Question

Four-year-old Scott fell down the stairs at his grandmother’s house. Although he was not badly hurt, he was very frightened. Now, whenever his parents mention visiting his grandmother’s house, he feels anxious and fearful. In classical conditioning terms, what are the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in the scenario, respectively?

Answer 1

Answer:

CS: The grandmother's house

UCS: The falling down the stairs.

Explanation:

Conditioning learning is an style of learning where a conditioned stimulus is associated with an unconditioned stimulus and they produce a conditioned behavioral response.

(1) In this learning, at first, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is an stimulus that produces a response by itself in a natural way, thus, the UCS acts as a naturally occurring trigger that leads to a natural response.

(2) This natural response that the UCS triggers is called the unconditioned response (UCR), thus, the UCR is a natural response to the unconditioned stimulus.

(3) The conditioned stimulus (CS) is what comes next in the process, and this is an stimulus  that does not create a response on its own but when it's paired with the UCS, and after some repetitions, it creates a response which is learned. Thus, the CS is an stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus.

(4) This conditionally learned response that was learned because of said pairing is called conditional response (CR), thus the CR is a learned response to a conditioned stimulus.

(5) We said in paragraph (3) that the conditioned stimulus did not create a response on its own but once it's paired with the UCS it creates a learned behavior.

In this example, Scott fell down the stairs at his grandmother's house and he was very frightened. Now, whenever his parents mention visiting his grandmother's house, he feels anxious and fearful.

In this case, the UCS (stimulus that produces a response by itself in a natural way) would be the falling down the stairs which by itself triggers a response of being frightened.

On the other hand, the CS (stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus) is the visit to the grandmother's house which by itself doesn't produce feelings of anxiety but since it was paired with Scott's accident down the stairs now it produces the response of feeling anxious and fearful).