Learning is a very complex concept. It can be done in various ways. We can learn by processing information and rehearsing it. These methods usually take time to stick in your memory. There are some things that we learn, even if we don’t mean to. This learning come from experience. It will change our behavior and thoughts. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to associate stimuli. This is done through acquisition. We associate a neutral stimuli with an unconditioned stimulus. It relies on respondent behavior which is an automatic response to a stimuli. When an unconditioned stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus enough times, it will create a conditioned response.

Classical conditioning happens to the majority of people sometime in their lifetime. An example that I have seen is in my two year old nephew. He has become terrified of a dancing reindeer that we have in our house around Christmas time. He loved playing with the reindeer. He would give it hugs and kisses every day. When he would push the button, the reindeer would sing Christmas songs and dance. He would dance along, laughing and singing. One day when he came over, he found his way over to the reindeer. This time when he pushed the button, he did not sing and dance alone with it. The reindeer danced right off of the table and fell on him. He started to cry. He was terrified because he thought that the reindeer was attacking him. He was terrified of the music. He even began to be afraid of his favorite little reindeer. He made the association between the music (conditioned stimulus) and the “attack” (unconditioned stimulus). He also made the generalization then that the reindeer is scary itself, even without the music playing. We had to move the reindeer to another room where he could not see it for the rest of the year. For two months, every time that he would come to our house, he would point down the hallway to where we hid the reindeer and note how scary the reindeer is, without even seeing it. My nephew is terrified of reindeer because of classical conditioning.

There are not many memories that I have retained from a very young age. The only thing that I seem to remember below age 4 is seeing my Pappy. I remember how he seemed to never fully shave his beard, just so he could tickle me with his whiskers. I remember how he would come over to our house multiple times in a week to see me. He would read me stories and make me laugh. He always knew how to make me feel special and loved. He had this puppet that he would play with and make me believe it was talking, which was always my favorite thing. Sadly, my most vivid memory of my Pappy is of his last days in the hospital. I remember the smell and how sick he looked. His face wasn’t nearly as bright as I thought it should be. He still wanted me to be sitting on his bed the whole time I was there to talk to me and still make me feel special. We left and I gave him a kiss. My mom told me that that was his very last kiss. I feel like all of this is a perfect picture in my head. I remember a few flashes of the funeral as well, but not as much, When I think of that day all I remember is talking about heaven and my aunt watching over me.

Now as I sit in my psychology class, I wonder if I really do remember any of this, or if I have constructed my own memories. It feels like there is no way that I could just make those thoughts and images up in my mind. But when learning about how memory really works, it is possible that all of these memories could be from the stories that my mother has told me many times. She is always talking about my pappy and how much he loved me. She tells me these stories all of the time and I tell her each time that I remember every event, but do I? Most of the memories that we have from a young age that we feel we remember are just memories of stories. We have put the imagery in our minds, making it seem like our own memory. This is the misinformation effect. We fill in gaps of our memories to make our recall more coherent. There is no way to tell if I have obtained my own memories from experience or from my mother’s stories. For me, the imagery in my mind is enough, real or not. I am just happy that I do have some type of memory of my Pappy.