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From Pavlov’s Dogs to Real Life — What Classical Conditioning Teaches Us About Fear and Phobias

  Classical conditioning isn ' t just about dogs salivating to a bell; it can also help describe the processes of how fears , or phobias , develop. When a previously neutral stimulus is paired with an aversive , threatening or dangerous event , such as a loud noise , or when the individual experiences an aversive, terrifying event, that first stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and will evoke fear in the individual independent of the aversive properties of the second stimulus . This knowledge has been seminal in the field psychology, allowing us to better understand emotional ( anxiety ) disorders. The lesson is, for example, to take someone who sees a snake in the woods and is frightened by the snake (fear response). The wooded area might now cause fear when simply being there (and now without the snakes ) . This is referred to as stimulus generalization. Next, would be to take the case of someone who finds out that the wo...
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Why We Learn to Avoid Certain Foods — The Science of Taste Aversion

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  An organism avoids a food that has previously been paired with illness or some type of discomfort.  Taste aversion is distinct from regular conditioning in that taste aversion can be conditioned after one pairing, and it does not matter if the illness occurred four to six hours after eating (Powell, Symbaluk, & Honey, 2020). This differs from the typical classical conditioning examples when the conditioned stimulus , such as tone , and the unconditioned stimulus , such as food , are paired close in timing .   This example of learning has survival value , as it helps animals avoid poisoned foods after one bad experience. It is noteworthy that research has also shown biological constraints on this learning ; animals more easily develop aversions to novel or unfamiliar tastes than familiar tastes. This is an example of preparedness (Garcia & Koelling, 1966). Have you ever had an experience where you ate something and n...
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