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Classical Conditioning Paper Leeanna Henson PSY/390 August 8, 2010 Professor Stefanie Krasner Classical Conditioning Paper “In general, it is through classical conditioning that we learn which environmental objects are conducive to survival and which are not, and it is through instrumental or operant conditioning that we learn how to acquire or avoid desirable and undesirable objects. (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 7)”. Classical conditioning is something that everyone has in their lives however if they realize it or not is in question. Theory of Classical Conditioning
The theory of classical conditioning was revealed by Ivan Pavlov a Russian psychologist. Classical conditioning is an education development that takes place throughout relations among an ecological stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. There are five basic principles of the classical conditioning process which are; the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response. “In Pavlov’s work, for example, a reinforcer is defined as any unconditioned stimulus, that is, any stimulus that elicits a natural and automatic reaction from an organism (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009, p. )”. Example ??? When a person steps into a restaurant and they smell all of the aromas and the get a hint of something that is their favorite they tend to become hungrier then before they stepped into that restaurant. When they smell the food and the food makes them hungry the smell of their favorite food is the unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned response is the example of a person’s respondent actions that are extracted by the “unconditioned response”. Examples of respondent behavior include all reflexes, such as jerking one’s hand when jabbed with a pin, the constriction of the pupil of the eye when it is exposed to bright light, and salivation in the presence of food. Because operant behavior is not initially correlated with known stimuli, it seems to appear spontaneously (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009, p. 75)”. Example ??? When a person claps in front of someone’s face they tend to jerk back and blink their eyes, or when a person puts some food in their mouth and it has a horrible taste to it the first response is to spit it out and get the bad tasting food out of their mouth.
The conditioned stimulus is subsequently impartial stimulus that ultimately leads to triggering the “conditioned response”. Example ??? When a person walks into their home and smells their favorite food cooking and they begin to get really hungry. The unconditioned stimulus is the food that is cooking and the unconditioned response is that individual getting hungry. Scenario The scenario that I will be writing about will be: “How to toilet-train your cat”. Marie; a cat owner has been dealing with cleaning out the cats litter box twice a day for two years now.
Marie named the cat Luna and Luna has been using the litter box to the point where Marie has to clean it twice a day. Marie has been going through resources to keep the litter box clean as well as filled up so that the cat will use the litter box and not go to the bathroom on her rug. Marie has finally gotten tired of having Luna use the litter box and is now interested in training Luna how to use the toilet as a replacement for the litter box. She will have to use litter at first to get Luna situated into using the toilet as the litter box. Description of scenario. . The first step in training the cat to use the toilet is to remember to leave the lid up and the seat down. And if you have any guests staying at the house make sure they remember to do this as well and make sure they leave the bathroom door open. 2. Move the litter box that is currently being used into the bathroom right next to the toilet that you are training them to use. Just make sure to show them where the litter box is when you move it. And leave it like this for around one week until they are used to using their litter box next to the toilet. 3.
After one week take a stack of phone books and put them under the litter box to raise it up an inch. And if the litter box slides around you can use tape to secure the litter box. Keep the litter box this way for a few days until the cat is used to using it this way. 4. Get another phone book and raise it a little more than last time. Then keep it this way for a few days. You will keep this process of adding another phone book until the litter box is leveled to the toilet seat. 5. When you start toilet-training you cat she or he will step into the litter box; however they will begin to jump up to the litter box.
For most cats they will more than likely jump up onto the toilet and then step into the litter box. 6. Now since the toilet seat has been kept up and the seat down the cat should be acclimated to jumping up onto the toilet without falling in and they should be acclimated to climbing on the toilet a specific way. 7. At this point you will want to lift the toilet seat and measure the diameter of the inside of the toilet at its widest position. The reason for this is that you will need to go and get a metal mixing bowl that will fit the diameter measurements of the toilet.
When you go to the store I would suggest not using a plastic bowl in replacement for the metal bowel because it will not sustain the cat’s weight because the plastic bowl will flex and fall into the toilet. This will spill the litter all over the toilet and al over the floor. 8. You now can move the litter box onto the toilet so that the cat is now using the litter box above the toilet itself and this will take a few days for the cat to acclimate to this change. 9. Now at this point you can take the litter box away entirely.
