Respondent Conditioning Chapter 3 Summary

Chapter three deals with procedures based in the principles of “respondent conditioning”, also known as Classical or Pavlovian conditioning. Classical conditioning is different than “operant conditioning”, in which a behavior is modified through its consequences, known as a reinforcer or punisher. These behaviors are called operant behaviors or voluntary. However, this chapter focuses on “respondent behavior”. An example of a respondent behavior includes going to the doctors and having them use the little hammer on your knee to test your reflexes. The knee jerk that happens automatically and was elicited by the little hammer is the respondent behavior. The little hammer is known as the “Unconditioned stimulus” and the knee jerk reaction is the

Our bodies make unconditioned responses all the time. One time I poured sour milk into my bowl of cereal and I started to immediately feel sick to my stomach. My unconditioned response was nausea and gagging. Moreover, if someone were to loudly clap in front of my face, I would flinch and shit my eyes. I did not tell myself to close my eyes or flinch, the response was automatic and unlearned. Another example of classical conditioning would be when I decided to set my favorite song as my alarm clock tone to wake up for school in the morning. My initial thought was that I would wake up in a happy, upbeat mood because the first thing I would hear is my favorite song. However, I was completely wrong. Instead, I would later begin to despise that song because I would associate it with having to wake up and get ready, which is the last thing I want to do when I am tired. The lesson I learned is to never set a song you like as your alarm clock tone unless you want to hate it. This could be an example of counterconditioning because the song that once caused me joy (unconditioned response) began to cause a negative feeling instead “Counterconditioning”’ is a technique that focuses on changing one’s