Readings: PowerPoint Lecture 2; Goldman (2012)
Goldman, J. G. (2012, January 11). What Is classical conditioning? (and why does it matter?). Scientific
American. Retrieved from http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/what-is-classicalconditioning-and-why-does-it-matter/
Assignment: Ivan Pavlov showed that dogs would react to a bell in a manner similar to how they react to
food after the bell had been repeatedly paired with food.
Advertisers are doing much the same thing when they try to sell you a product – they try to get you to
associate some positive image with their product, in hopes that you will have a positive reaction to their
product.
For this assignment, find any advertisement (i.e., TV commercial, magazine advertisement, webpage, etc.,
but not from class) that uses classical conditioning to promote a product, and then identify and explain the
following:
What is the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)? Explain why (25-75 words).
What is the Unconditioned Response (UCR)? Explain why (25-75 words).
What is the Neutral Stimulus (NS) that becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) through repeated pairing?
Explain why (25-75 words).
What is the Conditioned Response (CR)? Explain why (25-75 words).
Guidelines: Please adhere to the following guidelines in order to gain full credit for the assignment. Your
submission must:
Be 25-75 words in length for each of the questions above
Be double-spaced and in 12-point Arial font
Include the specific URL for the advertisement (i.e., TV commercial, magazine advertisement, webpage,
etc