Classical Conditioning - An Outline

What do all these abbreviations mean?

UCS=US=unconditioned stimulus

UCR=UR=unconditioned response

CS=conditioned stimulus

CR=conditioned response

NS=neutral stimulus

1. Classical Conditioning began with the research of Ivan Pavlov
1. New reflexes come from the old - terminology
1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - thing that elicits an unconditioned response
2. Unconditioned response (UCR) - response that is automatically produced
3. Conditioned stimulus (CS) - when a neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response after being paired with a US
4. Conditioned response (CR) - response that is elicited by a CS
5. Classical conditioning - procedure by which a neutral stimulus is regularly paired with a UCS & the neutral stimulus becomes a CS, which elicits a CR that is similar to the original, unlearned one
2. Principles of classical conditioning
1. Extinction - repeating the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus, and the CR disappears
2. Spontaneous recovery - after a response has been extinguished, it may spontaneously reappear after the passage of time & with exposure to the CS
3. Higher-order conditioning - a neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus by being paired with an already established CS
4. Stimulus generalization - after a stimulus becomes a CS for some response, other similar stimuli may produce the same reaction
5. Stimulus discrimination - different responses are triggered by stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus in some way
3. What is actually learned in classical conditioning?
1. The stimulus to be conditioned should precede the unconditioned stimulus because the CS serves as a signal for the US