Classical Conditioning

According to numerous sources which cover the idea of Classical Conditioning; one man by the name of Ivan Pavlov is famous for the discovery of the phenomenon; Classical Conditioning. Pavlov was a Russian psychologist in the early 1900’s who discovered the learning characteristic of classical conditioning while initially studying the role of saliva in the digestive systems of dogs, by collecting and recording the amount of salivation a dog would produce when offered meat powder. The accidental discovery was achieved when Pavlov found the dogs began salivating at the sound of the clicking machinery which delivered the meat powder; this action led Pavlov to spend the future 30 days investigating this response. Pavlov started by pairing the presentation of meat powder with other various stimuli, such as a tone, when constantly delivered together the dogs began to associate the tone with the meat powder, after this association was established the tone was sounded alone and the dogs began to salivate in anticipation of the meat powder (Weiten, 2007). This was soon named Classical Conditioning, and can be defined by Bell (n.d) as:
A type of conditioning and learning process in which something (conditioned stimulus) that had not previously produced a particular response becomes associated with something (unconditioned stimulus) that produces the response.  As a result, the conditioned stimulus will elicit the response that the unconditioned stimulus produces. (p. 1).
In order to understand Classical Conditioning; the aspects involved must be defined, aspects such as: Conditioned emotional/ physiological response, the extinction and spontaneous recovery of conditioned responses, and the stimulus generalization/ discrimination of conditioned responses, these three features will be further discussed throughout the essay, with definitions, and personal examples to enhance the understanding, and facets of Classical Conditioning.
Conditioned Emotional and Physiological... [continues]

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