Classical Conditioning: Design a Hypothetical Experiment

Classical Conditioning: Design a Hypothetical Experiment
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Classical Conditioning: Design a Hypothetical Experiment
People adopt undesirable behavior based on certain emotional reactions. Classical conditioning is an ideal process of learning new behavior to overcome psychological problems that affect our behavior. Classical conditioning occurs through the association of environment stimulus and natural stimulus (Eysenck & Martin, 2013). Below is a lab report of an experiment conducted to analyze how bed-wetting among children can eliminate to help improve the human condition based on Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning.
Question: Can a child who wets his bed be conditioned by a bell to go to the bathroom to urinate?
Hypothesis: using classical conditioning, children can be conditioned to stop bedwetting using a bell.
Procedure
A child who wets his bed is made to sleep on a pad; the first step is to place a pad next to the child. Inside the pad, a wire mesh is connected to the bell. If the child wets the bed, an electrical circuit is designed in a way that will cause the bell to ring hence the child will be woken up by the sound of the ringing bell (Axelrod, Tornehl & Fontanini‐Axelrod, 2014). The process should be repeated several times; with time, the child will be conditioned to wake up every time he wets his bed. The child will start associating the feeling of pressure in his bladder with the need to wake up. With time, the child will feel the need to urinate by going to the bathroom (Axelrod, Tornehl & Fontanini‐Axelrod, 2014).
The need to urinate is sufficient enough to wake up the child and go to the bathroom. Classical conditioning helps the child not to wet his bed, the child's muscles automatically contract when woken up by the bell, this process teaches the child to tighten is muscles and rush to the bathroom before urinating on his bed. Classical conditioning process involves learning new behavior using a process of association (Axelrod, Tornehl & Fontanini‐Axelrod, 2014).
Two stimuli are connected to produce new responses in an individual. When the electrical circuit is completed the bell rings, this process is termed as the unconditioned stimulus (US), when the bell wakes up the child; this process is known as unconditioned response (UR). When the child begins to associate the feeling of pressure in his bladder, in this case, these feelings are known to be the previously neutral stimulus associated with waking up. The need to urinate is known as the conditioned stimulus (CS) (Levato et al., 2016).
Each stage of the stimuli and response are described using these scientific terms.
Stage 1: Before conditioning
The unconditioned stimulus generates unconditioned response that is UC, meaning that, a stimulus within the environment generates certain behavior responses, which are unconditioned. Unconditioned behavior responses are natural responses, which are yet to be taught. This stage involves another stimulus with no effect on an individual known as a neutral stimulus; neutral stimulus can be in the form of an object or a place. However, the neutral stimulus does not generate a response until it is matched with the unconditioned stimulus (Levato et al., 2016).
Stage 2: During conditioning
In this stage, stimulus produces no response; it is neutral and is associated with unconditioned stimulus known as CS. For example, bed-wetting, in this case, is associated with taking fluids before going sleep causing the need to urinate. During this stage, several processes of learning take place (Levato et al., 2016).
Stage 3: After conditioning
After the conditioned stimulus has been matched with unconditioned stimulus, it creates a new condition response (CR).For example, a child who wet his bed is perceived to be having psychological problems (Levato et al., 2016). Classical conditioning involves the following steps; neutral stimulus is paired with Unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus provokes response when the neutral stimulus is linked with unconditioned stimulus hence becoming conditional stimulus. If both the CS and UC occur at once, the two stimuli will be associated, meaning that the response produced to UC will be the same response produces to CS; this process is termed as conditioned response (Axelrod, Tornehl & Fontanini‐Axelrod, 2014).
Experiment Summary
People can learn to listen to the signals procured by the body; the feedback as a result of the bod...