Page 152 - DMGT551_RETAIL_BUSINESS_ENVIRONMENT

Unit 8: Learning and Attitude

Classical Conditioning Notes

In everyday life, we think of conditioning as a kind of automatic response to something as a
result of repeated exposure to it.

Example: If a child gets excited every time she/he thinks of going to McDonald’s, the
reaction may be conditioned from many pleasant visits to the restaurant.
Classical conditioning pairs one stimulus with another that already elicits a given response and
over a period of repeated trials, the new stimulus will also start causing the same or quite
similar response.
The Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov, was the first who pioneered the study of classical
conditioning. He noticed that since his hungry dogs salivated (unconditioned response) at the
sight of food (unconditioned stimulus), the connection between food and salivation is not taught
and is just a reflex reaction. Pavlov reasoned that a neutral stimulus such as the sound of a
ringing bell could also cause the dogs to salivate if it was closely associated with the unconditioned
stimulus (food). To test this reasoning, Pavlov rang a bell while giving food to the dogs. After a
sufficient number of repetitions, the dogs learned the connection between bell and food
(Figure 8.1). When they heard the bell (conditioned stimulus) even in the absence of food, they
salivated (conditioned response).

Figure 8.1: Classical Conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned response
(food) (salivation)
(outdoor activities) (fun and refreshment)

Conditioned stimulus Conditioned response
(bell) (salivation)
(Coca Cola) (fun and refreshment)

Two factors are important for learning to occur through the associative process. The first is
contiguity (conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus must be close in time and space).
The second factor is the repetition (the frequency of association). The more the frequency of
unconditioned and conditioned stimuli occurring together, the stronger the association between
them will develop. Consumers can be conditioned to develop positive impressions and images
of brands through the associative process.
From classical conditioning emerge three basic concepts important for understanding consumer
behaviour: repetition, stimulus generalisation and stimulus discrimination.
Repetition

People have a tendency to forget and one proven method of increasing retention of learning is
repetition. Repetition is believed to work by strengthening the bond of association and thus
slowing the process of forgetting. Learning follows a pattern, which is known as learning curve.
In the figure 8.2, ’x’ axis shows the number of repetitions and ‘y’ axis represents the amount of
learning. In a typical case, the rate of learning is quite rapid in the early stages. In later stages, as
the amount learned accumulates, the rate of learning per repetition decreases.

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