Classical Conditioning in Advertising Assignment.doc

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Name: ___________________

Classical Conditioning Assignment

Pavlov showed that dogs would react to a bell in a manner similar to how they react to food.

Advertisers are doing much the same thing when they try to sell you a product – they try to get you to

associate some positive image with their product, in hopes that you will have a positive reaction to the

product.

Typically, the UCS in a commercial is some stimulus that elicits an emotional reaction (an attractive

face, images of family, humor, etc.).

The CS is the product.

The goal of the advertiser is to associate the UCR with their product, thus creating a CR, which will in

turn get you to purchase their product.

Your assignment tonight is to watch TV (or browse through a magazine) and find some form of

advertisement.

Analyze the commercial/ad in classical conditioning terms.

Identify the UCS, UCR, NS, CS, and CR.

Tomorrow you will be submitting:

1. A brief description of the commercial (or a copy of the ad if you found it in a

magazine)

2. Identification of the UCS, UCR, NS, CS, and CR

Name _________________________________________

Total _____/5

*Space has been provided on the back of this page for you to complete the assignment.

Description of commercial: (Or staple the ad to this page)

__________________________________________________________________________________

Unconditioned Stimulus:

__________________________________________________________________________________

Unconditioned Response:

__________________________________________________________________________________

Neutral Stimulus:

__________________________________________________________________________________

Conditioned Stimulus:

__________________________________________________________________________________

Conditioned Response:

__________________________________________________________________________________