1. When Pavlov discovered classical conditioning, he was actually studying digestive processes in dogs.
2. First, Pavlov hooked a small tube into the dog's cheek that would capture saliva. Then, using a metronome as a stimulus, he turned on the metronome and presented the dog with food. The dog would salivate into the tube. He did this so many times that eventually all he had to do was turn on the metronome and the dog would respond and begin to salivate. This automatic learning process was called classical conditioning.
3. In Pavlov's experiments, the conditioned stimulus was the metronome after the dog began to respond to it. The unconditioned stimulus was the food and the salivation was the conditioned response.
4. Extinction occurs in classical conditioning when you stop pairing the unconditioned stimulus with the conditioned stimulus, like the metronome and the food, and the dog begins to respond to the metronome without the food. This is called extinction because the conditioned response disapears.
5. Stimilus generalization is the tendency when the conditioned stimulus creates similar responses after the response has been conditioned. For example, if the dog began to respond to a sound similar to the metronome, like a bell or a whistle.
6. Stimulus discrimination is when the subject is able to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other things similar to the unconditioned stimulus. For example, if the dog was able to distingiush the difference of the metronome and the whistle.
7. Two limitations of classical conditioning is that first, it is difficult to replicate because of the specific procedure and the tube in the dog's cheek and second, because humans may not have the exact learning processes as dogs.
8. Pavlov theorized that the most basic form of learning is associative learning, where the being makes associations between objects in the enviroment.
http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm
John B. Watson:
1. In the Little Albert study, John Watson attempted to stimulate fear in a baby boy whom he call Albert. First, Watson would present Albert with a variety of animals, including a white rat. Later, once Albert was accustomed to these animals, Watson would present him with the animals again, only this time he would make a loud noise behind the baby's head, stimulating fear. Over time, Albert began to associate his fear of the loud noise with the animals, and he became afraid of them.
2. The conditioned stimulus was the white rat, the unconditioned stimulus was the loud noise, and the conditioned response was when the baby started to cry when presented with the rat.
3. Two limitations of this study are that it is highly unethical, because it is creating fear in an innocent child, so it can't be replicated, and secondly, Watson only used one baby, so others may have responded differently.
4. Watson also stated a law of frequency, where he stressed that the more frequent a stimulus and response occur, the stronger the habit will become.
5. Watson's law of recency stated that the response that has most recently occurred after a particular stimulus is the response most likely to be associated with that stimulus.
6. Watson called behaviorism the study of people's responses while being able to predict and control these actions. Basicall he believed that people's actions and emotions could be predicted and controlled.
http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/behaviorism/Watson.html
http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~Lynda_abbot/Behaviorism.html
http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Little%20Albert.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment
