A CTIVIDAD  5:   S INTETIZAR  C ARACTERÍSTICAS Y  O BJETIVOS  R ELEVANTES

Behaviourism, as a theoretical discipline, can trace its origins back to the theory of classical conditioning, also known, and from now on referred to as associative learning, based largely on the works of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and John Broadus Watson in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

Pavlov’s Associative Learning of Salivation in Dogs

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) started the move of psychology away from its philosophical roots, to a more scientifically grounded subject, in his studies of what came to be known as associative learning (classical conditioning). As a physiologist, Pavlov’s interest lay in the digestive processes of dogs. He noted that dogs salivated in the presence of food as an

instinctive mechanism for preparing the digestive system for food, a process which he dubbed

‘psychic secretion’ (Pavlov 1927; Roth 1990). He noticed that the dogs would start salivating as the feeders approached with their food, before the food was even given to them. Both the sight of the feeding buckets, and the sound of the lab assistant carrying the food, became sufficient to prompt salivation in the dogs.

In the laboratory setting, Pavlov went on to study the effects of various stimuli on the dogs. The salivation of the dogs was classified as an unconditioned response, i.e., an automatic reflexive response, brought about by food, which Pavlov classified as unconditioned stimuli (US). Dogs automatically salivate in response to food, as a biological mechanism, and this is an

‘unconditioned response’ (UR). Based on this, Pavlov identified that ‘conditioning’ takes place in three stages, outlined in figure 2.7 below; the first, before learning takes place, the second as learning is happening, and finally after the learning has occurred.

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In the first stage, before learning has begun, the dog experiences a natural ‘unconditioned response’ (salivation) to an ‘unconditioned stimuli’ (food). During the second stage, the learning process, a new unrelated and neutral stimulus is introduced (in this case a bell), in tandem with the unconditioned stimulus. This neutral stimulus is classified as the ‘conditioned stimulus’ (CS).

During learning, the unconditioned stimulus (food) and the conditioned stimulus (bell) were repeatedly presented together to produce the unconditioned response. Finally the dog will start to respond to the conditioned stimuli without the presence of the unconditioned stimuli. When this happens, learning has taken place, and the dog has been ‘conditioned’ to respond to the conditioned stimuli by salivating. The salivation is now what Pavlov classified as a ‘conditioned response’ (CR), when the conditioned stimulus is sufficient to provoke a reaction on its own.

When conditioned stimulus has provoked a conditioned response, the relationship between the two is described as a conditioned (or conditional) reflex (Roth 1990). This type of conditioning is dubbed ‘classical’, and has sometimes been described as stimulus-response. Figure 2.7 above, the Stimulus-Response model, outlines the three stages of conditioning, and the interactions between different stimuli (unconditioned and conditioned) and the responses (unconditioned, finally becoming conditioned).

Watson’s Associative Learning of Human Behaviour

While Pavlov’s work was restricted to modifying a basic animal reflex through ‘associative learning’, John Broadus Watson’s (1878-1958) work dealt with the associative learning of emotional responses in humans. In his ‘behavioural manifesto’ (Watson 1913), Watson outlined his proposal for the future of psychology, through an approach that came to be known as

Unconditioned

Stimuli (Food) Unconditioned

Response (Salivation)

Unconditioned

Stimuli (Food) Conditioned

Stimuli (Bell) Unconditioned

Response (Salivation)

Conditioned

Stimuli (Bell) Conditioned Response

(Salivation)

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3 Figure 2.7: Stages in the Process of Associative Learning

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classical stimulus-response behaviourism. This model was restricted to consider only publicly observable phenomena in attempts to account for behaviour, and is outlined in the figure below:

Watson’s work has, with time, gained a somewhat infamous reputation, although at the time it was conducted, it was not viewed as ethically dubious. In perhaps Watson’s most famous and notorious experiment, an eleven month old boy, who came to be known as ‘Little Albert’, was conditioned to develop a fear of a white rat and similar objects (Watson and Rayner 1920).

