Question

• Define neutral stimulus (NS), Unconditioned Stimulus (US or UCS), Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR), Conditioned Stimulus (CS), and Conditioned Response (CR).
• What is an organism learning when they’ve been classically conditioned? What is the evidence that that association has been learned?
• How do contiguity, contingency, stimulus value, novelty, and biological preparedness influence conditioning processes?

Answer 1

Answer.

NEUTRAL STIMULUS is the stimulus that has absolutely no u effect on the subject. For example , in the dog experiment by pavlov, bell was the neutral stimulus until it was paired with the UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS. If the bell was rung before the pairing, it had no response.
Unconditioned stimulus is the stimulus that has natural response known as UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE. In the experiment , the food was the unconditioned stimulus which when presented resulted in unconditioned response I:e. Salivation by dog.

CONDITIONED STIMULUS  is the neutral stimulus that has been paired with the u conditioned stimulus. In the experiment, the bell that was earlier neutral stimulus changed into conditioned stimulus when it was repeatedly paired with the food. It resulted In CONDITIONED RESPONSE i.e. salivation. A stage comes when dog starts salivating as soon as he hears the bell.

During the process of classical conditioning , the organism associated the neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus . This results in new kind of learning. As the organism now responds to the conditioned stimulus. The dog in the experiment started salivating as soon as the bell rung because he thought that food will be followed after the bell.
The evidence that association has been learnt is that the conditioned stimulus leads to the Same response that was earlier made after the unconditioned stimulus.
Influence of the following on conditioning processes:/

1. Contiguity: it means the sequence of presentation of the stimulus. In order to assure proper learning and conditioning , the conditioned stimulus should be presented right before the unconditioned stimulus . The time should be very less. Only then the organism will associate the two stimuli.
2. Contingency: it is the prediction of the Unconditioned stimulus to occur. The presence of the conditioned stimulus helps the organism to predict that the unconditioned stimulus is going to occur .

3. Stimulus Value: it is the amount of stimulus that is being presented or being given to the organism. In the dog experiment by Pavlov, the amount of time the bell was rung and the amount of food that was being presented. The stimulus value can directly influence the response of the organism.

4. Novelty: if the neutral stimulus is a new stimulus for the organism, learning takes place quickly because a fresh association is being made in this case. But if the neutral stimulus is something that the organism is already aware of , he or she might take some time to develop the new association.
5. Biological preparedness: it is how prepared an animal or organism is to develop association between stimulus and response. The more the preparedness , more quick the association can take place.