In class we learned that classical conditioning is when a regular stimulus and another stimulus become associated to produce a certain behavior. In the process of classical conditioning there is an unconditioned stimulus, a conditioned stimulus, an unconditioned response, and a conditioned response. Ivan Pavlov made classical conditioning a prominent psychological term. He experimented on dogs, which has become the most well known example of this concept. In his experiment, the unconditioned stimulus is the food, because the dog will obviously want to eat the food. The unconditioned response is the dog salivating to the food. Pavlov then began using a sound, such as a whistle, when feeding the dog. Before pairing those two stimuluses, the sound was a neutral stimulus. Soon the sound became a conditioned stimulus that prompted a conditioned response of salivation.
After seeing that we would be talking about classical conditioning in class, I decided that I wanted to give it a try. One of my good friends from high school lives in the same dorm building as I do. I frequently ask her to come downstairs to my room to hang out with me. A couple weeks ago I started offering her a gummy bear every single time she came into my dorm. I kept it going for two weeks until I decided not to give her one for the first time. When I didn’t offer a gummy bear, I could tell that she experienced a surprised reaction. She even made a comment stating: “Did you run out of the gummies?”
In this case, the unconditioned stimulus is the gummy bear. Wanting the gummy bear and experiencing a physical response, such as salivation, is the unconditioned response. The conditioned stimulus becomes my room because she starts associating receiving a gummy bear with coming to see me. The conditioned response is having the feeling of wanting a gummy bear when she steps into my dorm.