possible occurrence of another stimulus.

DETERMINANTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
1. Time Relations between stimuli
Simultaneous Conditioning

Delayed Conditioning
Trace Conditioning
Backward Conditioning
2. Type of Unconditioned Stimuli
Appetitive – food, water, praises
Aversive- electric shock, pungent smell, punishment

3. Intensity of Conditioned Stimuli
More intense conditioned stimuli, fewer are the no. of acquisition trials needed.

OPERANT CONDITIONING
▪ This type of conditioning was first investigated by B.F. Skinner.
▪ Skinner studied occurrence of voluntary responses when an organism
▪ operates on the environment.
▪ He called them OPERANTS.
▪ Operants are those behaviours or responses, which are emitted by animals and human
beings voluntarily and are under their control.