What is Associated in Classical Conditioning?
Two main points of view: (1) Organisms learn a relation between the CS and the UR. (2) Organisms learn a relation between the CS and the US. Stimulus-Response or Stimulus-Stimulus Learning? A. Stimulus-Response Learning Assumptions: CS comes to elicit the same reflexive response produced the US (e.g., Hull, 1943). The CS becomes a second stimulus (in addition to the US), which is linked to and is capable of producing the reflexive response (UR). It is the contiguity between the CS and the UR that is important for learning to occur. However, Light & Gantt (1936) prevented dogs from making the UR on training trials… B. Stimulus-Stimulus Learning During conditioning, organism learns a relation between the CS and the US. Once conditioning has occurred, presenting CS stimulates an experience (mental representation) of the US. This US representation then provokes the appropriate conditioned response. Instead of the CS coming to produce a response directly, the CS triggers an experience of
