Question

Describe a personal experience of classical conditioning. You must describe a real-life example of behavior that you have observed in others or experienced yourself. You would need to identify the UCS, CS, UCR, etc. Make sure you include enough information clearly understand how the concept applies to behavioral example (e.g., extinction, generalization etc.)

Answer 1

A few days ago I was in a car with my mother while she was driving, and all the sudden she goes, “Ugh, there’s a police car here” When I asked her why she was disturbed by this she explained to me that the sight of a police car makes her feel nervous and agitated. My mother used to frequently take long drives to visit her parents’ home in another’s town while haggling between our own home and he office. During those years she got quite a many speeding tickets. Her anxiety and unease on seeing a police car, a neutral stimulus in this case exemplifies a strong conditioning because drivers can become aversiveoy conditioned to dreading a police patrol car just after a single or a few experiences with getting a speeding ticket. In this instance, the anxiety which she experienced in the previous episodes has been generalised to other related stimuli as well such as the sound of a police siren, the sight of an empty police car, all of which make her alert and anxious while driving as she dreads receiving another speeding ticket while she may be actually driving within the normal speed limits.

Unconditioned Stimulus: Getting a speeding ticket

Conditioned Stimulus: Sight of a police car

Unconditioned response: Negative feelings such as anxiety, nervousness

Condiitoned response: Feeling nervous and frustrated.