Psychology: A Self-Teaching Guide

Learning: Understanding Acquired Behavior 75

acquire the power to elicit saliva. If a dog salivates when it hears a tone, then the

tone is a conditioned stimulus. It can be argued that the dog has associated the

tone with food and that the tone has become a signal conveying the meaning that

food is coming soon. Indeed, this is one of the important meanings that Pavlov

gave to classical conditioning. He thought of conditioned stimuli as signals.

The unconditioned reflexis an inborn response pattern. A dog has an

inborn tendency to salivate when food is placed in its mouth. Salivating under

these conditions is an unconditioned reflex. The word responseis sometimes used

in place of the word reflex.This usage, although common, is somewhat imprecise.

A responseto a stimulus is a behavior pattern that suggests a higher level of

organization and complexity than that associated with a reflex. Salivating when

reading a menu’s description of a hamburger is a reflex. Ordering the item and

asking that the meat be well done is a response.

A conditioned reflexis a learned response pattern. If a dog salivates to a

tone, then the elicited flow of saliva is a conditioned reflex.

(a) What stimulus acquires a power that is sometimes (not always) similar to the uncondi-

tioned stimulus?

(b) The unconditioned reflex is an response pattern.

(c) A response to stimulus is a behavior pattern that suggests a higher level of

and than that associated with a reflex.

Answers: (a) The conditioned stimulus; (b) inborn; (c) organization; complexity.

Several important features of classical conditioning should be noted. First, the

word conditioningimplies a kind of learning that does not require reflection and

reasoning. The learning takes place primarily through a process of association.

Infants are capable of classical conditioning. If a baby’s mouth begins to make

sucking motions when a milk bottle is in view, then the sucking motions are con-

ditioned reflexes.

Second, as indicated above, classical conditioning is not limited to dogs and

animals. Although Pavlov used dogs as research subjects, the results of his research

can be generalized to human beings.

Third, conditioned reflexes are involuntary.They are outside of the con-

scious control of the subject.

There are various behavioral patterns associated with classical conditioning.

Three of these are extinction, stimulus generalization, and discrimination.

Extinctiontakes place when the conditioned stimulus is presented a number of

times without the unconditioned stimulus. If a conditioned dog is presented with

a tone, it will salivate. However, if the tone is presented without food a sufficient

number of times, the tone will cease to elicit the conditioned reflex. The dog has,