3 Common Conditioning Examples Of Real Life Parenting [ And how It Works ]

In this article I’m taking a look at what classical conditioning is and how it actually works in real life gentle parenting.

What Is Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is the process of using 2 stimuli lie so that if one causes a reaction the other 1 may also cause a reaction simply buy association.

You’ll discover that classical conditioning exists in everyday life for example if you wear a baseball cap at home and you take your child to the park to play your child will associate that baseball cap as as a relationship to you taking him to the park.

The same as when you grab the leash and the dog knows that you’re going for a walk.

Children are of course much smarter than dogs and they make more complex associations than a simple leash.

This type of learning is known as classical conditioning.

To put it in more complex terms this is the process of learning through associating a neutral input with a psychologically powerful response and automatic response such as a reflex is a powerful stimulus it is also known as pavlovian conditioning.

Classical conditioning was discovered in the early 1900s by a scientist in Russia called Ivan Pavlov and pavlov and he discovered classical conditioning when he was studying digestion and dogs.

Pavlov noticed that the dogs would produce saliva when he entered the room whether he had food with him or not because the dogs had learned to associate his presence in the room with getting a treat or getting some sort of food.

Pavlov then went on and used different kinds of sound makers to train the dog’s reaction in a series of testing when he fed the dogs he would ring a bell and the dogs would then begin salvating as soon as they heard the sound even before they saw the dog food.

Eventually the Russian scientist began ringing the bell and didn’t even give the dogs any food but the dogs continued to salivate at the sound of the bell because they had connected the bell with salvation because they were expecting food.

This is the same with children today because if you wake your child up in the morning and they are that is their signal that it is time to go to school.

If your child hears you in the kitchen in the morning I’m sure that they they think that you are making them a delicious breakfast.

There are many instances where classical conditioning is used in our daily lives within our children and between our spouses and any other relationships that we have.

Classical Conditioning Examples

Classical conditioning is something that happens in gentle parenting as well as classic negative punishment type discipline.

When a parent uses praise and encouragement on their child they are classically conditioned to want to do better in everything that they do.

On the other hand when a parent is constantly putting their child down and criticizing and shaming them the child will be conditioned to perform more poorly even though they know that they can do better.

Another example of classical conditioning would be a simple family trip to the grocery. Grocery shopping is often quite boring for quite for small children and even though it is an essential task

I personally try to avoid bringing the children with me when I do my weekly grocery shop. Because my children personally have been so bored in the grocery store before anytime I have to go quickly grab something or do a flaw grocery shop they don’t want to go with me because they remember exactly how boring it is.

Another way we can see classical conditioning in today’s society is when we as parents make things that aren’t super fun to do into some sort of a game.

It could be something as simple as asking your toddler to go put on their shoes but we make it fun because we ask them to hop to the front door.

This has essentially turned a mundane task into something that is enjoyable and fun for the kids. The children have already been conditioned to enjoy games and they know how to have fun so by this point you can make a mundane task more fun by giving it a fun action.

The Specifics Of How Classical Conditioning Works

Now that we kind of went through how classical conditioning actually works inside the family life let’s go over how classical conditioning works the nuts and bolts of it all.

There are 3 steps to classical conditioning the 1st step is prior to acquisition the 2nd step is the acquisition and the 3rd step is what happens after the acquisition.

In phase one which is called prior to acquisition to acquisition if you were to give the dogs food they would naturally start to drool. Drooling is a primary reflex reaction in dogs.

If you were to approach a bunch of dogs without any food but ringing a bell these dogs would not assume that you have food on you or that you are ready to feed them they would just think that you’re a person making a whole bunch of noise they are not conditioned to associate the bell ringing with food.

In phase 2 during the acquisition it’s time to allow the stimulus stimulus to match the unconditioned stimulus this can take several or several tries to get the link between these actions to happen.

To put it simply, If you want to make the dogs associate the associate the ringing of a bell with feeding time you should start ringing the bell when you bring food in to feed the dogs. Then you’re gonna need to repeat this action and once the action is repeated the dogs are then going to expect the bell and they’re gonna associate it with getting food.

In phase 3 the after acquisition phase the neutral stimulus is then transformed into the condition stimulus. This just basically tells you that the dogs are now expecting food every time they hear the bell ringing.

Classical Conditioning Characteristics

Normally, the conditioned stimulus must be delivered before the unconditioned stimulus for classical conditioning to occur. Forward conditioning refers to the learning process in which the conditioned stimulus occurs before the unconditioned input. Backward conditioning, on the other hand, introduces the conditioned stimulus after the unconditioned stimulation has ended.

Forward classical conditioning is classified into three kinds. They have an impact on the power and efficacy of learning in different ways.

• Delay – introduces the CS, who is quickly followed by the US.
• Trace – creates a temporal gap between the conclusion of the CS and the beginning of the US.
• Simultaneous – the two stimuli, CS and US, appear and vanish simultaneously.

When delay conditioning is employed instead of trace conditioning, associative learning is generally stronger and faster. It gets more difficult to build an association as the gap in trace conditioning lengthens.

In most cases, delay and trace conditionings outperform simultaneous and backward conditionings 5. Backward conditioning also does not function in many instances, according to research.

