A unconditioned stimulus It is any stimulus that, before carrying out any type of process, provokes a response in a biological organism. It is one of the foundations of conditioning, both in its classical and operant versions. Unconditioned stimuli can be classified in several ways.
These stimuli can be both internal and external, and appetitive or aversive. Each animal species has its own unconditioned stimuli; however, many of these are common, such as food or pain.
The study of unconditioned stimuli and how to use them to carry out conditioning processes is one of the foundations of behavioral psychology. Today it is one of the areas of this discipline on which more data is available..
This study is fundamental for the development of certain branches of psychology and other behavioral sciences. Understanding how they work will allow you to better understand your own behavior and, in addition, it will open the doors to use certain tools such as classical and operant conditioning.
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Unconditioned stimuli, unlike conditioned stimuli, are used to produce responses in an organism through conditioning processes.
To achieve the best results, these stimuli must have specific characteristics; not all elements can be used for this type of learning.
For this reason, the study of the qualities of unconditioned stimuli is of vital importance for behavioral and cognitive-behavioral psychology, which draws on some of its theoretical bases.
Learning about these elements began with the classical conditioning works of Pavlov, but our knowledge about them has grown a lot in the last decades. Next we will study some of the most important characteristics of an unconditioned stimulus.
Living beings are prepared to respond to our environment and adapt to it. In animals, this ability is specially developed.
Because our survival is linked to our ability to act based on what surrounds us, nature endowed us with a series of instincts that provoke a natural response in us..
For example, all animals respond positively to food and negatively to pain. In many species, an invasion of the territory implies aggressiveness, and in most of those that use sexual reproduction, the sight of a possible partner in fertile stage triggers a series of physiological reactions in the body.
All these stimuli would be unconditioned, in the sense that we do not have to do anything to provoke a response. This characteristic is opposed to that of conditioned stimuli, which in principle are neutral but make us react once a classical or operant conditioning process has been followed..
Although some unconditioned stimuli are similar for most species, many of these only elicit a response in some types of animals.
Therefore, for a psychologist who wants to carry out a conditioning process, it is necessary to know exactly what a type of living being responds to..
For example, for certain types of fish the sight of another member of their species provokes an immediate aggressive response; on the contrary, in other more sociable animals, the behaviors that would arise in a similar case would be approximation.
Unconditioned stimuli do not elicit a response for no reason. Its main function is to maximize the chances that an individual of a species has to survive and reproduce; therefore, in the vast majority of cases they have to do with the active search for resources and avoiding dangers.
When it is related to the search for resources, an unconditioned stimulus is known as "appetitive". These usually have to do with obtaining food, with sex, with the protection of the young or with the search for a refuge. Its main characteristic is that they encourage us to move towards a certain element.
On the contrary, those unconditioned stimuli that protect us from dangers are known as “aversives”. Its basic function is to prevent us from hurting ourselves or engaging in potentially harmful behavior. The main responses to aversive stimuli are pain and fear, although there are also others such as disgust.
Our responses to unconditioned stimuli do not pass through our conscious mind. On the contrary, they are automatic reactions, which we cannot control and which are usually very powerful..
For example, can you choose to salivate over a plate of food, or be attracted to a person of the sex you like? Do you choose to be scared when watching a horror movie, or to feel disgusted by certain types of insects? These responses would be typical when exposed to unconditioned stimuli..
On the other hand, their effect on our mind would be so powerful that they tend to be associated with other stimuli that occur alongside them. For example, if every time you ate you saw the same photograph, after a certain time just looking at it would make you hungry. This is precisely the basis of classical conditioning.
Next we will see some examples of unconditioned stimuli in our species. Keep in mind that, although most of these are shared by other animals, each type of living being has different ones.
Food, because of its fundamental importance to our survival, is one of the most powerful types of unconditioned stimulus. The responses they provoke in our body are varied, but in general they push us to try to feed ourselves.
For example, the smell of our favorite food makes us salivate and wakes us up hunger, the taste of something we like a lot produces well-being and pleasure, and the sight of something edible pushes us to feed ourselves..
Sex is considered one of the most powerful unconditioned stimuli that exist in the human species. Thus, for example, the vision of someone attractive of the sex that we like awakens all kinds of unconscious reactions in our body.
For example, for heterosexual men, seeing an attractive woman provokes desire, the desire to talk to her and sexual arousal, but also fear, due to evolutionary reasons..
Have you ever wondered why so many people are afraid of the dark, or why loud noises scare us? Why do we startle when we are surprised?
All these situations would be unconditioned stimuli that provoke a protective response (fear) in our body.
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