Conditioned Stimulus: Characteristics And Uses In Psychology
Human beings and other animals are active beings that interact with an environment on which they depend to survive. But why do we do what we do? How do we explain that, for example, when a dog hears a bell he starts to salivate or why we run to seek shelter when we hear an alarm?
This how and why we act the way we act is something that has always been of great scientific interest, and that different theoretical currents have studied and investigated from psychology. One of them, behaviorism, considers that it is due to a conditioning process. And within this process, the bell or alarm would be fulfilling the role of conditioned stimulus. It is about this concept, that of conditioned stimulus, that we are going to talk about throughout this article.
Any element that, being initially neutral and not causing any reaction in the person or animal by itself, acquires the property of conditioned stimulus is called a conditioned stimulus. generate a response when associated with another stimulus that does generate a reaction.
Using the example used in the introduction, we react with fear to the sound of an alarm not because the alarm generates a reaction in itself but because we know that said sound is linked to the existence of danger or pain (the entry of an intruder, a enemy attack or a fire, for example). In the case of the dog and the bell (part of Pavlov’s experiments that gave rise to the study of classical conditioning), the dog will begin to salivate at the sound of the bell since it associates it with having food brought to it (the sound of the bell being a conditioned stimulus).
This relationship is produced by the capacity for association between stimuli, which the most classical conditioning considered specifically specific to the stimulus itself (although today through other currents we know that other aspects such as will, motivation or cognition influence). .
It is necessary that there be a minimum contingency (that is, the appearance of one predicts the appearance of another or that they occur to a large extent simultaneously or consecutively) between the conditioned stimuli and those that have allowed them to become such a thing, the unconditioned stimuli. Furthermore, it is necessary that the response generated by the latter be strong, and although it is not essential that there be some relationship between the two.
Virtually any type of neutral stimulus can become conditioned as long as it is perceptible. Perception can come from any channel or sense, and can be something visual (lights, an image, etc.), sounds (bells, voices, specific words, etc.), tactile perceptions (texture, temperature, pressure), tastes or smells. . Even in some cases, stimuli that do generate a response can be conditioned if they are paired with stimuli that generate a response that is more relevant to the subject.
Also, as we have seen, conditioning appears in a large number of living beings. It can be observed in humans, but also in dogs, apes, cats, mice or pigeons, among many others.
The birth of a conditioned stimulus
Thus, for a conditioned stimulus to exist there must be something that conditions it: the unconditioned stimulus that by itself generates a response. And the relationship established between them is what is called conditioning. The birth of a conditioned stimulus occurs in what is called the acquisition phase (in which it acquires the properties that make it go from being neutral to being conditioned).
From the view of classical conditioning, one stimulus is conditioned by another due to the generation of a link between the appearance of the initially neutral stimulus and the unconditioned one, which in itself generates an appetitive or aversive response (called the unconditioned response).
Little by little and according to They occur together or in a short interval , the subject makes associations, causing the initially neutral stimulus to acquire appetitive or aversive characteristics and goes from not generating a response to generating the same one that generates the stimulus that did provoke a response. Thus, a conditioned response will end up being generated and the neutral stimulus will be considered a conditioned stimulus. From now on, the appearance of the conditioned stimulus will generate the same reaction as the unconditioned stimulus.
With the possibility of extinction
That a stimulus is conditioned and generates a conditioned response can arise on a daily basis or be provoked voluntarily, but the truth is that this association will tend to be extinguished if the subject observes that the joint appearance of unconditioned and conditioned stimuli stops occurring. Thus, the conditioned stimulus over time it will become neutral again and will not generate responses.
This extinction process can be more or less prolonged depending on various factors.
Among them we find how strong the association between stimuli has been or how many times it has been repeated, or if we have learned that the unconditioned stimulus always appears in all the situations in which the conditioned one appears or a large part of the times (although it may seem counterintuitive, the association takes longer to extinguish if we are accustomed to the fact that both stimuli do not always appear together).
Yes, sometimes spontaneous recoveries may occur of the association.
Relationship with psychological problems
There are a large number of behavioral problems that are linked to conditioning, specifically with the fact that a stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus and generates a conditioned response.
In general the presence of any fear or even a phobia It can be linked (although a large number of factors come into play and not only these) to this type of association, if a stimulus has been associated with pain or suffering.
Thus, if we were once bitten by a dog, it is possible that we associate any dog with pain, something that will make us fear new exposures and avoid them (the dog being the conditioned stimulus). And not only the fear of phobias but also that of post-traumatic stress disorders (for example, in people who have suffered a rape, fear of sex or of people with characteristics similar to the aggressor may appear).
It can also happen the other way around, that we associate something with pleasure or the avoidance of displeasure and excitement or an excessive desire for said conditioned stimulus appears. For example, conditioning has been used as an attempt to explain some paraphilias, impulse control disorders, eating disorders or addictions.
