Question

Describe in detail the classical conditioning components involved in smoking. Discuss how spontaneous recovery can cause the reoccurrence of a smoking habit.

Answer 1

Nicotine, via tobacco, is one of the most heavily used addictive drugs in the world.Classical conditioning theory predicts that drug-related stimuli can become associated with the rewarding aspects of using. These include drug paraphernalia (cigarette packets, syringes, bongs and pipes) and environments where drug taking occurs. These stimuli can evoke responses, such as craving and drug seeking, which is known as second-order conditioning. We form associations with all kinds of environmental stimuli and things we desire. Classical conditioning predicts that by repeatedly pairing a motivationally significant stimulus with a particular signal will result in a conditioned response when the signal is encountered.

Spontaneous recovery is a phenomenon described by Ivan Pavlov. It refers to the re-emergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a delay.Spontaneous recovery is associated with the learning process called classical conditioning, in which an organism learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a stimulus which produces an unconditioned response.Thus when the smoking becomes a habit,it reoccur spontaneously.