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Whenever possible, it is nice to provide students with activities to reinforce concepts learned in psychology class. The follow activity takes only a few minutes and reinforces the steps of classical conditioning that might help some students gain a better understanding of the concept.

Students can click on this link http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/pavlov/pavlov.html to answer the following question: “Can you make a dog drool on demand?”

ACTIVITY: The student will encounter a sleeping dog. The students must click on either a horn, drum, or bell. To be successful, the student needs select the same noise and drag the food to the bowl immediately after the sound is made.

To assess student learn, ask the students to answer the following questions:

1. Explain how you were able to use classical conditioning to earn your diploma.
2. List the term for each of the following: (Leave a blank space for each answer.)

Neutral stimulus = sound (horn, drum, bell)

Conditioned stimulus = sound (horn, drum, bell)

Unconditioned stimulus = food (sausage, ham, bananas)

Conditioned stimulus = sound (horn, drum, bell)

Unconditioned response = salivation

Conditioned response = salivation

Write an equation for this activity using the following terms.  the steps of classical conditioning.

Step #1:

Food       ———–>      Salivation

(UCS)     ———–>      (UCR)

Step #2:

Noise           +     Food     ———–>        Salivation

(CS)                    (UCS)                                  (UCR)

* CS is ALWAYS presented BEFORE the UCS!

Step #3:

Noise       ———–>    Salivation

(CS)         ———–>    (UCR)

Explain how a person might complete be unsuccessful with the activity and NOT EARN a diploma. What could a student do wrong in the experiment.

  1. The student could not select the same noise as the conditioned stimulus and therefore there would be no association between the sound and the food.
  2. The student could wait too long after selecting a sound and dragging the food to the bowl so the dog would not make an association.
  3. The student could drag the food first and make the sound 2nd, forgetting the important fact that the conditioned stimulus must always be presented BEFORE the unconditioned stimulus.