Classical conditioning: the new hegemony

Article Abstract:

Data from different disciplines show that classical conditioning is involved in more human and animal behavior than was once thought. (Classical conditioning, exemplified in Pavlov's experiments on dogs, involves training an organism to produce a given response to a stimulus by always associating a given stimulus with that response.) Previous views that considered classical conditioning to involve only bodily secretions, reflexive actions, or emotions have been replaced. It is now thought that classical conditioning can be involved in problem-solving and other rule-governed processes. This new view has been accompanied by changes in how classical conditioning is conducted and evaluated. Such seemingly unrelated phenomena as the placebo effect, relapse to drug abuse by postaddicts, and the disease-fighting immune response appear to involve classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has been found in smaller and smaller organisms and has even been found in brain slices and in fetuses in the womb. Several research areas that use classical conditioning to explain phenomena can now be integrated, challenging traditional teleological interpretations of classical conditioning and offering some basic principles for testing conditioning in various areas.

Psychological aspects, Evaluation, Immunity, Immunity (Physiology), Drug abuse, Conditioned response, Conditioned responses, Behavior modification, Placebos, Classical conditioning, Conditioning (Psychology), Behaviorism (Psychology), Behaviorism

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The environment modulates the mobility gradient, temporally if not sequentially

Article Abstract:

Ilan Golani's concept that changes in the mobility gradient may be related to changes in reactivity to the environment is supported by observations from animal experiments with amphetamine. It was shown that the behavioral effects of amphetamine depend partly on the demand characteristics of the environment pertinent to orienting and are not simply the reflexive output of hard-wired circuit. Further studies have shown that environment plays considerable influence in the rats response to apomorphine.

Motor ability, Motor skills

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Describing behavior: a new label for an old wine?

Article Abstract:

Several theories and methods were presented to facilitate the analysis of behavioral patterns. These theories included Ilan Golani's 'perception of movement through symbolic language' which is deemed to need further elaboration and clarification especially in the areas of labelling behavioral patterns, choosing alternatives to informal verbal description and locating the behavioral pattern on the mobility gradient.

Human behavior, Terminology, Behavioral assessment

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