3 - Elicited behaviours Flashcards
What is an elicited behaviour?
- A behavior that is “drawn out” or bring forth of an organism by the presentation of a stimulus
- A behavior that is automatic and involuntary (reflexive)
→ p.ex: you don’t choose to be startled by a gunshot
What is a reflex? Give an example
- The most basic form of elicited behavior
- Defined as “a relatively simple, automatic response to a stimulus”
- Some reflexes only involve one gland or muscle, others are more general involving coordinated action of certain body parts
- Reflexes are adaptive, they promote survival
→ p.ex: blinking, being startled, flexion (withdrawal) - Example: The startle response—a defensive reaction to a sudden, unexpected stimulus—involves the automatic tightening of skeletal muscles as well as various hormonal and visceral (internal organ) changes
- Example: The orienting response—in which we automatically position ourselves to facilitate attending to a stimulus—can involve a relatively major body movement, such as when we automatically turn in response to an unfamiliar noise behind us
- Reflex arc: a neural pathway that controls a reflex
What is a fixed-action pattern? What puts it into motion?
- A sequence of species-specific behavior elicited by a stimulus
→ i.e. Dog play postures (head down, bum up, front legs out) in response to its owner pulling out a ball - A fixed action pattern is a fixed sequence of responses elicited by a specific stimulus
→ p.ex: V-shaped formation by birds, cats compulsively scratch the ground if they want to hide their food, dogs indicate they want to play by wagging their tails - We are often able to identify a releaser stimulus that sets the fixed action pattern into motion
→ p.ex: seeing blood (releaser) and automatically throwing up
Fixed-action patterns tend to be ___ ___ that evolved to promote survival in the animal’s natural environment (survival technique).
Adaptive response
→ The difficulty in this, is that the responses are not well suited to major changes (sudden large scale change) to the natural environment
→ the fixed action patterns can even become harmful or useless following a change
→ p.ex: deers have an inborn tendency to run in zigzag patterns because they’re trying to throw predators off and increases its chances to survive; BUT this action decreases its survival when going down a highway
What is habituation?
- Habituation is a decrease in the strength of an elicited response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to that stimulus
- The first time the stimulus is present, the response will probably be most intense, then it will gradually decrease
→ p.ex: habituation to the sound of a fan; habituation to the smell of fire; the tick of a clock - We tend to habituate to stimuli that are currently irrelevant and low-intensity
- Habituation is only temporary
- Allows you to attend to changes in the environment
What is sensitization?
- Sensitization is an enhancement of a response following the repeated presentation of a novel (usually noxious) stimulus
- Alerts us to small, possibly dangerous, changes in our environment
→ p.ex: hearing a branch snapping in the woods; smelling smoke in the middle of the night; still getting scared at every turn of a scary haunted house - We tend to become sensitive to stimuli that are extremely relevant and high-intensity
- Sensitization often generalizes to other stimuli
- Typically adaptive responses, but can be maladaptive, especially if in a stressful situation
→ p.ex: a soldier’s responses to exploding artillery shells and subsequent startling sounds
→ soldiers don’t get used to these sounds, their response remains enhanced, this contributes to the PTSD development
True or false: Effects of habituation and sensitization usually disappear when the stimulus is not presented for a period of time.
True: The strength of behaviour goes back to its original level
What is long-term habituation? Give an example.
- The response slowly decreases as a result of repeated stimulation and then slowly recovers in the absence of repeated stimulation
→ p.ex: living in an apartment next to a train, at first the response is heightened, but eventually habituation becomes long-term
What is short-term habituation? Give an example
- The response quickly decreases and then quickly recovers
→ p.ex: the sound of a fan
In general, long-term habituation tends to occur when presentations of the stimulus are ___ ___ (e.g., a train going by your apartment each morning), whereas short-term habituation tends to occur when presentations of the stimulus are ___ ___ or ___
Widely space; narrowly spaced or continuous
True or false: Sensitization rarely generalizes to other stimuli.
