ABSTRACT
Principle of Respondent Conditioning Some of our behaviors, like Sue’s anxious feelings to the mild shock and loud “clang,” seem to be reflexive, and are called respondent behaviors, which are behaviors elicited by prior stimuli and are not affected by their consequences. Examples include salivating when smelling dinner cooking, feeling frightened when watching a scary movie, blushing when told that your fly or blouse is undone, and becoming sexually aroused when watching X-rated movies. Respondent behaviors are influenced by respondent conditioning, defined later, which is based on unconditioned reflexes. An unconditioned reflex is a stimulus-response relationship in which a stimulus automatically elicits a response apart from any prior learning. In other words, unconditioned reflexes are “hard wired” or inborn. A stimulus that elicits a response without prior learning or conditioning is called an unconditioned stimulus (US). A response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus is called an unconditioned response (UR). In other words, an unconditioned reflex consists of a US and a UR. In the experiment with Sue, the mild shock and loud “clang” were USs, and Sue’s anxious feeling and GSR to the shock were URs. Examples of unconditioned reflexes are listed in Table 3.1.
