Classical conditioning is the basic form of learning. It was first described by Prof. Dr. Ivan Pavlov working on
conditioned reflex.
He was able to take an autonomic reflex (e.g. salivation to food) which we're born with and
is unconditioned (i.e. independent of our will) and demonstrated that it could be conditioned to respond to a
new unrelated to the unconditioned stimulus - e.g. bell ring. He presented the new stimulus along or prior to the
unconditioned stimulus ( food). After a number of such presentations the new stimulus (bell ring) would elicit the
autonomic response, similar to the unconditioned, except that it is conditioned response.
It is conditioned, because it is learned through a conditional stimulus.
The autonomic response, taught to respond to new stimulus
(i.e. learned association to connect the two stimuli) was called by
Pavlov learned association (stimulus substitution).
There is no difference in the clinical presentation of non-conditioned and conditioned reflexes.
The difference is the essence of their nature. The unconditioned reflex is a natural inborn response,
while the conditioned reflex is a learned reflex. This was the first discovery Pavlov made - showing that one
can learn to respond to stimuli, the same way we respond with reflexes we're born with.
The second great breakthrough is that he solved the two thousand year-old puzzle regarding the body - mind
relationship. This is about the possibility to entrain a conditioned response to a new stimulus (a complex
association), which opened the doors to new understanding of the process of learning.
Evaluation of treatment methods using classical conditioning model have demonstrated that relapse is more
likely to occur in the presence of alcohol-associated stimuli. Thus, the most effective treatment conditions
should maintain an environment that is as free as possible of alcohol-associated stimuli, and the patient
should be returned to an environment that is different from the one in which dependence was acquired. Since
dependence is acquired by the patient's developing alcohol-compensatory conditioned responses, specific,
therapeutic strategies should be implemented and practiced over time prior to discharge in order to extinguish
these alcohol -compensatory conditioned responses. Aversive affective states, such as depression or anxiety,
can also act to increase the likelihood of relapse, so all treatment procedures should attempt to extinguish
conditioned associations between aversive affective states and alcohol. The patient will probably experience
relief from withdrawal symptoms if allowed to substitute other drugs: thus the very conditioned responses
targeted for extinction will be maintained.
Operant conditioning, sometimes called instrumental conditioning, or trial-and-error, was
formulated by Edward Thorndike and later developed by B. F. Skinner.
In operant conditioning a new behavioral response is learned through the so called associational learning,
i.e. association between a response and a stimulus. Operant conditioning involves the reinforcement of
behaviors that either occur spontaneously or with no recognizable eliciting stimuli.
A new stimulus is conditioned (learned) to elicit the same response or behavior.
In operant conditioning reinforcement becomes the key stimulus that increases the likelihood that
the desired behavior will be repeated or strengthened.
When such behaviors are either rewarded or result from the removal of noxious stimuli, they tend to reoccur
and increase in the probability of occurrence. This process is known as reinforcement.
Specific behavioral problems, such as shouting obscenities, messiness, or poor hygienic habits, etc.
can be reduced and replaced with positive and constructive behavior through operant reinforcement
by first defining the behavior to be established, then finding an
effective reinforcement (e.g. praise, attention, compliments, privileges, money, tokens, food, and finally
training the staff to provide the appropriate reinforcement when a part of operant reinforcement if one
wishes to establish positive and constructive behavior.
Classical conditioning involves the pairing (or association) of a conditional stimulus, such as
a light or bell, with an unconditional stimulus, such as a shock or food. The conditional stimulus
(light or bell ring) originally produces no response, while the unconditional stimulus (shock or food)
produces produces a response called unconditional response (e.g. withdrawal of salivation).
By repeatedly presenting the conditional stimulus just before the unconditional stimulus,
the conditioned response can then be elicited by the conditional stimulus alone, as though the unconditional
stimulus was being anticipated or predicted.
Operant conditioning (sometimes called instrumental conditioning or trial-and-error learning) is also
associational learning in that it is the association between a response and a stimulus. While classical
conditioning is the formation of an association between two stimuli, the conditional and unconditional
stimuli, and generally is restricted to specific reflex response, operant conditioning involves
the reinforcing of behaviors that either occur spontaneously or with no recognizable eliciting stimulus.
When such behaviors are either rewarded of result from removal of noxious stimuli, they tend to reoccur
and increase in the probability of occurrence. This process is known as reinforcement.
In classical conditioning, the conditioned response will decrease in intensity or probability of occurrence
if the conditional stimulus is presented repeatedly without also presenting the unconditional stimulus.
This is known as extinction, or forgetting, and also occurs in operant conditioning if
the reinforcement does not occur. Behaviors followed by aversive or noxious consequences tend to be
repeated.
Historically, classical conditioning and operant conditioning have been regarded as dissimilar: however,
classical and operant conditioning appear to be controlled by remarkably similar laws. The two kinds of
learning appear to be manifestations of a common underlying neural mechanism.
