3PavlovianConditioning2

Question 1

You are Pavlov’s dog. One particular guy always brings you food. You always salivate when you hear his footsteps or see him coming towards you. He starts bringing a friend along with him when he brings the food. One day that friend comes alone and your mouth is dry. What is this an example of?

Answer 1

Blocking

Question 2

You are still Pavlov’s dog. All sorts of people bring you food, but there is this old guy with a beard that never does. One day he comes along with a new person and you get some food. When that new person comes to visit you, you are salivating a lot. What is this?

Answer 2

Superconditioning

Question 3

You work at ‘The Office’. The guy across from you keeps offering you mints and it takes you a while to notice but he does it just before a computer tone sounds . What is this an example of?

Answer 3

Backward conditioning

Question 4

You think you have a conditioned inhibitor. You decide to do the retardation test first. What do you do?;
When you next do the summation test, what do you do?

Answer 4

Pair the inhibitor with a US & a neutral stimulus with the US over and over and compare CRs;
Present an excitatory stimulus alone and an excitatory stimulus together with the inhibitor and compare CRs

Question 5

What effect does CS pre-exposure have on learning?

Answer 5

Slows subsequent conditioning for that CS compared to a new stimulus

Question 6

Is CS pre-exposure due to habituation?

Answer 6

No, as CS pre-exposure is context specific & habituation is not; stimuli is also presented a lot more times with CS pre-exposure, so process takes longer

Question 7

If we pre-expose to CS, pre-expose to a different stimulus, & compare acquisition to CS, what do we find?;
So is CS pre-exposure due to inhibition conditioning?;

Answer 7

CS pre-exposure retards learning;

No, as it passes the retardation test but not the summation test

Question 8

Why is latent inhibition not the same as inhibitory conditioning?

Answer 8

When a pre-exposed CS is presented along with an excitatory stimulus, conditioned responding is not reduced compared to the excitatory stimulus alone (summation test not passed)

Question 9

You are walking in the forest and see something out of the corner of your eye. You jump back because you think it is a snake. It is actually a stick. What is happening here?

Answer 9

Generalisation

Question 10

How do we test if Pavlovian conditioning generalises?

Answer 10

Train CS(1) with US; test different groups with CS(1), CS(2), CS(3), etc; we’ll find most generalisation to similar stimuli

Question 11

When Moore (1972) paired a 1200Hz tone with an electric shock & measured 16 rabbits’ eye blink responses, what happened during the extinction phase?

Answer 11

Generalisation occurred with higher & lower frequencies; there was more response to similar tones (i.e. 800 & 1600 Hz)

Question 12

Does generalisation last?;

Through this process, what has now occurred?

Answer 12

Not after extensive training trials: each exposure of CS(1)-US refines association; provided CS(2) or CS(3) are not ever presented with US, there’s reduced responding to CS(2) & CS(3) over time;
Discrimination

Question 13

Define Generalisation

Answer 13

Other (similar) stimuli may also produce the CR; the more similar to the original CS, the more likely it is to elicit the CR

Question 14

Define Discrimination

Answer 14

Early on during acquisition, generalisation may cause the learner to respond to a variety of stimuli; as learning continues, the organism learns which CS seems to be best associated with US (they discriminate); more refined learning

Question 15

If Research finds that trace conditioning is less effective than short-delay conditioning, what does Theory do?

Answer 15

Explains why

Question 16

What is a Model in psychology?;
Some models are…;
And others are….

Answer 16

A formal attempt to explain a wide body of research; a simplified version of reality which makes predictions;
Mathematical;
Structural

Question 17

In developing a formal model of Pavlovian conditioning, what should the model be?

Answer 17

Independent of the conditioning procedure & should generate testable predictions

Question 18

What does the Rescorla-Wagner model attempt to explain?

Answer 18

How an organism learns the prediction of the US

Question 19

What do you think will cause the most learning to take place?

Answer 19

Experiencing an unexpected CS-US pairing

Question 20

According to the Rescorla-Wagner model, the level of conditioning is the result of an internal comparison between what?;
Expectation is based on what?;
The strength of the US is what?

