Bells Lead to Salivation: The Pavlovian Style of Learning

Chapter 6 focuses on the different ways that people learn. It talks about the development of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, cognitive models of learning, and biological influences on learning. I was most interested in the topic of classical conditioning, which was discovered primarily by the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov. He knew that dogs would salivate at the smell of a meat powder, so he trained the dogs to associate the sound of a bell with the smell of the meat powder. By the end of his experiment, the dogs were salivating simply at the sound of the bell, without the smell of the meat powder also present. This type of conditioning occurs in three phases: acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery. It can also be taken a step further using higher-order conditioning, which is learning to develop conditioned associations to other stimuli in addition to the original stimulus.
Classical conditioning can be seen in everyday life. One example is through advertising. Advertisers often pair pictures of the product they are trying to sell with photos of popular celebrities or attractive people to catch the attention of their audience. Specific examples include one from the book, that of Skyy Blue vodka, which includes a picture of a woman in a bikini holding a bottle of the drink, or the ad for Marc Jacobs' perfume Daisy, which shows a topless woman holding a bottle of the perfume over her chest. That kind of explains why Abercrombie is so popular, doesn't it?