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This is a 4 page paper that provides an overview of classical conditioning. A hypothetical example is given of teaching a dog to sit. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KW60_KFpsy070.doc
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behavior. Such an understanding is important to humanity for a number of reasons, as it can reveal not only how environment and genetics affect behavioral expression, but can also yield
insights into unwanted behaviors and anti-social behaviors and how they might be controlled. As such, following the history of understanding of behavior is vital for any budding psychologist. The first
major stride towards understanding human behavior came in the form of the theory of conditioning. Although conditioning would later be most famously elaborated by Skinner in the form of operant
conditioning (the model most often used today), it originated in a more pure and straightforward form that lends itself immensely well to experimental design, and can still yield insights into
humanitys behavior. This paper will explore the theory of classical conditioning, as originated by Ivan Pavlov, and provide a theoretical example of its application in a contemporary everyday setting.
Understanding the background of classical conditioning is critical to understanding exactly how it works upon the human organism. Studies in conditioning began when Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist, observed unusual
behavior in his kennel of experimental dogs. Pavlov would feed the dogs at roughly the same time each day, and would ring a bell every time he did so, alerting
the dogs that dinner was imminent. He also noticed that whenever he presented the food to the dogs in this contest, they would begin to salivate, in a seemingly uncontrollable
fashion. Eventually, he came to realize that if he simply rang the bell, without even producing any food, the dogs would still salivate (Boeree, 2004). Pavlov structured this observation in
the form of stimuli and responses to those stimuli (Boeree, 2004). Classical conditioning begins with an "unconditioned stimulus" as well as an "unconditioned response"; in the case of the dogs,
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