I would suggest the sound on your phone of a new text message is not a CS, but rather a discriminative stimulus for an operant behavior (checking your phone). Important people would not necessarily be a US (they only become important through learning). However, they could be a CS (for various reasons), which if paired with another neutral stimulus (like the sound on your phone) could result in higher order conditioning--making the sound on the phone a CS2.
Dr Mattu - that was a long experiment. I suspect you were just having fun after a couple minutes. That was quite enjoyable to watch, and educational too. Great video.
6:05 : Now I'm curious about food aversion caused by poisoning, specifically how long the memory of the last meal stays in the mind before the sickness kicks in.
As a dog trainer, classical conditioning has impacted my life a LOT. The use of training "tools" like pinch collars and shock collars have classically conditioned many dogs to react negatively to stimuli such as the sight of other dogs. Rather than using classical conditioning to create a positive association to such stimuli (see other dog, get yummy treat), many misinformed dog owners default to punitive methods (see other dog, jerk of pinch collar) in attempts to gain control of their dogs. Unless their timing is impeccable and they actually understand the 4 quadrants of operant conditioning AND their dog is actually in the correct emotional state to be operant in the first place, this approach usually backfires. :( Luckily, we have counter-conditioning.
Thanks for your comment! There are a lot of applications of classical and operant conditioning to animal training. We agree with you - in general reinforcement and positive associations work best. It's hard to do punishment and aversive conditioning correctly.
i think this experiment would have gone very well only if you did not tell her in the first place that if you say the word Can and spray water on her the response would be truly a conditioned response but now because you told her in the first place about the word Can her subconscious is responding to what you told her and not what she her self is responding too when you say the word Can and spray of water or should i say the association itself
Thank you for being the volunteer for the experiment! I wish Dr Mattu had given you a hand towel or something so that you could wipe your face in between words.
Usually this is done in a classroom setting with the water set to mist mode. We made it more intense with a close up shot and the water set to a direct spray. If we had bloopers for this video, you'd hear a lot of Ali asking, "Are you sure about this" and Brooke saying, "Yes, it'll really get the point across!".
