Classical Conditioning

What is classical conditioning?

Classical conditioning is a type of learning which is exhibited in humans (as well as animals). This is when we associate something with something else. An effective way of explaining this would be Pavlov’s famous experiment. In this experiment, Ivan Pavlov conditioned a dog to secrete saliva when a tone was rung. He did this by playing a tone whenever the dog was exposed to food, and so eventually the dog associated the tone with the food (and therefore salivated). So when you have something that emits a response from you occuring simultaneously with something else; that something else will eventually get you emit the same response.

How is this relevant?

This is relevant because it explains the apparent “[strangulation] [of] the holy curiosity of inquiry” (Einstein). Children that attend school obtain a vast quantity of experiences that are negative. During these negative experiences, (such as bullying) children then subconsciously associate school and all that school supposedly stands for as a chore – a chore which they are eager to discontinue. 

Humans society needs to be educated so that cataclysmic events would be avoided, and if people leave school with the state-of-mind that holds learning as an obstacle, how educated do you think the world is going to be?

I know that when I have to wake up early, I’m very grumpy. What would I (and everyone else) see as the cause to my unhappy state? Ask a teacher or parent, and you’re likely to get the answer, ‘You get up early to go to school – to learn, of course’.