To condition an emotional fear response to a neutral stimulus, Watson hypothesised that by simultaneously presenting this stimulus with a stimulus that naturally causes a fear response, the child would learn to fear the neutral stimulus. Watson first tested the child at nine months of age to determine whether he was afraid of the certain objects, including a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, and masks with and without hair, cotton wool, and burning newspaper. Little Albert was described by Watson as a ‘stolid and unemotional’ child, and when presented with these items, showed no initial fear response. Watson then examined Little Albert to test for responses to loud noise, and discovered that he reacted violently- recoiling and crying to the loud noise generated by banging a hammer against a suspended four foot long steel bar behind the child’s head.

Watson’s experiment was designed to use the unconditioned stimulus (the noise produced by the hammer on the steel bar) to eventually provoke a conditioned response (fear) to the conditioned stimulus (initially, a white rat). Over a series of weeks, Watson conducted the experiment, striking the steel bar whenever Little Albert reached for the white rat. Quickly, little Albert stopped reaching for the white rat as he had when first presented with it, and not long after, he began to recoil and cry when presented with the white rat. Watson successfully demonstrated that through the procedure of associative learning proposed by Pavlov, the

emotional responses of humans could be modified. Watson’s experiments with little Albert went on to see whether the fear of the white rat was transferable to other similar objects. When presented with a rabbit, a fur coat, and Watson’s grey hair, for example, fear responses were

Stimulus (public)

Response (public) Figure 2.8- Stimulus - Response Model

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elicited from little Albert, showing fear of the white rat had been ‘generalised’ to other similar objects.

Little Albert was presented with building blocks to play with between experiments, and he was happy to play with them, showing none of the fear responses he had during the experiments, while presented with conditioning stimulus. In fact, the blocks were used on a number of occasions to calm him. This indicated that Little Albert did not associate his fears with the laboratory setting. As a check, Watson took Little Albert to a different setting, and presented him again with the white rat. Although Little Albert displayed fear responses to the white rat and rabbit when they were presented, the reactions were described as ‘slight’. This was the first hint that conditioning can be specific to the environment in which it occurs.

After his academic career ended, Watson took up a position with J. Walter Thompson

advertising agency, where he used his associative learning techniques to advertise products. By associating an otherwise mundane, everyday product (Conditioned Stimulus) with something the customer would find appealing (Unconditioned Stimulus), and hence produce a positive

response (Unconditioned Response) customers would eventually also view the product in a favourable light (Conditioned Response). Watson’s advertising techniques are still widely used in advertisements to this day, attempting to persuade the customer to think approvingly of a product by associating it with appropriate stimulus. In the confectionary industry, companies such as Mars Inc. have employed these sorts of techniques in the sale of some of their products.

One such product is the ever popular Bounty^TM, a chocolate bar filled with coconut, and

currently distributed throughout Europe and the Middle East. In the past, they employed strong advertising strategies in the UK, which ran the product under the tagline ‘A Taste of Paradise’, with adverts featuring an exotic backdrop of a tropical beach with white sand, palm trees, and crystal clear skies, with semi-naked bronzed men and women enjoying the chocolate. These adverts aimed to invoke a sense of the exotic and exclusive, even though the product being sold was a mass-produced, comparably priced chocolate bar. The image of this exotic setting, and its perfect inhabitants (Unconditioned Stimulus) were paired with an everyday non-exclusive chocolate bar (Conditioned Stimulus) to evoke feelings of desire, and a sense of escapism in the consumer, so they would be more likely to purchase the bar when confronted with it in a store.

Impulse purchases make up a significant amount of confectionary sales (Mintel 2006), and by

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associating Bounty with powerful imagery, they were trying to make their product more memorable and desirable to the customer.

Essentially, associative learning involves presenting a stimulus which provokes an inborn, automatic reflex in an organism, with a neutral stimulus- one which does not provoke a response. Eventually, the organism will start to associate the neutral stimulus with the other stimulus, and the automatic reflex will eventually be elicited by the neutral stimulus when presented alone.