Contemporary Uses of Classical Conditioning
Chef: Ivan Pavlov and his ingredient → classical conditioning
“One can truly say that the irresistible progress of natural science since the time of Galileo has made its first halt before the study of the higher parts of the brain, the organ of the most complicated relations of the animal to the external world. And it seems, and not without reason, that now is the really critical moment for natural science; for the brain, in its highest complexity — the human brain — which created and creates natural science, itself becomes the object of this science.” ― Ivan Pavlov
Who was Ivan Pavlov?
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian psychologist who was born on February 27, 1936.
He was the oldest of 11 children. His father, Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov, was an orthodox priest in their village.
Pavlov was so dedicated to science that he abandoned his study of religion. His primary influences were Ivan Mikhaylovich Sechenov — the father of Russian physiology, and Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev, a social critic.
What is Classical Conditioning ?
Pavlov’s theory of “ Classical Conditioning” is a learning behavioral process. In the case of a neutral stimulus that doesn’t issue a response. But produces an unconditioned stimulus will issue an unconditioned response. Repeating this process will eventually have the neutral stimulus issuing an unconditioned response, and this end process is called the conditioned response. This explanation is usually demonstrated with the observation of the salivation of a dog.
Dogs: Man’s Best Friend, and a Great Research Subject
The dog is a common example of the positive feedback of the classical condition theory. In the example, the dog is the subject and the food and the tuning fork or bell is the stimulus used to produce a response from the dog.
He summed it up like this: there’s a neutral stimulus (the bell), which by itself will not produce a response, like salivation. There’s also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus(the food), which will produce an unconditioned response (salivation). But if you present the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus together, eventually the dog will learn to associate the two. After a while, the neutral stimulus by itself will produce the same response as the unconditioned stimulus, like the dogs drooling when they heard the bell. This is called a conditioned response. Think of an unconditioned response as completely natural and a conditioned response as something that we learn.
Classical Condition in Kingdom Hearts
In the Kingdom Heart series, creatures called Heartless come in various forms, shapes and sizes. They also can be disguised as a chest (Chest Spider) or a pot (Pot Spider) and they tend to come with potions and items.
So what do they have to do with Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning? Instead of the stimulus of salivating like a dog, the stimulus is the excitement of getting an item. The unconditioned stimulus is a regular chest or pot and the unconditioned response is the player’s excitement.
Neutral stimulus is the first encounter of the Chest Spider or Pot Spider and the unconditioned response for the player is no excitement.
After defeating the Heartless, you realize if you drop the same item that you’ll get from a regular chest or pot you may feel excited.
Therefore, when the Heartless appear again (the conditioned stimulus) you instantly feel of excitement. You’ve been conditioned. Woof.
Candy Crush
Candy Crush is an popular game has a negative and positive conditioning feedback. The positive is that when the user exit out of Candy Crush while playing a level, if they come back anytime they can resume the same level. Some games disconnect you from the game that you were currently playing on and then you will have to start over, current dissatisfaction upon the user. Now most games will ask if you want to resume the current level you were playing on.
A negative feedback is running out of hearts and you have choices to recover those hearts to resume playing the game. You can ask a friend on Facebook for more lives, use your gold bars to get more lives or wait a certain amount of time to recover your lives. Most players will wait to recover their lives and exit the game to play a different app. But Candy Crush notify the user when they get all their lives back.
Classical Conditioning in the Classroom
Most people now experienced Pavlov’s theory in class, but didn’t know that it was such. The “Clapping Method” what my teachers called is a positive reinforcement to silence and mange the class.
This method is commonly introduce the first day of class with instruction from the teacher on what the students should do when they hear the claps. After time the teacher just need to clap and don’t have to explain what the claps represent.
Conclusion
Pavlov’s theory is useful for helping us understand how many casual games work, as well as the way educators educate their students.
It’s intentionally used in many types of settings — from casinos to interactive media. It can be used intentionally or unintentionally. Understanding how it works helps us make better products, but more importantly, it helps us know when we are being pulled into it’s forces in our everyday lives.
