Real world application

In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus.

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist, performed extensive research on dogs and is best known for his experiments in classical conditioning. He was able to train the dogs to salivate in response to stimuli that clearly had nothing to do with food, such as the sound of a bell, a light, and a touch on the leg, but how does classical conditioning work in the real world?

Conditioning in the real world

Let's say you have a cat named Tiger, who is quite spoiled. You keep its food in a separate cabinet, and you also have a special can opener that you use only to open cans of cat food. For every meal, Tiger hears the distinctive sound of the can opener and then gets its food.

Tiger quickly learns that when it hears the sound of the can opener it is about to get fed. What do you think Tiger does when she hears the can opener? She will likely get excited and run to where you are preparing her food. This is an example of classical conditioning.

In this case, what are the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), conditioned stimulus (CS), unconditioned response (UCR), and conditioned response (CR)?

What if the door of the cabinet holding Tiger's food becomes squeaky? In that case, Tiger hears sound of the cabinet, and the can opener, and then it gets its food. Tiger will learn to get excited when it hears the sound of the cabinet door being opened.

Pairing a new neutral stimulus (sound of door) with the conditioned stimulus (sound of can opener) is called higher-order conditioning, or second-order conditioning. This means you are using the conditioned stimulus of the can opener to condition another stimulus: the squeaky cabinet.

It is hard to achieve anything above second-order conditioning. For example, if you make a sound like ring a bell, open a cabinet with a squeaky door or use a can opener, and then feed Tiger, Tiger will likely never get excited when hearing the bell alone.

In higher-order conditioning, an established conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus (the second-order stimulus), so that eventually the new stimulus also elicits the conditioned response, without the initial conditioned stimulus being presented. It extends beyond food

Classical conditioning extends beyond the basic need to be fed. Consider the example of a dog whose owners install an invisible electric dog fence.

A small electrical shock (unconditioned stimulus) elicits discomfort (unconditioned response). When the unconditioned stimulus (shock) is paired with a neutral stimulus (the edge of a yard), the dog associates the discomfort (unconditioned response) with the edge of the yard (conditioned stimulus) and stays within the set boundaries.

After repeated pairings, the edge of the yard comes to elicit fear and anxiety in the dog. When the edge of the yard alone causes fear and anxiety, this then becomes the conditioned response.