Classical Conditioning Theory of Learning - Research Paper Example

Research Paper based on Classical Conditioning Theory of Learning Project Topic “The door at my house squeaks loudly when you open it. Soon, my dog begins wagging its tail when the door squeaks.” Very observable behavior of the dog is the wagging of its tail whenever a door opens. The door’s squeaking may have elicited a favorable response as may be due to expectations of dog to receive a reward from the one who opens the door. I noticed the said behavior from my dog whenever a member of the family arrives home. Together with the wagging of the tail, it is accompanied by its barking, which is also noticeably a happy mood bark, distinctive or different from a gnarl when my dog noticed that it was a stranger who came in. My hypothesis was that the wagging of the tail of the dog is a learned or conditioned response for the squeaking of the door. Its motivation might be of the expectation of receiving a reward or a food from its bearer. It could also be a show of affection from the animal, which is much more difficult to analyze since understanding of my pets emotionality depends on my dog’s treatment to the different members of my family. Background To understand more how the dog developed its behavior towards the opening of the door, we analyzed events that occur while bringing it up. The dog lives in our garage and we kept it in chains whenever we our out of our house. Whenever we are home, we release it from chains and we fed him with dog food and meal’s leftover also outside our house so that it will not make a mess inside. We usually play with him and pet him whenever we can and my mother baths it every weekend. Very noticeable is whenever we bring home a friend, who is a stranger to our dog it gnarls and showed an angry disposition to our visitor. It somehow shows a protective side to its owner and the behavior only changes when we called him by its name and tell it to lie down or stop. We then keep him on chains when it started to gnarl on visitors. This might have caused the dog to develop a dislike of unfamiliar faces for it may have associated the chains with the arrival of an unfamiliar faces. Thus, from this deductions, the classical conditioning theory will best explain the kind of behavior elicited by my dog in response to the opening our door that squeaks. Ivan Pavlov initially was interested in studying the digestive tracks of dogs and wanted to learn the role of saliva in the digestive process. He made use of dogs as subjects. So as to elicit a response or get his dog to salivate, Pavlov presented food directly to its tongue and after a few days passed he noticed that whenever he enters the room, the dog already started to salivate before giving the food.1 Salivation is a reflex, and the dog displayed a reflex in the absence of a natural stimulus. This was noticed by Pavlov and he became interested of the learned reflex of the dog and abandoned his initial study and investigated the learning phenomenon, which led to the discovery of classical conditioning theory. In classical conditioning, Pavlov investigated the ability of the dog to learn new stimulus and connect them to natural reflexes. He called the new stimulus as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the natural stimulus like the meat as the unconditioned stimulus (US). He stated that the US usually elicits a reflex, which he then coined as the unconditioned response (UR) i.e. the salivating of the dog when presented with a meat or food. The learned behavior like the salivating of the dog whenever Pavlov enters the room was then called a conditioned response (CR). Pavlov made an experiment to study the phenomenon of the conditioned response of the dog. In a set of experiments, he rang a bell and the dog initially has no reaction or care less about the bell. Then Pavlov introduced the food or feed the dogs, which made the dogs drool, which was the UR. There was no unusual change here. But when the procedure was repeated, the dogs developed a behavior of salivation whenever the sound of the bell alone was introduced, thus eliciting a conditioned response. In the deduction, the dogs learned to “display a reflexive behavior to a new association” 2, which was not connected with the natural stimulus. A similar study was conducted by Miller (1948) and his colleagues. In their experiment using rats, they placed the subjects in a rectangular box with a grid floor. The box was divided into two square compartments by a low “fence” or hurdle over which the rat can easily jump. The conditioned stimulus was introduced by a buzzer that is sounded simultaneously with the release of a pulsing electrical charge is sent through the grid floor. The responses of the rats to the shock was to scramble or go over the hurdle into the other side of the box. The box apparatus was arranged so that as soon as the rat goes over the hurdle dividing the box into compartments, the buzzer and the shock stopped. 3 With the above studies, the behavior of my pet manifested a similar reaction. Thus, this research study would be patterned after the two mentioned studies under the classical conditioning to validate the effectiveness of this approach in developing a new behavior for pets, which may also be applicable to people. Methods, Procedures and Results To analyze the behavior of my pet, I made an observation and analysis of how my dog reacted to the opening of the doors by a member of our family and by non-members. Also, I made some research and identified the different variables that may affect this study. And as a result, the following variables were identified: a) Conditioned Stimulus – Squeaking of the door whenever it is opened b) Unconditioned Stimulus – raising of my dogs ears and start of wagging its tail for seeing members of our family c) Conditioned Response – the wagging of my dog’s tail whenever he heard the opening of the door despite that there are no food brought by bearer and that the door was opened by strangers. d) Unconditioned Response – the natural reaction of the dog when food is being brought to him by members of our family As a process, for few days, I brought food to our dog and patted him on the head. As noticed, whenever he sees the food I brought him, he whimpers and starts to wag his tail. I passed through our door that squeaks and this signals that I have brought his food. Subsequently, I noticed, anyone who passes through the door that squeaks, my dog began to exhibit favorable behavior marked by wagging of its tail and its ears perked up. One time, to validate if he would also wag his tail if a new face would come in, I asked a neighbor to come over our house. He opened the door and as noticed, upon hearing the squeak, my dog started to wag its tail. However, when he noticed that it was an unfamiliar face, he began to bark at my neighbor. So I immediately collared him and chained him. The reaction was he continued to bark to my neighbor. Thus, the dog has learned a behavior or reaction to the squeaking of the door. I tried to eliminate the squeaking of the door by carefully opening it. In absence of the squeak, the dog’s ear perked up upon the soft sound and raised its head. When he noticed that it was me and that I brought him food, it’s only by then that he started to wag its tail. Thus, confirming that the favorable reaction to the squeaking of the door was reinforced by the presence of an award or the food, which was the unconditioned reaction of the dog to a natural stimulus. Conclusions I therefore conclude that the dog learned to associate the squeaking of the door to a reward or his need for food will be satisfied. It was a learned reaction because as noticed, in the absence of the door’s squeak, the natural reaction of the dog to wag its tail and perk-up its ears were delayed until he fully noticed and identified my presence or the bearer of the food. Unlike the reaction given to a stranger, where it started to wag its tail when he heard the squeaking and mood changed to a negative response or defensive response when he learned that it was an unfamiliar face that came through the door. References 1 Henderson, Lawrence J., The Order of Nature. Publisher: Harvard University Press. Place of Publication: Cambridge. Publication Year: 1917. * Muckmire.com., Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning. Accessed on November 10, 2007 at http://www.mucknmire.com/wam101/pavlov.html. 2 Gormezano, Isidore., Classical Conditioning. Editor, William F. Prokasy, Richard F. Thompson. Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of Publication: Hillsdale, NJ. Publication Year: 1987. 3 Hall, Calvin S., & Lindzey, Gardner. Theories of Personality 3rd Ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978. * Lindgren, Henry Clay, & Harvey, John H. An Introduction to Social Psychology 3rd Ed., St. Louis; Toronto; London: The C.V. Mosby Company, 1981. * Contemporary Research on Pavlovian Conditioning: A "New" Functional Analysis. Contributors: Karen L. Hollis - author. Journal Title: American Psychologist. Volume: 52. Issue: 9. Publication Year: 1997. Page Number: 956. Read More