3.2 The Content of Conditioning Flashcards
What does the distinction between Pavlovian and instrumental refer to?
It is used to describe how a procedure is set up
What occurs during an instrumental procedure?
An experimenter can establish a contingency between reward or punisher
What are situations where cross over happens?
Intend to teach IC but CC happens and vice versa
What does pure instrumental mean?
instrumental procedure = instrumental learning
What does implicit classical mean?
Instrumental procedure = classical learning
What does pure classical mean?
Classical procedure = classical learning
What does superstition mean?
Classical procedure = instrumental learning
Give an example of superstition
Pigeon pecking when the key light when it comes on
What is an omission test?
Punishing the response whilst withholding the outcome
-ve punishment situation
If the animal has been instrumentally reinforced, the animal should stop the action when punished
If classical conditioned, we won’t see the animal stop the behaviour to the same extent
How can we test whether the content of conditioning learnt is IC or CC?
Use an omission test
What happens in the omission test when CC has taken place in the animal?
They FAIL the omission test - the animal does not have control over the response so they find it hard to control themselves and stop it
What happens in the omission test when IC has taken place?
They PASS the omission test
What is common in many Pavlovian conditioning paradigms?
CR = UR
The conditioned response is v similar to the unconditioned response
Why do we know S-R theory to not be the case?
There are cases where the CR is not similar to the UR
eg. fear responses
Explain the conditioning and devaluation experiment
2 CS’s paired with diff foods - C1 + food 1, C2 + food 2
What you see across training when they are paired together is an increase in CR
In the devaluation phase, you make them feel sick in the presence of food 2 too after they have learnt the original pairing = Food aversion
Do they also avoid the CS as well after food aversion has taken place?
Play tone 1 and they look for food
Play tone 2, the CR drops off and they don’t look for food
What type of learning is devaluation consistent with?
Stimulus-stimulus learning
What does S-S learning imply?
A latent form of learning between the CS and the US
The CS starts to reflect anticipatory behaviour
What else supports the S-S view?
Mediated conditioning
What is S-S learning?
A learning process by which a subject comes to respond in a specific way to a previously neutral stimulus after the subject repeatedly encounters the neutral stimulus together with another stimulus that already elicits the response
Give an example of mediated conditioning
Similar design to devaluation expt but affects conditioning of the food rather than responding to the CS
Initial 2 pairings take place
The devaluation involves making the rat feel ill in the presence of the CS (neutral stimulus) rather than the food
It has a subtle and fragile effect on how much food they eat - there is a diff in how much food they consume depending on the devaluation
Why are S-S and S-R on a continuum?
Learning at multiple levels
Depends on procedure, nature of conditioning
May involve lots (but not necessarily all) of the US “machinery”
Discuss how learning happens at multiple levels
US1 = sensory experience of the stimulus
US2 & US3 = motivational value and incentive value of the stimulus
US4 = the motor, consumption of the stimulus
Discuss how food aversion works in terms of learning at diff levels
Somewhere along the chain of US1, 2, 3, and 4 you pair parts of the process with illness
Depending on the devaluation procedure used determines the stage that is associated with US1, 2, 3 or 4
Are CR’s a useful index of conditioning?
Yes but they don’t necessarily tell us WHAT is conditioned
Give an example of diff CRs occurring to the same US
US = shock
This elicits a fear response depending on which US stage is activated
US1 = direct sensory experience of the pain triggers the escape behaviour
US2 = emotional experience of shock eliciting fear, it triggers freezing behaviours
What happens when you have a discreet, threatening CS?
Avoidance behaviours eg. withdrawal, burying
What happens when you have a CS that is not discreetly located?
Freezing behaviours
Discuss the experiment that shows how animals learn diff things depending on the US.
2 phase experiment
1st phase: pigeons trained with either light and food or tone and food
2nd phase: took 2 more discreet light stimuli and paired them with stimuli previously associated with food = secondary conditioning
Do the pigeons w/ the tone start pecking the secondary discreet cue of the light?
They showed this behaviour which shows they are learning something about the stimuli in their environment
Give an example of where there is an interaction between CC and IC
2 CS paired with diff foods (CS1 = sucrose, CS2 = food)and animals learn the associations (classical)
Reuse the food in instrumental learning without the CS (instrumental)
- Pressing the lever reinforced with food
- Pull a chain reinforced with sucrose
Presenting the Pavlov cue changed the action the animal wanted to perform!
When CS1 is played, animal pulls the chain more
When CS2 is played, animal presses the lever more
Why is the experiment where there is an interaction between IC and CC important?
This is important in thinking how context can affect our behaviours
Idea of preparedness to learning
Properties of CS and US matter but also how they match up, some relationships are easier to learn than others
Discuss the cue-to-consequence effect experiment
Complex stimulus made up with flavour components and auto visual components
Every time the rat went to take a sip, there’s flavour a clicking noise happens and light goes on
Look at how presenting the clicks and light affect consumption and how the flavour affects it
When rat feels sick, flavour goes down and noise & light don’t do much.
When rat experiences shock, flavour doesn’t decrease but noise & light do.
Referred to as a cue-to-consequence effect
