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Classical Conditioning: Learning by Association

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Classical conditioning is a fundamental learning process first described by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov in the 1890s. While studying digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that the animals would salivate not only when food was placed in their mouths but also when they saw the lab assistant who fed them. This observation led to the discovery that organisms can learn to associate a neutral stimulus with a biologically potent one.

[Image of Pavlov's dog experiment diagram]

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In his famous experiment, Pavlov used a bell (a neutral stimulus) right before presenting food (an unconditioned stimulus). Initially, the bell elicited no response. However, after repeated pairings of the bell and the food, the dogs began to salivate at the sound of the bell alone. The bell had become a conditioned stimulus, and the salivation became a conditioned response.

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A key concept in this theory is extinction. If the conditioned stimulus (the bell) is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus (the food), the association weakens, and the conditioned response (salivation) eventually disappears. However, this does not mean the learning is gone forever; the response can reappear suddenly after a rest period, a phenomenon known as spontaneous recovery.

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Classical conditioning explains many human behaviors, particularly emotional responses. For example, a person may develop a phobia of dogs after being bitten once; the sight of a dog (conditioned stimulus) triggers fear (conditioned response) because of the association with pain (unconditioned stimulus).