Unit 4 · Learning Theory · Reading 4 of 13
After Learning: How It Spreads and Fades
Before you read
Is there a song you can't hear without remembering a bad moment, even years later? By the end, you'll have a name for why that feeling comes back.
Words you'll own by the end
- Acquisition: the stage where the association is first being learned.
- Stimulus generalization: responding to stimuli that are similar to the CS.
- Stimulus discrimination: responding to the CS but not to similar stimuli.
- Extinction: the CR fades when the CS keeps appearing without the UCS.
- Spontaneous recovery: after extinction and a rest, the CR suddenly returns.
1. Acquisition: learning the link
Acquisition is the stage when a person or animal first connects two stimuli. For Little Albert, it was the stretch when he learned that the white rat came with the terrifying noise.
There is no magic number of pairings. Sometimes one pairing is enough. Other times it takes hundreds.
2. Generalization vs. discrimination
After conditioning, Albert didn't just fear the rat. He also became afraid of things that looked like it: a white rabbit, a fur coat. That's stimulus generalization: the fear spread to similar stimuli.
If Albert had feared only the white rat and nothing else, he would have shown stimulus discrimination: responding to the specific CS but not to similar ones.
Memory hook: Generalize = it spreads. Discriminate = it stays narrow.
Try it: Generalization or discrimination?
Pick the right term for each one.
After being stung by a bee, Maya panics at bees, wasps, and flies.
Your dog gets excited at the sound of your car pulling in, but not the neighbor's.
A child bitten by a German Shepherd is now scared of every dog.
You feel hungry at your favorite restaurant's jingle, but not at other ads.
3. Extinction and spontaneous recovery
Conditioning isn't permanent. If the CS keeps showing up without the UCS, the learned response weakens and eventually stops. That's extinction. If Albert saw white rats over and over with no loud noise, the link would fade and he would no longer fear them.
But extinction doesn't fully erase the learning. After time passes, the CR can suddenly come back. That's spontaneous recovery. Picture Albert going years without fearing rats, then seeing a white rat and feeling the old fear return.
The whole cycle in one picture
Check-in: Pavlov wants to extinguish his dogs' drooling at the metronome. What does he do?
Check-in: Weeks after extinction, a dog drools once again when it hears the metronome. What is this?
Am I ready for a pop quiz?
Check a box only if you can say the answer out loud without scrolling up.
Come back to your "before you read" question
That song that brings back a bad moment: if the feeling had faded and then came back out of nowhere, that's spontaneous recovery. If similar songs trigger it too, that's generalization.