Question

Boris is trying to use classical conditioning to teach his goldfish to come to the top of the tank to eat whenever he turns on the aquarium light. He drops food into the tank and then turns on the light. After several such trials, the fish show no more inclination to come to the top of the tank when the light is turned on than they did on the first trial. What would you suggest that Boris do to improve his training technique?

Answer 1

The correct answer is He should turn on the light before he drops the food into the tank.

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to transfer a natural response to a stimulus, to another initially neutral stimulus, which then becomes conditioned. This process occurs through the association between the two stimuli (unconditioned and neutral).

For classical conditioning to be generated, the neutral stimulus must be presented first and a few seconds later the unconditioned stimulus (the process must be repeated several times), so that there can be an association.

Another concept is reinforcement, which means pairing followed by conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, which, if not done, tends to decrease conditioned responses and may lead to extinction, that is, until they disappear.