Tell me about Classical Conditioning?

Answer 1

Classical Conditioning began as a study in digestion where Pavlov used dogs as subjects to investigate the interaction between salivation and the action of the stomach. He found that without salivation the stomach was not active. If food was produced the dogs would salivate. However, he began to notice that some of the dogs in his lab began to salivate before they were fed. He saw, too, that this occurred only in dogs that had been in the lab for some time (Lefrancois, 1995).


The dog salivates (unconditioned response) when it sees steak (Unconditioned stimulus ).

With this finding, Pavlov wanted to see if external stimuli could affect his process. He began by ringing a bell at the same time that he fed the dogs.

The dog salivates (unconditioned response) when it sees steak (unconditioned stimulus) and hears the sound of the bell (neutral stimulus).

After a while the dogs who before only salivated when they saw or ate food, began to salivate when the bell was rung, even without food present.

The dog eventually salivates (conditioned response) when it hears the sound of the bell alone (conditioned stimulus).

Pavlov called this a conditioned reflex as it was different to an innate reflex such as pulling a hand away from a flame, as it has to be learned. He called this learning process 'Classical Conditioning'