Systemic desensitization is a behavioral technique developed on basic prinicples of classical conditioning.
Joseph Wolpe developed it as a means of alleviating enxiety. Deep muscle relaxation is paired with a series
of imagined scenes that depict situations or objects that are associated with anxiety ans thus produce anxiety.
the scenes or situations are graded in hierarchy and the pairing with relaxation proceeds from the most simple
to the most severe scenes. The patient thus learns to tolerate more and more severe or difficult scenes and
become desensitized as the relaxation acts to inhibit the anxiety response. The behavioral technique has been
especially effective with phobias, insomnia, and stress-related disorders.
Shaping is a reinforcement and learning process wherein a series of successive responses that approximate
the desired response are reinforced until the desired response is learned. It is basically an operant conditioning
procedure and was originally developed by pressing the bar-pressing response of rats as the act to be learned.
The rat was positively reinforced for each of the closer and closer approximations, such as approaching the bar,
rising upon hind legs, putting front paws on the bar (lever), and pressing the bar. This is also known as the
successive approximation shaping procedure. After the desired behavior has been learned, the experimenter can
introduce different reinforcement schedules to maintain the learned behavior. A discriminative stimulus can also
be introduced, such as pressing the bar only when a certain light is on, so that the animal will learn not to
press the bar axcept when the light is on. The shaping technique has been used to train circus and other
animals to perform complicated acts used in most zoo and marine animal shows. The process of shaping is considered
to be prominent, although greatly modified, in many social and cultural learning situations of everyday life.
Contact Desensitization is a variation of systemic desensitization that combines modeling and guided
participation procedures. In a fearful person, the therapist (or teacher) models the appropriate behavior
and then guides the fearful person through each step of hierarchy. Contact desensitization has been
very effective in the treatment of phobias, such as the fear of snakes. The therapist would model appropriate
behaviors, such as approaching the snake, touching the snake, and progressively allowing the snake to crawl
around the therapist's arms and shoulders. The fearful person is then encouraged to perform each of these
behaviors, beginning with the lowest behavioral task in the hierarchy. With the assistance of the therapist,
each behavioral task is repeated until the fear and anxiety associated with the snake are extinguished.
This method differs from systemic desensitization in that while a hierarchy is used, relaxation training is not.
The procedure is based on extinction rather than depending on relaxation to inhibit the anxiety.
From studying mnemonics and various yogi experts who could control their heart rates, skin temperatures,
and other physiologic processes, it was documented that an average person can learn to accomplish the same
control by using certain visual or auditory feedback cues. We skills and everyday behaviors by using the
basic learning principle that we can learn and improve performance by receiving feedback about our response
and then making appropriate adjustments. Learning to drive a car, throw a baseball, or perform a manipulation
requires continuous feedback.
By providing visual or auditory feedback (biofeedback) of physiological responses, we can also learn to control
voluntarily such physiologic responses, we can also learn to control voluntarily such physiologic functions.
Pioneering experiments by Neal Miller in the late 1950s and early 1960s with animals were extended to demonstrate
human subjects' ability to learn to control many responses that were assumed to be "involuntary responses",
such as blood pressure, heart rate, activity of the sweat glands, skin temperature, neuromuscular activity,
and various brain rhythms. The clinical application of the behavioral technology of Biofeedback continues
to be explored and effectively applied to certain disorders, such as hypertension, Raynaud's disease, migraine
headache, asthma, gastrointestinal disorders, dyskinesias, epileptic seizures, cardiac arrhythmias, anxiety,
headache from muscle contraction, and muscle pain.
Cognitive restructuring is a therapeutic technique, based on the fundamental discovery by Albert Ellis (1962)
that cognition and faulty or irrational patterns of thinking can produce emotions and other psychological
disorders, such as anxiety. By changing the internal or covert sentences that people sya to themselves, they
can reduce or eliminate negative emotional responses. This became known as cognitive restructuring,
and while it may sound deceptively simple, it was added further confirmation to earlier studies showing
that not only do attitudes affect behavior, changing behavior also affects attitudes. By integrating the
bio-behavioral perspective, we can demonstrate how specific thoughts or verbalizations to oneself can give
rise to the psychological and physiologic aspects of anxiety. By identifying and modifying (restructuring)
these negative verbalizations to oneself and replacing them with more positive statements to oneself,
anxiety can be reduced. Similar to systematic desensitization, cognitive restructuring has demonstrated in
controlled experiments that it is highly effective in reducing anxiety. Systematic desensitization is more
effective with certain phobias, and cognitive restructuring is more effective with multiple fears in
interpersonal situations.
