TITLE: Classical Conditioning Experiment
AUTHOR: STEVEN PLAYER
GRADE LEVEL: 11-12 Psychology
OVERVIEW: The learner will be able to discuss and define various types of
learning.
PURPOSE: The learner will see the effect of classical conditioning in
their everyday life.
OBJECTIVE: The learner will be able to define classical conditioning and
identify its four parts.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS: none
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
I. CUE-SET: Have a student sit in a desk in the front of the classroom,
facing the class. The teacher will stand behind the student with a
yardstick in hand. The teacher will tap the desk three times then tap the
student once on the head. The teacher does this three times, and on the
fourth time taps the desk, but not the student's head. The class is able to
see the student's reaction.
II. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING EXPERIMENT: a) Students will pair up and
decide who will be the subject and who will be the experimenter. The
subject will sit and relax for 2 minutes. He will then take his pulse for
30 seconds, multiply by two, and record this as his "resting pulse." b) The
experimenter will tap a pencil five times on the desk and immediately
have the subject stand up and hop on one leg for 30 seconds. He will take
his pulse rate again, double it and record it as "Hop #1." This procedure
will be repeated four more times, and data recorded each time. c) Now the
subject will sit and relax until his pulse returns to the initial resting
pulse rate. The experimenter will then tap the pencil five times and the
subject will take his pulse without having to hop. He will record the
data.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER: The students and teacher will then discuss the
experiments and answer the question "What is classical conditioning?" and
identify: unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned
stimulus, and conditioned response.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org