Lizard OH Lizard !

Assalamualaikum w.b.t..

We have been assigned to write up a story based on common phenomena in classical conditioning. There are numbers of common phenomena that related to classical conditioning described by Pavlov and other behaviorists. The story below will examine some of the common phenomena: associative bias, extinction, generalization, stimulus discrimination, spontaneous recovery, higher order conditioning and sensory preconditioning. Lets read the story! Have fun learning and reading! :D

Ana :)

    Ana is a pretty girl who study in a one of the famous university in Malaysia. She has one ticklish, repugnance and disgusting feelings ( or in Malay we call it as 'geli') toward a reptile animal which is lizard. Whenever she saw a lizard she will automatically jump and ran from that place. Sometimes this feeling make her feel fear towards lizard.

Hi.. :P

      The story began when she was in form two; a lizard hide in her cloth. She pick the cloth and wear it without feel weird. Suddenly, a lizard come out and she spontaneously touch it. At the same time, a lizard cut off its tail and it make she more disgusted. After time to time, whenever she see a lizard she will make a ticklish response. Whenever she see a lizard, she will remember the tail that's been cut off from the lizard.
( associative bias).

Lizard's tail 

      After several years, a movie 'Cicakman' was being published by KRU Studios Sdn. Bhd. Her friends ask her to watch that movie because during that time 'Cicakman' movie one of the blockbuster movie in Malaysia. She watched that movie and fell in love with the character of that hero potrayed in the movie; kind, helpful, strong, humorous and others. She then felt impressed because the hero in the movie wear a lizard costume! Apart from that, she has never seen any scene which shows the lizard that cut off its tail (since it was the reason why she do not like the lizard). So, she feel no longer disgusted when she see a lizard after that. Then, she herself for a long time have never seen or experience the cut off tail by the lizard which she being disgusted of whenever she saw the lizard. Since that, she no longer felt ticklish or disgusted towards the lizard. (extinction). 

Cicak-Man Movie

        Time goes by, she entered the university. She got a room at level four in her hostel and when she entered her room there were two sisters there. They talked to each other for a few minutes and she started to tidy up her room. Suddenly, she saw a die lizard without tail was trapped in the locker. She started to feel disgusted again even though that feeling was gone after watched "Cicakman" movie. (spontaneous recovery).

      On a fine day, her friend, Zana invited Ana to have a dinner at her house. She accept the invitation. Once she arrived, Zana showed her four "baby rabbits" that were born a few hours ago. As we all know "baby rabbit" has no fur at all and looks skinny. She felt very disgusted even though it is not a lizard, but the physical characteristic is the same. Not only that, she was having the same feelings towards other reptiles such as snake, comodo lizard (biawak) and others because they don't have fur and have a scaled skin. Luckily, she wasn't afraid to animal that has fur like cats and "adult rabbits". (generalization).

 Zana rabbit's babies

       After a few weeks, she saw one sister pass by while bringing an iguana. That iguana does resemble some characteristics of the common lizard that often found at the ceiling. At first, she did felt ticklish towards the Iguana, however after several days watching her friends happily playing with the iguana without having any disgust feelings, she's now only directed his ticklish and disgust feelings only to the lizard which she have that feeling afraid of. Moreover, the iguana does not giving her any of that uncomfortable feelings, it does not moving around like the normal lizard did and it is hard to see an iguana cuts off its tail. (stimulus discrimination)

Iguana

      For several days, she can't go to sleep because of that traumatic event that she had during the day when see a lizard and lizard cut off its tail and that make she felt disgusted again. While lying on her bed, she saw a lizard again at the roof along with "lizard's sound". When she heard "lizard's sound" without having to see it, spontaneously she felt disgusted. (higher order conditioning).

Lizard's at the roof

      After two hours lying on the bed unable to sleep, she started to feel sleepy. Even she saw a lizard and her roommate sleep with pillow that shape like a lizard, she gave no response at all. Unluckily to her, a lizard fell to her face and cut off its tail. She surprisingly woke up and started screaming until all her roommate woke up from their sleep too. She told everything what happened to her. When she saw a lizard a very tragic event she will scream. Even though only lizard's tail left on the floor, she also will scream and ran from that area. (sensory preconditioning). 

* all images credit to google.com
The end.