Blog 2
This clip from The Office shows an example of classical conditioning. The noise of the computer is the unconditioned stimulus and the Altoid is the neutral stimulus. Every time Jim would shut down his computer, it would make a noise. Every time the computer made that noise, Jim would offer Dwight an Altoid. This eventually led to Dwight being conditioned to the noise. He would expect the Altoid to come right after the noise and he would reach out for one. The Altoid becomes the conditioned stimulus and Dwight expecting and reaching out for the Altoid becomes the conditioned response.
Let’s say I was teaching students about classical conditioning. Before having explaining the concept to the students, I would give them all a small handful of pretzels. I would tell them that every time I said a certain word (maybe the name Pavlov or psychology) they would have to eat a pretzel. I would then spend the next part of the class using the word frequently. Afterwards, I would let them know that they no longer have to eat a pretzel. A few minutes later, I would slip the word out again and see how many reach for the snack. Those students would raise their hands, and we would begin to talk about classical conditioning. The word became the conditioned stimulus and the reaching of the pretzel to eat it became the conditioned response, where beforehand, they were both neutral.
This is interesting. I see that you lean towards using enactive learning (having the students experience the concept in some way or act it out, rather than hearing it explained). It's a very effective strategy sometimes. I had a professor (in a graduate class!) who did this all the time, and I loved it.
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