In-Class FRQ

Marijuana is a mild hallucinogen that commonly results in physical dependence.

A neutral stimulus would be the tone in Pavlov's original experiment with dog salivation. Acquisition is the process of relating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned response, which creates a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus. Using Pavlov's classical conditioning principles, I would introduce a shock as the unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned response would be him experiencing pain. Gradually, I would introduce marijuana as a neutral stimulus to accompany the shock. He will relate the pain of the shock to the use of marijuana, which is a process called acquisition. Eventually, he will stop smoking marijuana because he will be conditioned to avoid the pain associated with it. 

A reinforcement is an award that increases the desired behavior. Punishment is something that decreases the desired behavior. Each day he goes without smoking marijuana, I would reward him with $1, which would be positive reinforcement because I am adding something to encourage that behavior. Each time he does smoke, I would take away $5, which would be negative punishment, because I'm taking something away to discourage that behavior.

Classical Conditioning

What did you learn today?

Today I learned about biological predispositions. I learned that for a natural stimuli to become conditioned, it must make adaptive sense. An internal stimuli associates better with taste--for example, how meatball sandwiches trigger thoughts of the nuro virus. Like wise, an external stimulus associates better with pain--for example, a football player walking toward you triggers your response to flinch.

Diagram of Classical Conditioning Situation

In a previous situation, a college student wanted to classically condition his roommate. Everyday, he would play a voice recording saying, "That was easy" then shoot his roommate with a Nerf gun. He would continue doing this until one day he would play the voice recording, "That was easy" and his roommate flinched before the shot was fired.  

Unconditioned Stimulus (Nerf gun) --> Unconditioned Response (flinch)

Neutral Stimulus ("That was easy") + Unconditioned Stimulus (Nerf gun) -->UR (flinch)

Conditioned Stimulus ("That was easy") --> Conditioned Response (flinch)

Who cares?

Classical conditioning allows for us to determine how people develop phobias or certain fears of objects. Knowing this, we can then unlearn certain phobias. 

Things I Will Study for the Final

Psychoactive Drugs: Mind Map

Below is a graphic organizer of the three major drug categories, their specific common drugs, and the synaptic interactions involved in each.