15 Classical Conditioning Examples: Detailed Explanations

This article discusses about classical conditioning examples. Conditioning can be defined as invoking stimulus from someone with the help of neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus.

It so happens with our brains that it attaches random things with our favourite things even though they are not related to each other. This happens when those random things were present when the favourite thing was about to take place. This creates a pleasant memory about the random thing. Let us discuss more about this in detail.

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

An unconditioned stimulus is used in classical conditioning that brings out an automatic response from the subject.

This kind of stimulus is generally related to the subject’s interests. For humans it can be money, food, opposite gender, travel places, hobbies like playing and painting etc. We will discuss more about such stimulus and their related responses in this article.

classical conditioning examples
Image: Classical Conditioning of Dogs

Image Credits: Salehi.sClassical Conditioning DiagramCC BY-SA 4.0

Examples of unconditioned stimulus

There can be various kinds of unconditioned stimulus, they depend on the subject’s field of interests. Following are the examples of unconditioned stimulus-

Feather tickling your nose

When a feather tickles your nose, we immediately give a response so as to get rid of the tickling. This is a type of unconditioned stimulus.

Cutting up an onion

When an onion is cut, the chemicals inside the onion make humans cry. This is an immediate response given by humans and hence considered as an unconditioned stimulus.

Animal running to its food

For an animal the food is a type of unconditioned stimulus. This so happens because after looking at the food, the animal gives an immediate response.

Humans getting excited over salary day

A salary day is nothing but the first day of the month. Humans get excited over this date and hence the salary day can be considered as an unconditioned stimulus.

Kids getting excited for PT period’s bell

After hearing the bell for PT period, students get excited so as they know now is their playing time. This specific bell brings out an immediate response in students and hence the bell can be considered as an unconditioned response.

A song that reminds you of some person

When you hear a song, we can sometimes recall someone after hearing the song. This happens as a result of the song being an unconditioned stimulus for you.

Smell from chinese food makes us sneeze

Chinese food is filled with some spices which bring you lots of sneezes. When we go near the chef who is preparing chinese food, we immediately start sneezing. This can be considered as unconditioned stimulus.

Examples of classical conditioning

Now we know the meanings of neutral stimulus, classical conditioning and unconditioned stimulus. We can now look at some examples of classical conditioning to get a clearer idea of what actually it is.

Training a dog with whistle and its favourite food.

Here the whistle acts as an unconditioned stimulus. We can observe that after bringing food with the whistle, the dog starts responding to whistle alone also. This is an example of classical conditioning.

Students getting excited over PT period’s bell

Students don’t get excited over any normal bell unless it is PT period’s bell. If their tone of bell is different then even if the bell is for someone else, the students will immediately get excited.

Training our mind to stay up after hearing alarm bell

After hearing the alarm tone for a long time, then our brain starts responding to it the same way even if we hear the bell in the evening time.

Wearing football jersey whenever you go our to play with kids

If we wear football jersey every time we go to play football with kids, then even after we are going somewhere else, the jersey will remind the kids of football only. This is an example of classical conditioning. Here jersey acts as an unconditioned stimulus.

Carrying office bag to office

Carrying office bag to office becomes a routine. After some while if we take that bag somewhere else, then we will immediately think of office because that bag acts an unconditioned stimulus.

Oiling your hair before sleeping

If we make oiling an habit then after some time the oil will remind us of sleeping even if it is not bed time. Oil acts as the unconditioned stimulus here.

Brushing your teeth before sleeping

Brushing teeth before sleeping also becomes a routine and hence when we brush our teeth at an odd time, it will remind us of sleeping.

Switching on the TV after you come home

If we have a habit of switching on TV every day after coming home, then we will feel weird if one day we decide to not switch on the TV. This is also a response given to the unconditioned stimulus that is TV.

Hearing the sound of laptop when it is switched on

Hearing this sound will often create a memory in our brains. When we hear this sound from other laptops, it will remind us of our laptop.

Celebrities in advertising

Celebrities in advertisements leave a particular image in our minds. When we see those celebrities somewhere else we get reminded of the original ad.

Aromas in restaurants

Aromas in restaurants also act like unconditioned stimulus. A similar aroma will remind us of that restaurant.

Smartphone tones

Smart phone tones are usually common in all phones. These tones will remind us of our own phone when we hear them from somebody else. This is a perfect example of classical conditioning. We will get up thinking it is our phone.

Fear of dogs

Fear of dogs from a childhood experience will create a huge repulsion from dogs even hitting adult age. This is because our brain gets conditioned that way.

Exam anxiety

Exam anxiety triggers our brain to study more out of tension. This is also an example of classical conditioning.

Recess bell

Recess bells are generally different than other bells. They are longer than usual, so when students hear this bell they get immediately excited about the recess time. This is also an example of classical conditioning.

Holiday music

After listening to music on holidays, we will get reminded of that place after we hear that music somewhere else. This is a perfect example of classical conditioning,

What is neutral stimulus?

Neutral stimulus as the name suggests holds no interest value in itself. It is just a conventional way of gaining someone’s attention.

A neutral stimulus includes a whistle, a cry for help from a person you want to avoid etc. The subject does not feel like reacting to such kind of stimulus. For subjects to start reacting to such stimulus, we need to perform conditioning. Let us study about classical conditioning in sections given below.

What is classical conditioning?

Now as we have learnt the definitions of neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus, we can define classical conditioning.

It is the way of mixing neutral stimulus with unconditioned stimulus to get a conditioned response from a subject. This is done to train the subject’s mind to give response to neutral stimulus.

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