Classical Conditioning and Student Response

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Case in point, an instructor in a middle school classroom intercepts a note during a lesson. He proceeds to read the note in front of the entire class thereby embarrassing the notes intended recipient, Emily, because it contains sensitive personal information. Emily abruptly leaves the class and school that day, and feels sick at the idea of going to school the next day, and becomes ill at the very thought of her instructor. The dilemma that presents itself is how the student becomes able to respond in a positive way to the school environment.

Problem: Student has developed an aversion to the teacher, class and school environment.

The student, Emily, is classically conditioned to respond to her classroom professor and school in a negative manner. Classical conditioning involves the theory that unconditioned responses such as neutral stimulus (NS), which is a stimulus not connected to any response, and an unconditioned stimulus (US) or a stimulus that automatically produces a response, and then the unconditioned response (UR) which is a physiological or emotional response that occurs naturally, can be made into conditioned Stimulus (CS), which is when a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and produces a physiological or emotional response after conditioning. This in turn, causes the subject to have a conditioned response (CR) which is a learned response to stimuli that had previously been neutral, which in this case is the instructor and by association, the school. Emily’s reaction to her teacher, classroom, and school which were formally neutral stimuli, is now a conditioned response that creates a physiological reaction. Emily has generalized her involuntary response to include her school in a manner that she connects to the way she felt when the initial adverse stimulus occurred, even though the incident happened within one classroom and with one professor in particular.

It is important that the student is able to discriminate between the professor’s actions and the school in order to change her reflexive response. There has to be a new contiguity association in order for Emily to respond in a less negative manner. The professor might apologize for his inappropriate behavior, which would create a new association with the formally adverse conditioned stimulus. By creating a positive conditioned stimulus within the school, it may reverse the conditioned response the student is experiencing. It may be beneficial to the student to involve a guidance counselor, other teachers and administration who would give her positive feedback, to strengthen the association between the school and positivism. In order to reverse the conditioned response between the professor and the negative physiological reaction, a new response needs to be created, or the new conditioned response will have to revert back to neutral stimuli. This can be accomplished through the process of extinction, which would be presenting the neutral stimulus, the professor and school, without the conditioned stimulus or negative event, on a continuous basis. Because the event was so traumatic, this may take an extended period of time to work, but, continued positive association with the newly conditioned stimulus will eventually evoke a more positive response.

By understanding the response of a student, and the environment that precipitates the unintended consequence, parents and teachers are better prepared to act in an appropriate manner when dealing with problems and issues that arise. This will lead to better methods of interaction and instruction that will benefit the school system as a whole, thereby increasing a positive educational experience for both student and instructor alike.