The classical conditioning process is all about pairing a previously neutral stimulus with another stimulus that naturally produces a response. After pairing the presentation of these two together enough times, an association is formed. The previously neutral stimulus will then evoke the response all on its own. At this point, the response becomes known as the conditioned response.
Conditioned Response vs. Unconditioned Response
Distinguishing between an unconditioned response and a conditioned response can sometimes be difficult. Here are a few things to remember as you are trying to identify a conditioned response:
A conditioned response must be learned while an unconditioned response takes place with no learning.The conditioned response will only occur after an association has been made between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus.
Conditioned Response Examples
Some examples of conditioned responses include:
If you witness a terrible car accident, you might develop a fear of driving. Many phobias begin after a person has had a negative experience with the fear object. If your pet is accustomed to being fed after hearing the sound of a can or bag being opened, they might become very excited when hearing that sound. If your child receives regular immunizations and cries as a result of these injections, they may come to associate a healthcare provider’s white jacket with this painful experience. Eventually, the child might begin to cry whenever they see anyone wearing a white coat. If you are bitten by a barking dog, you may experience feelings of fear and anxiety whenever you hear barking.
How a Conditioned Response Is Formed
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov first discovered the classical conditioning process during his research on the salivary systems of dogs. Pavlov noted that the dogs would salivate to the taste of meat but, after a while, they also began to salivate whenever they saw the white coat of the lab assistant who delivered the meat. To look closer at this phenomenon, Pavlov introduced the sound of a tone whenever the animals were fed. Eventually, an association was formed, and the animals would salivate whenever they heard the sound, even if no food was present. In Pavlov’s classic experiment, the food represents what is known as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). This stimulus naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response (UCR), which, in this case, was salivation. After pairing the unconditioned stimulus with a previously neutral stimulus, the sound of the tone, an association is formed between the UCS and the neutral stimulus. Eventually, the previously neutral stimulus begins to evoke the same response, at which point the tone becomes known as the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response in Pavlov’s experiment was salivating in response to the conditioned stimulus.
Extinction of a Conditioned Response
So what happens in cases where the unconditioned stimulus is no longer paired with a conditioned stimulus? In Pavlov’s experiment, for example, what would have happened if the food was no longer present after the sound of the tone? Eventually, the conditioned response will gradually diminish and even disappear, a process known as extinction. In one of our previous examples, imagine that a person developed a conditioned response to feeling fear whenever they heard a dog bark. Now imagine that the individual has many more experiences with barking dogs, all of which are positive. While the conditioned response initially developed after one bad experience with a barking dog, that response may begin to diminish in intensity or even eventually disappear if the person has enough good experiences where nothing bad happens when they hear a dog’s bark.
A Word From Verywell
The conditioned response is an important part of the classical conditioning process. By forming an association between a previously neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus, learning can take place, eventually leading to a conditioned response. Conditioned responses can be a good thing, but they can also be problematic. Associations can lead to desirable behaviors, but they can lead to undesirable or maladaptive behaviors such as phobias. Fortunately, the same behavioral learning processes that led to the formation of a conditioned response can also be used to teach new behaviors or change old ones.
