The Concept of Classical Conditioning in Psychology

Content

Reading passage: Classical conditioning is a fundamental concept in psychology that involves learning through association.

It was first discovered by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist. In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response. For example, if a bell is consistently rung before presenting food to a dog, the dog will eventually start salivating at the sound of the bell alone, even without the food present. This is because the dog has learned to associate the bell (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus), resulting in salivation (conditioned response).

Listening transcript

Professor: Alright, let's dive deeper into classical conditioning with a couple of examples. First, consider advertising. Companies often use popular music in commercials to create positive feelings. So, when you hear a catchy song while watching an ad for a soft drink, you start associating the good feelings from the music with the drink itself. Next time you see the drink, even without the music, you might feel inclined to buy it because of those positive associations. Another example is in education. Teachers often use praise as a conditioned stimulus. When a student answers correctly and receives praise, they associate that positive feedback with their performance. Over time, the student becomes more likely to participate, seeking that rewarding feeling again. These examples show how classical conditioning applies in everyday life.

Speaking task instruction

Explain the concept from the reading and use the professor’s examples to show how it works. Preparation time: 30 seconds, Response time: 60 seconds.

Sample student response