The Power and Adaptive Functions of Classical Conditioning

Chapter 7 focuses on the functional and adaptive aspects of classical conditioning. It begins by contrasting the general process approach to the behavior systems approach. It argues in favor of the behavioral systems approach by explaining that the survival of animals depends on forming an association between specific kinds of stimuli and not on a general learning process that applies across species and situations. The chapter then delves into challenges to the general process approach, such as conditioned taste aversion (CTA), which in many respects does not conform to the general rules of classical conditioning; fear learning, which shows that animals and people are biologically prepared to form selective associations; and sexual conditioning, which shows that only species-specific localized stimuli can be used to elicit copulatory behaviors as a conditioned response. Next, the chapter explores the phenomenon known as the modification of the unconditioned response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), which occurs through autonomic conditioning to maintain the body’s homeostasis. The chapter concludes with a description of the related phenomenon known as conditioned compensatory response, which is linked to the development of drug tolerance due to the drug’s effects being classically conditioned to the environmental cues present when a drug is taken.