False: They often do generalize
- p.ex: A shell- shocked soldier is likely to jump not only in response to artillery explosions but also to any sudden stimulus
True or false: Habituation is quite stimulus-specific.
True: Such that any change in the stimulus is likely to result in the reappearance of the habituated response
In classical conditioning, ___ behaviours are paired with a new ___, which then can elicit the ___
Reflexive; stimulus; response
How did Pavlov develop his experiment?
- Studied salivation as part of the digestive process
- Presentation of different substances affect the quantity and quality of salivation
→ Meat routinely produced small amount of dry saliva
→ Sand routinely produced large amount of watery saliva - Purpose: to train a dog to salivate to the sound of a metronome
- The dog was restrained in a harness, and a tube was inserted into an incision that had been made in its cheek (the dog habituated to the tube quickly)
- The saliva would run down the tube into a container where it could be precisely measured
- Pavlov (accidentally) discovered the principles of Classical Conditioning
What are the 4 components of Pavlovian conditioning? Define each of them
1) Unconditioned stimulus (UCS or US): stimulus that unconditionally–automatically and naturally triggers a response (food)
2) Unconditioned response (UCR or UR): unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (salivating)
→ because salivation to food occurs naturally, and does not require training
3) Conditioned Stimulus (CS): originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response (bell or metronome) (previously NS)
4) Conditioned Response (CR): learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (salivating)
True or false: The CR is similar to the UR, but usually weaker or less intense.
True
What happens during classical conditioning?
- The sound of the metronome is presented just before the food
- The dog continues to salivate in response to the food
- The sound of the metronome and the food are presented several times
- Each metronome/food pairing is a conditioning trial
→ several conditioning trials need to be done before the NS becomes established as a CS
→ Conditioning trials should be spaced (not massed) to maximize learning (like studying) - To test the level of conditioning, the NS is presented alone to see if it elicits salivation; If so, it has become a CS
→ the food and metronome have now been paired
What happens after conditioning has been successfully done?
- The sound of the metronome elicits salivation
- The food does not have to be present for the dog to salivate when it hears the sound of the metronome (to know you’ve succeeded in conditioning)
- The CR is similar to the UR, but usually weaker or less intense
→ The CR and the UR are not always so similar
What is appetitive conditioning?
- The US is an event that is usually considered pleasant and that an organism seeks out
→ Examples: food, water, sexual stimuli, addictive drugs
What is aversive conditioning?
- The US is an event that is usually considered unpleasant and that an organism usually avoids
→ Examples: an electric shock, a painful bite, and an unpleasant odour - Usually occurs rapidly and often requires only a single or a few pairings (of the NS and US) to be strongly conditioned
- To survive, we have evolved in such a way as to quickly learn to dislike those events that cause pain or illness
What is context fear conditioning?
- Type of aversive conditioning
- If given a shock (US) while in a certain box (NS), the animal will quickly learn to fear that box (CS)
- Measuring the level of fear can be problematic when studying fear in animals (difficult to record)
-
Conditioned suppression (or conditioned emotional response) helps resolve this issue
→ the rat is first trained to engage in a behaviour (pressing a lever to get food)
→ when a steady rate of lever pressing is established, a fear stimulus is introduced when the lever is pressed (tone will play, then a shock)
→ the rat will become upset and stop pressing the lever
→ when the tone plays, fear is initiated in the rat
Explain how the conditioned response and the unconditioned response are not always so similar with an example of snakes.
The snake is neutral, but after being bitten the man experiences pain; after conditioning, the man associates the bite with the snake, thus feeling fear
___ conditioning accounts for many of our fears and anxieties
Aversive
True or false: Aversive conditioning can be beneficial and problematic.
True:
→ When the fear is appropriate—as in learning to fear a snake that has bitten us—such conditioning is beneficial.
→ When the fear is inappropriate—as when we begin to fear all snakes – conditioning can be problematic
