Classical Conditioning: Neutral, Conditioned, and Unconditioned Responses | MCAT Crash Course

Описание: Explore Classical Conditioning: Neutral, Conditioned, and Unconditioned Stimuli and Responses in this MCAT crash course. Follow along as Bretton, one of our 99th-percentile MCAT tutors, breaks down this fundamental concept of nucleic acids to set you up for success on the MCAT!

You’ve probably heard of Pavlov’s dogs, trained to salivate at the sound of a dinner bell. This classic example illustrates classical conditioning, the process by which an unconditioned stimulus is paired with a conditioned (neutral) stimulus to produce a learned response.

Unconditioned vs. Conditioned Stimuli

An unconditioned stimulus naturally triggers an unconditioned response, a reflex tied to biological needs that requires no learning. For example, an air puff to the eye (unconditioned stimulus) causes blinking (unconditioned response).

A conditioned (neutral) stimulus starts with no effect on behavior. But when paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus, it can trigger a conditioned response. Over time, presenting the conditioned stimulus alone produces this learned behavior. This is the essence of classical conditioning.

Pavlov’s Dog

In Pavlov’s experiment, food was the unconditioned stimulus that made dogs salivate (the unconditioned response). A bell was the neutral stimulus, which initially had no effect. After repeated pairing of food and bell, the bell alone became a conditioned stimulus, producing salivation as the conditioned response.

Generalization

Generalization occurs when similar stimuli also produce the conditioned response. For instance, in fear conditioning, if a rodent learns to freeze in response to a 10 kHz tone paired with a foot shock, it may also freeze when hearing a similar 16 kHz tone.

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