• Extinction – the cessation of a previously conditioned response.
  Pavlov (classical conditioning)’s experiment shows that if he stops feeding his dogs when he rings the bell, the dogs will ultimately cease salivating at the sound.
• Spontaneous recovery is the reintroduction of a previously extinct habit.
  After the conditioned behavior has died out, it may reappear unexpectedly, a process known as spontaneous recovery.
  Extinction burst – a brief rise in the frequency, length, or amplitude of extinct behavior.
• Because the person is attempting to reintroduce the unconditioned stimulus, conditioned behavior may momentarily increase rather than decrease throughout the extinction process.

Stimulus generalization occurs when a fresh stimulus identical to the conditioned stimulus elicits the same conditioned response without the requirement for conditioning.

The inverse of generalization is stimulus discrimination. It is the capacity to discern the difference between two comparable inputs.

The well-known Little Alert experiment clearly shows the notion of stimulus generalization. In this contentious study, researcher John B. Watson conditioned infant Albert to fear a white rat (CS) by associating it with a terrifying clanging sound (US). After constantly making a loud noise every time the kid touched the animal, infant Albert grew terrified just by seeing the critter (CR).

Watson discovered that the baby’s phobia of white rats was not confined to white rats. Other tiny creatures, such as white bunnies or dogs, frightened the infant as well. The poor child was likewise terrified of white soft things like white cotton balls. As a result, fear of one stimulus was generalized to dread of other stimuli with comparable characteristics.

Fear conditioning may not necessarily necessitate repetition. One traumatic event might sometimes be enough to cause associative learning and generalization to subsequent stimuli.

Here’s an example of classical conditioning in action. You were seriously hurt after being struck by a car that ran a red light while going through an intersection. You are now fear-conditioned to feel scared every time you approach an intersection, not just the one where you were hit. Anxiety might be so intense that you don’t want to drive again. That is how anxiety disorders are caused by stimulus generalization.

Classical conditioning caused by a severe unpleasant experience such as this can be extremely potent, resulting in phobia, panic disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to research, some PTSD sufferers have poorer stimulus discrimination, which can lead to difficulties in extinction. 

Higher-Order Conditioning

Associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus results in first-order learning.
Second-order learning occurs when a neutral stimulus is combined with a stimulus that has already been transformed into a conditioned stimulus via first-order conditioning.

Higher-order – learning is obtained by combining a neutral stimulus with a previously conditioned stimulus. Higher-order conditioning is inherently weaker than first-order conditioning. However, by employing a strong unconditioned stimulus, the strength can be enhanced.

Second-order conditioning is divided into three stages. To create a conditional connection, a CS1 conditioned stimulus is delivered before the unconditioned stimulus (US) in the first training phase. In the second phase, a second conditioned stimulus (CS2) is presented after CS1, such that CS2 finally elicits the identical conditioned response (CR), despite the fact that CS2 was never explicitly matched with the US.

In consumer product marketing, second-order and higher-order classical conditioning are widely used. A sports personality, for example, is connected with an entertaining game. The objective of a product firm using a sports celebrity to advertise its product is to establish connections between the product and the good sensations associated with attending an exciting sports game.

A Note About Food Aversion

In consumer product marketing, second-order and higher-order classical conditioning are widely used. A sports personality, for example, is connected with an entertaining game. The objective of a product firm using a sports celebrity to advertise its product is to establish connections between the product and the good sensations associated with attending an exciting sports game.

Taste aversion learning is a particularly powerful kind of training that can influence human behavior because if it communicates “danger,” you have one final chance to avoid eating the item.

How You Can Use Classical Conditioning In A Classroom Setting

Classical conditioning occurs often in schools and can have a negative impact on a children’s academic achievement.

Students feel linked and attached to a teacher who is warm and loving (US) (UR). Students subsequently learn to correlate going to school (CS) with related feelings (CR) and develop a preference for going to school.

Students enjoy going to school when they are nice and helpful to one another (US). Students link going to school (CS) with having fun (ego state) (CR), so they look forward to coming every day.

On the other side, if a teacher is severe and rigorous (like in the United States), students dislike attending to school (UR). They connect going to school (CS) with negative emotions (CR). They develop a distaste for school and learning. Students in the United States who are bullied at school are afraid and hurt (UR). Students subsequently link attending to school (CS) with being scared and hurt (CR), making them more likely to drop out of school.

Classical Conditioning Can Happen Naturally

Classical Conditioning happens frequently unintentionally. Even while it could be useful when applied correctly, there is a reason why behaviorism has gone out of favour – it is overly simple.

Many classical conditioning ideas are based on research with laboratory animals. Humans, on the other hand, are not laboratory animals. When applied to people, learning by association becomes much more difficult since our behavior is frequently motivated by factors other than the environment. Over-praise, for example, may not be a good thing. When feasible, parents should use intrinsic incentives rather than extrinsic drives to encourage learning in their children.

B.F. Skinner, a psychologist, created the operant conditioning hypothesis, which eventually became another pillar in behaviorism psychology, to account for more than only involuntary classical conditioning.