Unconditioned reflex: what is it and what does it imply in psychology?

Let's see what the unconditioned reflex is and how it is expressed in our behavior.

Not all the behaviors we perform are thought or learned. There is an important repertoire of behaviors that are innate, that we do in a totally natural and automatic way.

We will now look at what exactly is meant by reflex behavior. we will see what exactly is meant by unconditioned reflexesThe differences with the conditioned responses, how they can be transformed into a conditioned behavior and examples in the human species.

What is an unconditioned reflex?

An unconditioned reflex is understood as a response that occurs before an unconditioned stimulus, naturally, automatically and without being thought about.. That is, it is a response that has not required prior conditioning or training to occur. This type of response is part of the natural abilities, already innately present, that an animal, both human and non-human, has.

A very clear example of an unconditioned reflex is the act of salivating while looking at a piece of cake. In this particular case, the organism, upon receiving the visual stimulus of the cake, initiates the physiological processes of the body, initiates physiological processes in order to facilitate digestion once we have eaten the sweet.

Another example of an unconditioned reflex would be sneezing when a particle or a speck of dust enters our nose. Sneezing is not something that is learned; it is something that is present from the moment of birth. It is a natural mechanism to expel debris and pathogens from the respiratory tract.

• Other simple examples of unconditioned reflexes are:
• Screaming or wincing when we are bitten by a bug.
• Jumping when a loud noise is heard.
• To move your hand away from something that is hot.
• Shivering when you are cold.
• Kicking when the doctor hits the knee with a hammer (patellar reflex).

All these responses occur from birth or from very early ages and without previous training. Every day we carry out unconditioned reflexes without being aware of it, which is an indicator of how little we know.This is an indicator of the little conscious processing behind them. Many such responses are physiological, including salivation, nausea, pupillary dilation and contraction, and changes in Heart rate.

Differences between unconditioned reflex and conditioned response.

The main differences between an unconditioned reflex and a conditioned response are:

• The unconditioned reflex or response is natural and automatic.
• The unconditioned reflex is innate and needs no prior learning.
• The conditioned response is learned.

The conditioned response occurs only after the unconditioned stimulus is associated with the conditioned stimulus..

Unconditioned reflex and classical conditioning

The concept of the unconditioned reflex, understood as an unconditioned response, was experimentally investigated by Soviet physiologist Ivan Pavlov. This Russian scientist was doing research on the canine digestive system, seeing that his dogs began to salivate every time they were fed. This was a natural reflex, something that was not conditioned. The dogs saw food and started salivating to facilitate digestion.

It was then that Pavlov, realizing that this was an unconditioned reflex, wondered if he could condition this response, that is, make the natural act of salivating appear without the food being in front of the dogs. Pavlov decided that, before presenting the food, he would ring some bells and see what would happen.

In these Pavlov's experiments, which are a classic in the history of psychology, food is the unconditioned stimulus.. The presence of the unconditioned stimulus is what triggers the natural and automatic reflex response. Pavlov's dogs salivated totally involuntarily when presented with food. The sound of bells would be the conditioned stimulus.

Pavlov Pavlov succeeded in getting his dogs to start salivating when they heard the bell.This implied that the unconditioned reflex would become a conditioned response. The dogs had associated the sound of the bells with food, after training for several attempts.

But a conditioned response does not last forever. Over time, if the conditioned stimulus is presented if the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will eventually disappear..

Pavlov saw that, taking those same dogs, if they were presented with the sound of the bells but not given food afterwards, after a few more attempts, the dogs stopped salivating. That is, they stopped associating the jingling of the bells with food, and the phenomenon of extinction occurred.

However, it should be said that, after extinguishing the response and trying to condition it again, i.e., ringing a bell again and presenting food, the re-association of the conditioned stimulus with the conditioned stimulus will not take as long as it did in the first attempts. This phenomenon of reappearance of the conditioned response is called spontaneous recovery, and can occur after a period of time.and it can occur after a period of rest of the previously taught behavior.

This process in humans

As previously mentioned, our species has a wide repertoire of unconditioned reflexes. There are many reflexes that the health sciences have described, such as the patellar reflex or the sucking reflex in infants. The latter is a reflex that is lost as we grow older, but it is an unconditioned innate and instinctive response that is very important for human survival, since it occurs when the mother's nipple is close by. Automatically, the baby starts sucking and feeding on the mother's milk..

In certain cases, innate human reflex behaviors are combined with conditioned stimuli, giving rise to conditioned behavior. For example, if a small child accidentally touches a boiling pot, he or she will immediately withdraw his or her hand when he or she senses a boiling pot, he will immediately withdraw his hand when he senses that it is burning.. This is innate behavior. However, it is possible that the shock was so great that the child has developed a certain trauma, which prevents him from feeling comfortable in the presence of a pot, no matter how cold it is.

In fact, the appearance of apparently irrational and exaggerated behaviors is often related to having lived through an unpleasant experience in which an innate and instinctive mechanism such as such an innate and instinctive mechanism as the reflexes to avoid feeling pain or that our bodily integrity is harmed. or that our bodily integrity is harmed.

For example, there are people who have a phobia of certain biting arthropods (e.g., spiders, praying mantises, mosquitoes), and have an extreme fear of these little animals because one of them once bit them. This triggered a natural reflex, which is to move away from the source of the pain, but it occurred in such an exaggerated form that it has crystallized as trauma.

Bibliographic references:

• Cherry, K. (2018). “Unconditioned Response in Classical Conditioning.” Verywell Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-an-unconditioned-response-2796007.
• Crain, W. (2005) Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications. 5th ed., Pearson Prentice Hall.
• Goldman, J. G. (2012) "What is Classical Conditioning? (And Why Does It Matter?) Scientific American. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/what-is-classical-conditioning-and-why-does-it-matter/.