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Ψ  The behaviorist school of thought ran concurrently & shared commonalities with the psychoanalytic & Gestalt movements in psychology; but also differed from the mental philosophy of the Gestalt psychologists in critical ways. Its main influences were Ivan Pavlov, who investigated classical conditioning, Edward Lee Thorndike who purposed the law of effect, John B. Watson who rejected introspective methods & sought to restrict psychology to experimental methods, & B.F. Skinner who conducted research on operant conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

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Ψ  Three Kinds of Learning:

       1. Classical Conditioning
              2. Operant Conditioning
                      3. Cognitive learning

      Classical conditioning: A process of behavior modification by which a subject comes to respond (Conditioned reflex) in a desired manner to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented along with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the desired response.

Procedure for Classical Conditioning

Step 1: Selecting stimulus & response (terms)
       
        Neutral Stimulus (NS) (bell)
        UnConditioned Stimulus (UCS) (bone)
        UnConditioned Response (UCR) (drool)

Step 2: Establishing classical conditioning (repeated trials)
       
        Neutral Stimulus (bell) (by trial becomes the) ---> Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
        Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (bone)
        Unconditioned response (UCR) (drool)

Step 3: Testing for conditioning (note the absence of the UCS) (only CS)
       
        Conditioned stimulus (CS) (bell)
        Conditioned response (CR) (drool)