Acquisition

The stage when the stimulus in question generates a conditioned response; The stage of initial learning when responses are established and then gradually strengthened as a result of repeated pairing and presentation.

•  This is when classical conditioningcan be said to have taken place.Extinction
•  The unlearning of the conditioned response by weakening it, leading to its disappearance; using the same principles as those for learning the response.
•  The state when the conditioned stimulus i.e. bell, buzzer, gong etc does not accompany the unconditioned stimulus e.g. food.
•  The response gradually diminishes, extinguishes, or declines, as the UCS repeatedly does not appear with the CS.

Spontaneous Recovery
•  Does the response disappear permanently, once extinction has taken place? Not always!
•  Pavlovian experiments showed that some days after extinction, the dog salivated again on hearing the bell/ buzzer.

Consider the case of someone who left smoking but the very sight of someone else who is smoking makes him feel like smoking. The same may happen with a child whose fear of dogs had been treated. The re occurring responses are comparatively weaker in nature than they initially were; similarly their extinction takes place sooner and easily.

Generalization
•  Stimuli similar to the original CS may elicit the same response as to the CS or UCS e.g. a buzzer responded to as a bell.
•  Pavlovian experiments showed that the dogs also salivated on the tones that were similar to the original tone but were never used while presenting the food.
•  Such responses are not as strong as the original ones.
•  Consider the case of Albert’s fear of all white- furry objects

Discrimination
•The process whereby the organism learns to  restrict its response toone specific stimulus; differentiating between similar stimuli.
•  Pavlov’s dogs salivated only at the tones, which were similar in nature.
•  Consider the case of a child who is scared of the neighbor's dog alone (that barks every time the child passes by), and not all dogs.

Higher Order Conditioning
•  A process when an already conditioned stimulus isrepeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus, and ultimately the neutral stimulus begins to evoke the same responseas to the original stimulus.
•  Consider the case of a child who was scared of the neighbor’s dog, became scared of all dogs, and finally started screaming at the mere name of a dog.

Applications of Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life
•  Negative emotional responses: fears, phobias-----fear of reptiles, dark places, and school phobia.

•  Positive emotional responses: Feelings of relaxation, and happiness----thinking of going on a holiday.
•  Advertising: Associating model with the product.
•  Psychotherapy; Systematic desensitization, aversive therapy.

Conditioned Drug Response
•Vomiting inducing drugs were repeatedly paired withthe sound of a tone; eventually the mere sound of
that tone could produce the same vomiting response. Consider the children who vomit at the name of
cough syrup, or who faint at the name of a clinic.
Smoking, Coffee, and Tea
•People who are addicted to caffeine and nicotine start feeling relaxed and stimulated even before the
intake.

Over Eating
•Most obese people start feeling hungry at the sight of a restaurant or at the smell of food.

Classical Conditioning and the Immune System
•Studies on rats have shown that a neutral stimulus like saccharin sweetened water when repeatedly paired
with an immuno-suppressant drug, started eliciting the same response; the very taste of saccharin had the same effect on immune system. functioning.
•Objects associated with a state of low immunity may lead to a low immunity state in future.

Classical Conditioning and the School Psychology
An overly strict school atmosphere may lead to school phobia, or test fear
The same rule can be applied to develop a positive feeling for school by making the school environment
pleasant.