You've probably heard of the saying:
Have you ever thought 'why should I be shame for being fooled twice?' You probably haven't because even a kid knows that he or she shouldn't eat their whole bag of Halloween candy at once if they threw up after doing so the previous year. Chapter 6 deals with how humans and animals change their behavior or thought as a result of learning.
The form of learning called Classical Conditioning caught my attention. Here is a story (that I made up) to explain this:
Bob is mad at his brother Tim and wanted to play a prank on him. Bob knows that Tim loves to eat raw Jalapenos every day even though it always makes him sweat like a pig. Bob realizes that he can condition Tim to sweat on cue by using Classical Conditioning.
To do this, every time Tim eats raw Jalapenos, Bob plays the same song for Tim to hear.
5 months later, Tim's girlfriend came over and Bob, patiently waiting his revenge, plays that song. Sweat starts rolling off of Tim instantly, leaving Bob satisfied and Tim's girlfriend the opposite.
So what happened here?
Tim's body naturally responds to the stimulus of Jalapenos by sweating. After Classical Conditioning, Tim's body associates the song to this experience and thus the song becomes a stimulus itself (like the Jalapenos) and Tim's response is to sweat.
This left me wondering,
Is there some way we can use Classical Conditioning that would be beneficial or useful?
Leave a comment