Oh, wow, oh, oh, wow, oh, oh, wow, oh, man.

The world, like, you're listening to The Science of Everything podcast episode 28, classical conditioning, and I'm

your host, James Fodor. In this episode, I'm going to discuss classical conditioning, the oldest

type of learning that is known about. In particular, I'll discuss the various elements of classical

conditioning, including the conditioned and unconditioned responses and conditioned and unconditioned

stimuli. I'll discuss some

examples of classical conditioning so that you can get a better understanding of how it works and

what it is. I'll also go through some more specific aspects of classical conditioning,

including the process of acquisition, generalization and discrimination, and extinction and recovery.

I'll also then talk about some applications of classical conditioning in practical and scholarly areas such as taste diversion

and various biological factors that can be better understood using the model of classical conditioning.

Just to note, I was originally going to do this podcast as a single

episode, including the next episode on operand conditioning, a different type of learning, but

because it grew too long, I've decided to split them up, so there'll be a sort of a second part to

this where I talk about operand conditioning and also a bit on observational learning. Okay, so let's start

off with classical conditioning.

First of all, I need to define what I mean by learning, or what psychologists mean by learning.

Learning is generally defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that occurs

as a result of experience. So, key thing about learning there is that it has to be as a result

of experience, not a change in

behavior that results from maturation, for example, or through going through puberty or something

like that. That is not considered learning, even though it results in a change of behavior.

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