Now you will want to take the metal bowl that you purchased and put it inside the toilet bowl then lower the toilet seat to have it rest over the metal bowl. Now take litter and put it into the metal bowl until it is up to around two to three inches. What type of litter that you used does not matter however it is recommended that you use a type of litter that have tiny particles and can be flushed easily. 10. Training your cat to use the toilet is going to be painstakingly difficult however once he or she is fully trained you will not longer have to deal with cleaning a litter box at all. 1. During this process you will want to observe how many paws are in the metal bowl and how many are actually on the toilet seat. If the paws are prone to going onto the toilet seat instead of the bowl then that is a sign that it will be easier to train them to use the toilet as a litter box. The more paws that are in the bowl the more difficult it is going to be to train him or her to use the toilet as the litter box. However you will have to be patient as it can be done with success. 12.
Now that you are observing how many paws he or she is using in the bowl you can try and teach them how to position their paws by catching them before they start to use the bathroom. And just show them the position of their paws and how they should be positioned. Their paws should be front legs in the middle and the hind legs on the outside. 13. Now if the cat starts out with all four of their paws inside the metal bowl you will have to start by showing them where to position their front paws and then work from there. Make sure to commend them for using the toilet and having their paws set in that specific position. 4. As soon as the cat is using the toilet with his or her front paws in front of them then begin to start showing them where their hind paws should be; which is on the seat outside of the front paws. Now when this position is shown they may want to put their hind paws back into the bowl however just make sure to be determined and show them the proper way to have their paws. Now just like before make sure to commend them for using the toilet the correct way. 15. Now you will want to make sure that your cat learns how to balance while squatting to use the toilet.
There are two different types of squatting that will occur and it will vary if they are having a bowel movement or if they are urinating. They will squat low if they are urinating and they will squat higher for bowel movements. 16. From here it begins to get easier however there is still a little bit more work that will need to be done before you have completely trained your cat to use the toilet in the bathroom. At this stage you will want to wait for a weekend or when you have a few days to work on it with your cat. The reason for this is at this stage you may begin to see that it is the worst part of the training.
So you will want to stay at home most of the day while working on this step. However the time frame varies from cat to cat. 17. Start to decrease the amount of litter you use in the metal bowl. The reason you need to be home for this part is the fact that as the litter decreases the smell will increase. During this time you will want to stay home so that you are able to commend him or her for their good job and so that you are able to dump the contents in order to keep the smell down. Also the smell will confuse the cat and it will make them want to try to cover up is bowel movement or urine. However at this point most of the litter will be gone and the cat will be scraping their mess onto their paws and they could track it through the house. This is where the mess comes into play. 18. At this point you should be using only around a teaspoon of litter in the bowl. As soon as your cat has gone to the bathroom then you will now eliminate the litter all together and begin to use water in the metal bowl. At first only put a little bit of water in the metal bowl and increase it as the cat uses it and you change it out.
However if the cat begins to get nervous about using the toilet then move to the last step and just take your time before beginning this step so that the cat feel comfortable with the step and so that they do not use the bathtub as their toilet. 19. When the metal bowl has a few inches of water in it and your cat feel comfortable with the toilet at this point then you can take away the metal bowl and have your cat use the toilet as we would. The cat can now use the lid up and the seat down with not bowl or litter. 20.
At this point you have now toilet-trained your cat…….. Congratulations. 1. Before Conditioning (Litter Box)-Response—) Bowel Movement/Urination Unconditioned Unconditioned Stimulus Response 2. Before Conditioning (Toilet)-Response—)No Bowel Movement/Urination Neutral No conditioned Stimulus Response 3. During Conditioning (Toilet + Litter Box)-Response—)Bowl Movement/Urination Unconditioned Response 4. After Conditioning (Toilet)-Response—)Bowel Movement/Urination Conditioned Conditioned
Stimulus Response Conclusion With animals and humans they can be taught to work on specific activities a specific way. If it is teaching them to perform an activity a different way than it is well known as classical conditioning. We learned this through the steps of: How to toilet-train a cat and the layout of the graph as well showed you what the timeline was like with each conditional response and so forth. References Olson, M. & Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). Theories of Learning (8th ed. ). Retrieved from the University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.