Do We Realize It?

Have you ever experienced when you have pets and you feed them with canned food, what happens when you hit the can opener? Sure, the animals come running even if you are opening a can of green beans. Do
you know why? Or maybe when you go to K-Mart and watch what happens when the blue light turns on. Cost conscious shoppers will make a
beeline to that table because they associate a good sale with the blue light because they realized that there were sales and discounts on items.

Or maybe this example will give you clearer picture. Normally, students knew which teacher is interesting  and which teacher is boring. So after a while they will say Math is interesting (even though he hates Math) and Science is boring (because the teacher is boring). Why? Because they associate the subjects with their teachers.



This is what Classical Condtioning is all about.

Classical Conditioning (also Pavlovian or Respondent Conditioning) is a form of associative learning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov . The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance. The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from
the organism under investigation. .

Classical conditioning has been demonstrated in only three species using a variety of methodologies. Popular forms of classical
conditioning that are used to study neural tructures and functions that underlie learning and memory include fear conditioning, eyeblink conditioning, and Classical Conditioning of Aplysia gill and siphon withdrawal reflex.

The major components of Classical Conditioning are:

1. Unconditioned Stimulus: a behavior or a thing that can already elicit a response. eg: Meat


2. Unconditioned Response: a behavior that is already elicited by a stimulus. eg; The dog salivate.


3. Conditioned Stimulus: a new stimulus we deliver the same time we give the old stimulus.


4. Conditioned Response: the new stimulus-response relationship we created by associating a new stimulus with an old response.
   


5. Neutral Stimulus: A stimulus that produce no
   response 

Don't worry. I know this sounds weird and strange. I'll explain in a better way.

This is how it works:





Bell (NS) ---> Nothing

Meat (UCS) ---> Salivation (UCR)



Now:



Bell (NS) + Meat (UCS) = Salivation (UCR)



Because of that:



That is why everytime your dog or cat heard the sound of the canned food being open or the can opener, your pet will come towards you.

We don't realize that this phenomena also exist in our everyday life.
Here some examples:



When we are at school,we always notice things that make us happy, sad, angry, etc. These things become associated with neutral stimuli that gain our attention. For example, if a particular academic subject or remembering a particular teacher produces emotional feelings in you, those emotions are probably a result of classical conditioning.



In advertising on TV for example(seriously, they always do this), many beer ads always feature attractive young women wearing bikinis. The young women (Unconditioned Stimulus) naturally elicit a favorable aroused feeling (Unconditioned Response) in most men. The beer is simply associated with this effect. That is why men bought them. A lot too. Just joking.




Is this why you bought PowerShot?

The same thing applies with the jingles and music that accompany many advertisements.


Perhaps the strongest application of classical conditioning involves emotion. Common experience and careful research both confirm that human emotion conditions very rapidly and easily. Particularly when the emotion is intensely felt or negative in direction, it will condition quickly.



For example, we would run away or try to avoid a beehive if we found one even though the bees do not swarm around us or attack us. Why? Because we already associate bees with pain and The Sting. Same goes to those who have phobias. If they have a phobia of spiders, bad experience tell them to avoid see one. Because they already associate spiders with negative emotions and feeling.



The same goes to when we love or hate somebody. Whenever we see our loved ones, we feel happy and relax. But what happen when we see our enemies? Got the point?

These are all Classical Conditioning. This is how treat asthma using classical conditioning.

How to Treat Asthma using Classical Conditioning

Its here. TQ :)