Where two events or stimuli are associated. Applies to involuntary behaviours and is considered a form of passive learning.

Association: UCR and NS are associated through repeated pairing. *Note UCR is involuntary.

Aim: to test the theory of classical conditioning, specifically if dogs would salivate at the sound of a bell if associated with food.

Method: paired ringing a bell with presenting food (conditioning phase) and measured salivary secretions.

Results: dog's would eventually salivate at the ringing of the bell only, thus, had associated bell with food. Found that for associations to be made two stimuli had to be presented together in time (law of temporal contiguity).

Antecedent: stimuli that occurs before the response (e.g. toddler screaming in super market)

Behaviour: The voluntary response (e.g. giving toddler a lolly).

Consequence: The result that influences the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated (e.g. lolly = stop screaming)

Aim: to investigate the theory of operant conditioning by examining the formation of 'superstition' in pigeons.

Method: hungry pigeon placed in cage (skinner box) for a few mins a day, food hopper attached to cage swung in place so pigeon could eat from it, clock presented food at regular intervals. regardless operant conditioning took place e.g. if presentation of food hopper coincided with counter-clockwise movement made pigeon it would continue this behaviour as it associate its behaviour with the outcome (other behaviours were repeated for this same reason e.g. thrust of head into upper corner). If interval before next presentation was longer then extinction would take place. The shorter the intervals the speedier/more marked the conditioning.

Aim: to investigate whether emotional responses are the result of reflex or conditioning (learning).

Method: recruited a nine month old child (Albert B) and tested fear responses to trial stimuli (a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool and burning newspapers) - no fear shown. To ensure he could exhibit a fear response researchers produced a loud sound - normal infant fear response was shown. Experimentation started at 11 months. Albert B was presented with a white rat and each time a bar was struck eliciting a fear response. Seven days later was presented rat without sound and showed no tendency to touch it. Proceeded to present rat alone and with sound - fear response continued. Five days later began with other stimuli to which he showed differing degrees of fear response (stimulus generalisation) demonstrating that fear could be transferred to other animals/objects. After a month tested in new location, fear response persisted in both directly conditioned and transferred responses though directly conditioned were less intense. Was taken to hospital unable to remove conditioned responses.

Conclusion: many phobias are conditioned emotional reactions which are either direct or transferred (learnt from others).

Aim: to prove the willingness of children and adults to imitate behaviour observed in others: in particular: aggression.

Theory: the person the learner learns from (doesn't need to be real life) is known as the model. The learner can experience vicarious reinforcement, where the model receiving a pleasant consequence from their behaviour increases the likelihood of the learner copying the model's actions. Similarly vicarious punishment is also possible.

Steps of social learning theory: 1. Attention - the learner pays active attention to the role model. 2. Retention - the learner forms a mental representation of the models behaviour. 3. Reproduction - the learning converts the mental representation into action. Reinforcement - the learner receives feedback for performing the action. 5. Motivation - the learner is rewarded or punished for the action is motivated to continue.