3) a)Conditioned emotional response - define/explain what it is. Phobias and the

Question

3)

a)Conditioned emotional response - define/explain what it is. Phobias and the story of little Albert may be helpful to use as an example:  

Phobias – the story of little Albert

White rat   +    GONG! -> Cry (Fear)

NS/CS               UCS              UCR                    

White rat ->Cry

CS          CR  

b)Conditioned taste aversions – explain what it is, and how it

is acquired via classical conditioning. This may be helpful:

Food poisoning

Chicken + Salmonella -> Nausea; Vomit

                Chicken -> Nausea; Vomit

Explanation / Answer

a)Conditioned emotional response can be referred as learned emotional reaction or response to certain conditioned stimulus. The process of acquiring a Conditioned Emotional Response works in the same theory as the classical conditioning learning method. An organism is exposed to a certain stimulus which then produces a biologically significant even and the connection is made. Emotional responses could be anxiety, happiness, sadness, pain, and variety of other emotions that can be triggered in an organism. All emotional responses are regulated by the autonomic nervous system. Among the two subdivisions of the system (Parasympathetic system and Sympathetic nervous system), Sympathetic nervous system are responsible for variety of emotional responses depicted by an average person. The range of emotions includes panic attacks, test anxiety, stage fright, and other similar emotions that are expressed while experiencing distraught or uneasiness. The system is automatically activated in the “fight or fright” situations, which then produces responses like increased heartbeat, sweating, feeling weak on the knees, and similar other symptoms. These kinds of emotions/reactions are unwantedly or unconsciously acquired, and these even tend to stick to a person for a long while. These conditioned responses take up to 2-10 seconds to be seen, unlike the motor responses which are even seen as early as half a second. John B. Watson and Rosaile Rayner conducted an experiment in 1920 called the Little Albert Experiment. The experiment involved a 9-month old baby, and the whole purpose of the experiment was to induce fear in little Albert. The experiment is the classic example of CER, Conditioned Emotional Response, as Little Albert was subjected to a certain stimulus in order to create a response of fear. The classic experiment involved CER, Watson and Rayner being unaware about the term at the time simply thought they were applying general conditioning principles to human behavior. Watson and Rayner exposed the child to a series of stimuli including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks, and burning newspapers and observed the boy's reactions. The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown. The next time Albert was exposed to the rat, Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat. In addition to demonstrating that emotional responses could be conditioned in humans, Watson and Rayner also observed that stimulus generalization had occurred. After conditioning, Albert feared not just the white rat, but a wide variety of similar white objects as well. His fear included other furry objects including Raynor's fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard. b)A conditioned taste aversion involves the avoidance of a certain food following a period of illness after consuming that food. These aversions are a great example of how classical conditioning can result in changes in behavior, even after only one incidence of feeling ill. A conditioned taste aversion can occur when eating a substance is followed by illness. For example, if you ate a taco for lunch and then became ill, you might avoid eating tacos in the future even if the food you ate had no relationship to your illness. In classical conditioning, conditioned food aversions are examples of single-trial learning. It requires only one pairing of the previously neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus to establish an automatic response. Conditioned taste aversions are a great example of some of the fundamental mechanics of classical conditioning- The previously neutral stimulus (the food) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (an illness), which leads to an unconditioned response (feeling sick). After this one-time pairing, the previously neutral stimulus (the food) is now a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response (avoiding the food).

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