How Pavlov's Dogs Learned to Drool at a Bell

Lesson notes

Key points

• Classical conditioning is learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to trigger a response by being paired with another stimulus.
• Food is an unconditioned stimulus because it naturally causes salivation, which is the unconditioned response, without any learning.
• After repeated pairings, the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus, and salivating to the bell alone is the conditioned response.
• If the bell keeps sounding without food, the response weakens, which psychologists call extinction.

Definitions

Classical conditioning

Learning where a neutral stimulus, after pairing, comes to trigger a response it did not trigger before.

Takeaway: Pairing a neutral stimulus with a US turns it into a CS.

Classical conditioningUnconditioned stimulusAcquisitionExtinction