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Essay on Classical Conditioning-2
One more form of learning is Classical conditioning, where a reflexive or automatic reaction transfers from one stimulus to another. It was the first form of learning to be revealed and studied within the behaviorist tradition. Classical conditioning begins with a reflex, a natural, spontaneous behavior educed or caused by an antecedent environmental incident. In classical conditioning no innovative behaviors are learned. Instead, an association is built up via pairing between the NS i.e., Neutral Stimulus and the US i.e., Unconditioned Stimulus so that the animal or person responds to both events or stimuli in the similar way; restated, after conditioning, both the US as well as the CS will educe the same spontaneous response.
Most psychologists think that classical conditioning takes place when a person forms a mental association between two stimuli, in order that meeting one stimulus makes the person sense of the other. People are inclined to form these mental associations between events or stimuli that take place closely together in space or time.
The main theorist in the development of classical conditioning is Ivan Pavlov who is a Russian scientist educated in biology and medicine. Pavlov was studying the digestive system of dogs and turned out to be intrigued with his study that dogs deprived of food started to salivate when one of his assistants walked into the room. He started to explore this fact and established the laws of classical conditioning....................
