What is the unconditional stimulus?

The unconditional stimulus is something that naturally causes the body's reaction. The term comes from classical conditioning, the type of psychological procedure, which was first systematically studied by Ivan Pavlov. The unconditional stimulus is the central point of the conditional experiment; He is a wedge used by a researcher to start behavior.

Suppose William Cries whenever someone offends him. According to the theory of classical conditioning, this reaction could be used through the systematic association of insults with another stimulus. For example, if the torturer offends William, the torturer also shows him a picture of a unicorn, William may eventually be conditioned by crying when he sees pictures of unicorns.

In this example, an insult is an unconditional stimulus. When William calls in response to insulting, this behavior is called an unconditional reaction. This behavior is based on the reaction observed to pay for William before the experiment. New stimulus - a picture of a unicorn - is conditionallyStimulus. If William is now screaming whenever he sees a unicorn picture, this behavior would be called a conditional reaction.

prototypical example of classical conditioning is of course Pavlov's experiment with dogs. In the most famous of these experiments, Pavlov rang the bell before feeding them. Dogs naturally salivate after exposure to food; With time they began to salivate after hearing the bell. In this experiment, food is an unconditional stimulus because it naturally creates salivation. The bell is conditioned by the stimulus; Salivation goes from the fact that it is unconditional to a conditional reaction when dogs exhibit it in response to the bell instead of food.

Classical conditioning is related to another psychological procedure called Operant Condics. In the conditioner of the operator, the behavior is adjusted by a reward or punishment after it is performed. An example of this type of conditioning is to give a dog when it performs a trick on request.

strictly speaking,There is no unconditional stimulus in the condition of the operator. Strengthening the animal after its behavior, however, is a close to an analogue to an unconditional stimulus because it relies on a well -known already existing reaction. Rewards, as well as dog treatment, would not be enough to condition the operator if the dog did not doubt. Similarly, the punishment would discourage behavior if it no longer indulged in pain.