Classical Conditioning and How It Relates to Pavlov’s Dog

Learning influences human behavior and occurs in different ways. Some ways of learning help you to acquire simple responses. While other types of learning help you to acquire complex responses.

Thus, learning helps humans adapt to their environment as various external stimuli influence changes in your brain. Such neural changes further influence the way you respond to the external environment.

The most fundamental type of learning is conditioning. The term conditioning refers to a type of learning in which an individual associates a specific stimulus to a particular response.

However, such an association develops only when a specific stimulus is repeatedly connected with a particular response over time.

Say, for instance, a dog in the neighborhood bit you a few years ago. However, you developed a fear for dogs.

Now, whenever you spot a dog, you get scared and always try to escape. This happens because your brain develops an association between the dog and you getting bit by it.

This type of conditioning is called classical conditioning. In the early part of the twentieth century, a Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov, discovered the theory of classical conditioning.

So, let’s understand what classical conditioning is and how it relates to Pavlov’s dog experiment.

What is Classical Conditioning?

According to Ivan Pavlov, Classical Conditioning is a type of learning that occurs in an organism when it associates a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that produces a specific behavior naturally.

However, such an association develops only when the neutral stimulus occurs repeatedly with the natural stimulus having the potential of giving a natural response.

Thus, the neutral stimulus acquires the potential to generate the natural response even in the absence of the natural stimulus over a period of time.

Classical Conditioning Process

To prove his theory, Ivan Pavlov conducted the dog experiment. But before we discuss the experiment, it is important to understand certain terms.

Terms in Classical Conditioning

I. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

The natural stimulus having the potential of generating the natural response is called Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS). 

For example, you salivate when you see food. Thus, food is the Unconditioned Stimulus.

II. Unconditioned Response (UCR)

The response that gets generated naturally as a consequence of exposure to the natural stimulus is called the Unconditioned Response (UCR). 

For example, when you start salivating the moment you see food, such salivation is a natural or unconditioned response. 

III. Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A neutral stimulus that does not produce a natural response but acquires the potential to generate a natural response when associated with anUCS repeatedly over time is called a Conditioned Stimulus (CS). 

As mentioned above, you were not afraid of dogs before a dog in your neighborhood bit you. 

However, post that incident, you start running or shouting for help the moment you spot a dog.

IV. Conditioned Response (CR)

The ability of a conditioned stimulus to generate a natural response (unconditioned response) even in the absence of an unconditioned stimulus due to UR repeated association with a CS.

Pavlov’s Dog Experiment

While studying the process of digestion in dogs, Pavlov observed unusual behavior in them.

He observed that the dogs began to salivate the moment lab technicians entered the lab. At that moment, the dogs did not receive any food.

Pavlov realized that dogs got an understanding that they would be served with food the moment the lab technicians entered. As a result, the dogs started salivating.

In other words, the dogs started associating the advent of lab technicians with food. This is because the lab technicians served the dogs with food the moment they entered the lab.

On observing this, Pavlov and his colleagues decided to understand the process in detail. So, they carried out the famous ‘Pavlovian Experiment’ on dogs.

Stages Of Pavlovian Conditioning

I. Before Conditioning

Initially, Pavlov served the dogs with meat powder. This caused the dogs to salivate. 

Thus, the meat powder is the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) in the experiment. And the dogs salivating is the Unconditioned Response (UCR).

This is because the meat powder produces the natural response of salivation in dogs.

Then, Pavlov and his colleagues ring a bell without serving the dog with the meat powder. 

In this case, the ringing bell is a neutral stimulus. The moment dogs are exposed to such a stimulus, they do not salivate. 

This is because the ringing bell does not cause the dogs to salivate as it has not acquired the potential to generate the natural response of salivation.

II. During Conditioning

In the second stage, Pavlov and his colleagues paired the ringing bell with the meat powder.

In other words, Pavlov started ringing the bell immediately before placing the meat powder in the dogs’ mouths. 

Further, he also controlled the onset of the bell’s sound as well as the timing of food to be fed to the dogs in order to measure the saliva precisely.

In the first few instances, the dogs salivated only when they saw or smelled the meat powder. 

At this stage, the pairing of the ringing bell acted as a neutral stimulus as it did not cause salivation in dogs.

III. After Conditioning

During the final stage of the experiment, Pavlov and his colleagues kept on pairing the ringing bell with the meat powder.

Thus, when the meat powder was paired with the ringing bell innumerable times, the dogs started salivating even before the meat powder was served to them.

In other words, the dogs started salivating the moment they heard the ringing sound of the bell presented before serving the food.

Therefore, Pavlov concluded that dogs had learned to salivate on the ringing of the bell itself without serving them the food.

These signals were an indication that the food was about to be served to them.

Thus, Pavlov called:

Meat Powder = Unconditioned Stimulus

Dog Salivation = Unconditioned Response

Ringing Bell = Conditioned Stimulus

Dog Salivation on the Ringing Bell = Conditioned Response

Examples of Classical Conditioning

• As mentioned earlier, you develop a fear of an animal or an insect after you repeatedly had a bad experience with the same.
• You start consuming marshmallows before taking any exam as such an act brought you good results repeatedly.
• Your faith in a religious community develops when something miraculous happens after visiting their pilgrimage.
• After the first wave of COVID-19, people became more conscious and started wearing masks as well as washing hands after touching any surface. This was unlike the previous times when they were very casual with regards to washing hands, sanitizing their spaces, and wearing masks.
• Post a war, people develop a fear of a specific community who have been killing natives during the war. They hesitate to be in touch or close to such people as they feel fearful of losing their lives.

Classical  Conditioning Vs Operant Conditioning

Applications to Mental Health

Various mental health diseases are understood as well as treated using classical conditioning. These include:

• Repeated exposure of the patients to the living organisms, events, or objects to treat phobias like fear of fire, water, insects, elevator, height, etc.
• Making patients feel aversive to expose themselves to certain objects, events, and things like drugs. 

Final Thoughts

Classical conditioning is the most basic type of learning that humans seek to survive and adapt to their environment.

In certain scenarios, classical conditioning helps living organisms to thrive in their environment.

However, at other times, it takes a toll on the psychological balance and makes it challenging for them to lead a normal life.

Thus, in such cases, the people experiencing psychological imbalances have to take support of certain therapies in order to get rid of such a conditioning.