Thought stopping is a variation of restructuring. The client concentrates on specific anxiety-producing
thoughts, which are then inerrupted by a sudden shock statement "stop" by the therapist. After several
interruptions, the locus of control is then shifted to the client to by the client's learning to emit
a sub vocal "stop" at any time he or she begins to engage in the self-defeating rumination. In another
technique, the client snaps a rubber band worn on his or her wrist when such ruminations occur. Although
this has a slight punishing effect, it does serve to provide an impressive "stop" signal and interrupts
te destructive thinking. The thought-stopping procedures are especially effective with clients who have
difficulty controlling distressing obsessional thoughts. The technique of cognitive restructuring mentioned
above can be effective in helping patients cope with psychological stressors that are linked to the
precipitation exacerbation of physical symptoms. In summary, what appears to be deceptively simple and
superficial actually works and is based on more recent knowledge in Neuroscience and behavioral science
that are the traditional psychotherapeutic principles.
There is wide range of interventions and technologies, many of which are very successful (e.g. 50 to
70 percent), but the relapse rate is also high, especially during the first 6 to 9 months after the
behavioral change program has terminated. This emphasizes the need to continue some strategy
to sustain the behavior, as one might continue to prescribe a drug for hypertension or diabetes.
While the behavioral technology for changing behavior is well developed, we are not so well informed
about how to prepare and motivate people to decide to adopt risk reduction nd health promotion regiments.
Outstanding progress has been made in identifying and modifying rist factors and risk behavior, but we
know much less about health promotion, since promoting health is far more complex than eliminating
rist factors and risk behaviors. Lastly, a far greater percentage of people are able to successfully
initiate, complete, and maintain risk-reducing behaviors if they do so on their own. This success appears
to be related to self-direction, but little is known about how this occurs, just as medicine knows
little about how certain illnesses or conditions abate without medical intervention.
There has been renewed interest in techniques of self-control an self-management for controlling problem
behaviors. Some of the more successful techniques have developed by working with patients attempting
to control obesity, but can also be applied to smoking, stress, tension, and other problems. Such
techniques involve identifying significant rewards and punishments that can be used by patients to
reinforce the behavior they are attempting to monitor and control. For example, in the control of
obesity there is self-monitoring of daily weight, calories, and exercise; self-reward with extra money,
purchase, or privileges; and self-punishment with fines and denial of special privileges, or privileges of
favored activity. Self-monitoring and self-reward are more effective reinforcers than is punishment.
Social support is also an effective reinforcement for self-control.
The variable ratio (VR) schedule of reinforcement is structured in such a way that a variable and
an unpredictable number of responses are required to produce a reinforcement. With time, a steady,
smooth rate of response develops. This rate tends to be proportional to the average number of
responses required for a reinforcement. VR schedules are sometimes termed "The Gambler's Schedule",
reflecting a number of interesting parallels to the behavioral patterns associated with playing slot
machines and roulette. Is is characteristic of this behavior that it persists after reinforcement
is discontinued.
Continuous reinforcement is regarded as the limiting case of all the other schedules. Normally,
organisms on this schedule respond rapidly at first in order to accumulate a large number of
reinforcements. Behavior then ceases as the reinforcements are consumed. Satiation from the concentrated
reinforcement reduces the motivational levels such that responding may not resume for extended periods.
Intermittent responding is generally produced by fixed intervals (FI) schedules. In such
schedules, reinforcement is produced by the first response after a fixed time period following
the previous reinforcement. To maximize the probability of reward, an organism must learn to time
this period relatively accurately. The FI scallop appears in the response record when this timing
behavior begins to occur. The scalloping effect results fro ma tendency to response-inhibition during
the interval between the reinforcement and the next opportunity for reinforcement. Responding
usually resumes slightly before the next reinforcement is available, and it is this sudden rise
in response rate that produces the concave-upward scallop in the response tracing.
Fixed ratio (FR) schedule requires that a certain number of responses be emitted for each reinforcement.
Normally, there is no restriction on the timing of this behavior. The response pattern, generated by FR
schedules is characterized by the "post-reinforcement pause". This pattern results from an organism's
tendency to cease responding. consume the reinforcer, and then wait for an additional refractory period
before again responding.
The variable interval (VI) schedule does not show the scalloping that is characteristic of schedule,
it is impossible to predict the time that must elapse between successive reinforcements. Organisms
therefore tend to respond with a smooth, steady rate that is inversely proportional to the
average time interval in the schedule.
The modeling of parents, teachers, and "significant others" has been found to play a major role
in influencing a person to smoke. Peer pressure is also a major influence, especially in adolescence.
Cigarette advertising, which may use celebrity models and link smoking to such attractions as sports,
sex, and prestige, impresses youth with the pleasurable, grown-up, and no-risk aspects of smoking.
Social inoculation is a process whereby persons are inoculated with arguments and behavioral
skills to reinforce the effects of positive modeling, the social skills to counteract peer pressure
to smoke, and various content analyses of the techniques used by advertisers to persuade youth to
smoke. Experimentation is a common characteristic of adolescence and smoking is one of the most
frequent behavioral trials.
Further reading :