There are many ways that we learn. Some of these ways include reinforcement and punishment, but some learning happens without us even trying. Classical conditioning is a type of learning where an organism learns to associate stimuli. This isn’t something you actively learn, you just end up learning to associate two things from recurrences. Classical conditioning can be broken into pieces to explain how and why it works. It begins with an unconditioned stimulus, and an unconditioned response. The unconditioned stimulus is a certain stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response from a subject. This unconditioned response is not learned, it is just a natural response to the stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment, both stimulus and response are seen with a dog salivating when it is presented food. The presentation of food is the unconditioned stimulus, and the dog salivating is the unconditioned response. After this is determined, you can decide on a conditioned stimulus that will elicit a conditioned response. The conditioned response is a learned response to the conditioned stimulus. This response wouldn’t just happen naturally due to the stimulus, but the subject learns to respond to the stimulus in a certain way. Once again referring to Pavlov’s dogs, the dogs were presented food at the sound of a bell, and eventually the bell caused the dogs to salivate even without food being presented. Here, the bell is the conditioned stimulus, while the salivation is the conditioned response.
I’ve actually had direct experience with classical conditioning, involving my sister’s bird. My family got a bird when I was little, and that was fine. Although, he became very attached to my sister, and in return absolutely despised me. I didn’t go near him ever because he would bite me. In general, I just avoided him as much as I could. In this case, the bird biting me was the unconditioned stimulus, and me staying away from him to avoid pain was the unconditioned response. Keeping away from him worked just fine, until he started to fly over and bite me. This happened quite a few times, as one of the routes out of the house goes past his cage. His room is also close to our kitchen, so I could sit at a barstool and he would just fly over. After he attacked me enough times, just the sound of his wings flapping would immediately cause me to be alarmed, and run in order to avoid him. Even today if I hear a sound too similar to his wings flapping it alarms me. The actual sound did not cause me any pain, but I learned to associate the sound with him biting me. Here, the conditioned stimulus was the sound of his wings flapping, and the conditioned response was for me to start running to get away. This doesn’t affect me as much as it used to because I don’t live in my parents’ house anymore, but when I go back I’m still very wary to stay as far away from his cage as possible.
Your personal experience with classical conditioning was very unique to read about but also seemed painful. Your post also reminded me of an example that my educational psychology class gave. Young children in school are often conditioned to become quiet when the light is turned off. The unconditioned stimulus was the lights being shut off and the unconditioned response is temporary confusion the first few times it happens, which results in quiet. After awhile the conditioned stimulus is still the lights but the continued response is quiet and attentive students. I’ve seen this happen at the summer camp I work at too. When the children get to loud inside, one of our counselors would flick the light on and off and all of the campers would quiet down, in anticipation for directions, having learned it in school. So some classical conditioning can be applied across domains.