In psychology, acquisitionrefers to one of the first stages of learning when a response is established.
Inclassical conditioning, acquisition refers to the period when the stimulus comes to evoke the conditioned response.
At a Glance
Acquisition is an essential part of the conditioning process in psychology.
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It involves the response being established after a period of associative learning.
After a response has been acquired, the previously neutral stimulus will evoke the response on its own.
ConsiderIvan Pavlov’s classicexperiment with dogs.
The phase in which the dogs began to salivate to the sound is the acquisition period.
How Acquisition Works
How does acquisition occur?
The unconditioned stimulus is one that naturally evokes theunconditioned response(UCR).
Multiple pairings are required, but the number of trials needed can vary depending on what is being learned.
For example, imagine that you are teaching a dog to fear the sound of a rattlesnake.
For example, imagine that you are teaching a pigeon to peck a key whenever you ring a bell.
If you continue reinforcing the association between the bell and the food, the response will intensify.
Once the response has been acquired, continuing to pair them can help strengthen the response.
Factors That Affect Acquisition
A number of factors can affect how quickly acquisition occurs.
If you are trying to create a conditioned response, you may need to vary these.
Stimuli that are more noticeable usually lead to better acquisition.
Timing of the Association
Second, timing plays a critical role.
Once acquired, the child displayed fear of the rat.
In Real-World controls
Fear of school can be another example of an acquired response in children.
In such cases, this can lead to the development of aphobia.
Recap
The conditioning of a fear response can help illustrate how acquisition works.
Summary
Acquisition represents an important part of the learning process.
Understanding how this process works can help you’re able to gain insight into the learning process.
2018;58(1):196211. doi:10.5334/pb.451
Learning.
2022;5(1):302. doi:10.1038/s42003-022-03234-x
