Classical Conditioning
How did I learn that?
Practice Identifying the Classical Conditioning Components
After reading the following real world scenario, practice identifying the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR.
Scenario I:
Margaret's pediatrician directed her to bring her baby, Martha, to the pediatrician's office. Initially, when Martha went to the doctor, the doctor was wearing a white lab jacket. During the first visit, the doctor examined Martha. Martha laughed and smiled. On the second visit, the pediatrician who was wearing the same white lab jacket gave Martha her first immunization shot which caused Martha to cry. On subsequent visits to the doctor, Martha cries as soon as she sees the doctor wearing a white lab jacket.
Margaret took her baby Martha to the bakery so that Margaret could treat herself to a chocolate chip cookie. Martha seemed to be pleasantly intrigued by the employee behind the counter who was wearing a yellow and red striped jacket. When another employee came to the counter to help Margaret order, that employee was wearing a white lab jacket. Martha immediately started crying. Why?
Martha's crying can be explained as stimulus generalization. Stimulus generalization means the individual behaves similarly to different stimuli based on the similarity of these stimuli (stimuli is the plural for stimulus). Therefore, Martha's crying indicates that she generalized when she behaved similarly to the white lab jacket being worn by the bakery employee. Now Martha is behaving similarly to the white lab jacket that the pediatrician was wearing.
When Martha did not cry when she saw the yellow and red striped jacket, she was engaging in stimulus discrimination which means behaving differently to similar stimuli based on their different features.