In this chapter, we will read and understand the different methods for learning. Learning is defined as a relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge that is due to past experiences. Learning often reflects adaptation to the environment. Conditioning is the process of learning associated with environmental events and behavioral responses. In the prologue we read a story of a married couple who live in a nice home, Erv the wife sent Fern out to the postal office and while returning she didn't notice he went up to the attic and she accidentally locked the attic door so when Fern was exiting he found himself locked. It wasn't till a while later that she heard his cry for help, due to this experiences Fern has developed new behaviors to make his wife aware that he is in the attic. .
Ivan Pavlov a psychologist discovered Classical Conditioning while working on digestion system of dogs. Classical conditioning deals with reflexive behaviors that are elicited by a stimulus and results from learning and association between two stimuli. Pavlov used special terms to describe each element of the classical conditioning. Unconditional stimulus is the example of the dogs food, unconditional response is the dog salivating. In the conditioning phase there is a neutral stimuli a bell which is rung every time food is brought to him the (US) which then produces a natural stimuli salivation (UR). After repeating several times the ringing of the bell is no longer neutral it is now called conditioned stimuli which causes the dog to automatically salivate conditional response. .
John B. Watson defined psychology as the scientific study of behavior and founded behaviorism. According to Watson all human behavior is a result of conditioning and learning. Watson did a study wanting to prove that classical conditioning could also be used on human he then came out with a study called Little Albert. This study was about an infant who at plain site had no fear to fury white animals.