Written by Dave Cornell (PhD)
Dr. Cornell has worked in education for more than 20 years. His work has involved designing teacher certification for Trinity College in London and in-service training for state governments in the United States. He has trained kindergarten teachers in 8 countries and helped businessmen and women open baby centers and kindergartens in 3 countries.
| May 25, 2024
Reviewed by Chris Drew (PhD)
This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.
➡️ Video Lesson ➡️ Introduction
Classical conditioning refers to learned behaviors when a neutral stimulus is associated with a learned response. For example, when a dog sees a leash, it learns that it’s time to go for a walk.
It’s often contrasted with operant conditioning, where a behavior is encouraged or discouraged by a ‘trainer’ or ‘teacher’ through explicit rewards and punishments. In classical conditioning, there are no rewards or punishments involved – just learning through repetition.
Examples of classical conditioning include learning that a place is pleasurable because you’ve had good experiences there, learning to associate a pleasant smell with a person you love, and having an instant emotional reaction to the theme song to your favorite sit-com.
You can go into more depth on the difference between classical and operant conditioning in Dr. Dave Cornell full guide: Classical vs Operant Conditioning.
➡️ Definition of Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is the process of learning to associate a neutral stimulus with a learned response.
Let’s simplify that definition by looking at the Pavlov’s dog experiment.
In his experiment, Pavlov managed to get a dog to salivate whenever it heard his assistant’s footsteps coming down the hallway.
This is when Pavlov made a realization: the dog had been conditioned to expect the food based on its association between the assistant’s footsteps and food.
Pavlov noted that this conditioning is how much of learning takes place. It is a process of learning by association.
Although you may not have noticed it before, classical conditioning is one of the most fundamental processes of learning that affect all species.
Many dog owners will use a leash whenever they take their dog for a walk. After a short while, the dog has learned to going outside means wearing the leash. From the dog’s perspective, leash equals going outside.
From then on, every time the owner touches the leash, even if it is to move it somewhere or clean it, the dog gets excited. It has associated the leash with going outside; a classic case of learning by association.
Teachers utilize the principles of classical conditioning in many ways. One of those ways is by creating a relaxing and positive classroom environment. Most teachers will spend a lot of time decorating the walls of their classroom.
By creating a pleasant classroom environment, the teacher hopes that students will associate learning with a positive feeling. Beautiful images around the room is paired with the learning process.
Music can be a very powerful stimulus. Sometimes in our lives we may have experiences that are very significant, such as meeting the love of our life for the first time. If that moment happens while a certain song is playing, then the two may become associated.
Then, whenever that song is heard it can trigger our memory of meeting that person. The association between the song and event of meeting can last a very long time, even decades.
Even after the relationship has terminated, the memory can still persist and be triggered by that particular song. It’s unfortunate, but that is the way classical conditioning works.
Imagine you ate a meal of berries that was delicious, but then 20 minutes later you start to feel very ill and get sick. From that day forward, whenever you see any kind of food that is small, round, and red, you learn to avoid it like the plague. In fact, your reaction is almost like a reflex.
You might even develop a dislike for strawberries and tomatoes. Maybe even the sight of the inside of a watermelon makes you feel queasy!
Imagine you used to love your job. Then suddenly, a grumpy boss arrives. Soon, just the very sight of the grumpy boss may generate a feeling of anxiety and avoidance.
Before you know it, you’ve started to dislike the work you used to love. Why? Because you associate it with the grumpy boss, who gives you anxiety!
From a classical conditioning perspective, this is perfectly understandable. The presence of the boss has caused an association between anxiety and your work!
The smell of cooking food can trigger the feeling of being hungry. For example, at an outdoor concert there may be several food vendors hoping to cash-in on attendance.
While most people are intently listening to the band on stage and enjoying the show, one of the vendors begins cooking hamburgers and onions on the grill. As the smell permeates the crowd, people start to feel hungry.
The smell of the hamburgers and onions being cooked on the grill is one that most people have experienced many times before. The aroma has been associated with delicious food on many occasions. After a while, the aroma will trigger a hunger response because of this association.
The personality and teaching style of a teacher can have a huge impact on students. Although the material is exactly the same, one teacher may have a fun and engaging style while another may be overly stern and critical.
It is easy to see how students may react to these two different scenarios. Students that learn math from the fun teacher will begin to like the subject, maybe even look forward to each class. However, students taught by the critical teacher may develop an aversion to the subject. Soon it will become their least favorite class.
One technique to prevent coyotes from preying on livestock involves lacing a carcass with a chemical that induces sickness when digested. So, when a coyote approaches an already dead sheep, consumes the meat, and later gets ill, it should prevent further attacks.
The principles of classical conditioning apply because the predator will associate getting sick with eating the animal. Therefore, they will not attack that kind of livestock in the future because it has been associated with illness.
Some celebrities have an image of being honest, some are considered humorous, while others may have an image of being strong and tough. Advertising agencies often use celebrities in their ad campaigns to appeal to consumers.
The idea is to get consumers to associate the feelings they have for the celebrity, to their product. For example, if you want to sell insurance, find a celebrity with an honest image to be a spokesperson for your brand.
A phobia is when we fear something. It could be a place, a sound, or any number of things. Understanding the development of a phobia is an exercise in identifying the components of classical conditioning.
For example, initially, a person may have no fear of heights. Then one day, while hiking along a high mountain trail, they slip. They tumble down the hill and get hurt badly. From that day on, they may develop a strong aversion to hiking.
In terms of classical conditioning, they have learned to associate falling and getting hurt with hiking. Even though they have been hiking many times before, that one instance of getting hurt was enough to make them permanently apprehensive.
The other type of conditioning is operant conditioning, which is far more popular in education these days. Whereas classical conditioning functions through unconditioned stimulus and response, operant conditioning is more explicit and intentional. Examples of operant conditioning include giving stickers for good behavior, treats for dogs, and even parking fines for not following city parking rules.
When Pavlov first discovered the Pavlovian response, no one knew it would have so many applications to so many facets of our everyday lives. Learning by association explains the process of learning for humans and animals.
The process is straightforward. A neutral object/situation (conditioned stimulus) is associated with another object/situation (unconditioned stimulus) that triggers a response (unconditioned response). Over time, or even with just one pairing, the previously neutral stimulus will trigger the unconditioned response.
Advertisers recruit celebrities to endorse products, our preferences and dislikes of certain school subjects, and when we get hungry all involve CC. It also has implications for more serious matters such as the development of phobias and the control of livestock predators.
➡️ References and Further ReadingTill, Brian & Busler, Michael. (1998). Matching products with endorsers: Attractiveness versus expertise. Journal of Consumer Marketing. 15. 576-586. 10.1108/07363769810241445.