Answer 20

Expected strength of the US & actual strength of the US;
Prior experience with the US (i.e., previous trials);
Fixed (e.g. mild shock)

Question 21

Describe the formula of the Rescorla-Wagner model

Answer 21

Delta V (change in associative value of CS) = Alpha (salience of CS) Beta (strength of US) [both of which are fixed for given learning context] x Lambda (magnitude of associative value/maximum conditioning strength of US) – V (current expectations/associative value of CS)

Question 22

If I’m using a soft tone as my CS and a weak shock as my US, how will learning occur as opposed to using a loud tone and a strong shock?

Answer 22

Slower

Question 23

Although previous models assumed that a CR gets stronger the more a CS is paired with a US, what does the Rescorla-Wagner model assume?

Answer 23

That a CR gets stronger if the CS-US pair is surprising

Question 24

I have learned that a tone means a mild shock is coming. I see a yellow light and hear a tone and experience a mild shock. What will I learn about the yellow light?

Answer 24

I will learn nothing about the yellow light

Question 25

Kamin (1968) found that rats ignored a light if the light happened at the same time as a noise that they had previously learned predicted a shock. How do Rescorla-Wagner explain this blocking effect?

Answer 25

By saying that the light doesn’t change how surprised the rat is at being shocked; the rat ignores the light because it already expects the shock to happen because of the noise.

Question 26

If a rat sees a light and it doesn’t get shocked, it will associate the light with not being shocked. When that light is paired with a tone the rat gets shocked. As a result, the rat learns that tone = shock much more quickly than otherwise. Why do Rescorla-Wagner predict this superconditioning will occur?

Answer 26

Because of the surprise involved (previous conditioning theories would not predict superconditioning)

Question 27

Why are theories about associative learning important?

Answer 27

Evidence is synthesised into theories & models, which make predictions, which are tested by evidence, & repeated

Question 28

Before Rescorla-Wagner, people assumed classical conditioning was purely about associations. Now what do we think?

Answer 28

That classical conditioning is about information processing (About what’s happening now & what’s coming next)

Question 29

Which phenomena does Rescorla-Wagner have difficulty explaining/predicting?

Answer 29

CS Pre-exposure (Latent inhibition)

Question 30

According to Mackintosh’s (1975) Predictiveness model, correlation with reinforcement determines what?;
If a stimulus is better correlated with a consequence than other stimuli that accompany it, then what will happen?;
Based on this model, conditioning to a pre-exposed stimulus is retarded why?

Answer 30

The amount of attention a stimulus receives;
Attention to the stimulus will increase, and attention to the other stimuli will decrease;
Because it was repeatedly paired with nothing (less attention is paid to it because it didn’t predict anything to happen)

Question 31

According to Pearce & Hall’s (1980) model about Predictive Error, stimuli that accurately predict the events that follow them will receive how much attention?;
Based on this model, why is conditioning to a pre-exposed stimulus retarded?

Answer 31

Little attention, whereas those that inaccurately predict these events will be paid considerable attention.;
Because it is a predictable stimulus (less attention is paid to it than a new/unpredictable stimulus)

Question 32

Though certain studies do show that attention is more substantial to cues that are more predictive of an outcome than to cues that are irrelevant, what do other studies also show?

Answer 32

That attention is more substantial to cues whose outcomes are uncertain than to cues whose outcomes are predictable
(Evidence for both views)

Question 33

In regular classical conditioning, acquiring a CR requires dozens of trials associating the CS and the US, & long-delay conditioning (more than a few seconds) is less effective. With taste aversion, how is this law violated?;
While it goes against the rules, why is there good reason for this?

Answer 33

You can acquire a taste aversion after one single association; the time between you eating the food and getting sick can be as long as 24 hours;
It takes a while to feel sick after eating food; it’s really important to know which foods are bad to eat as quickly as possible

Question 34

What did Garcia & Koelling (1966) find that contradicts the equipotentiality theory & the concept that all associations are learned equally?;
What is this effect known as?

Answer 34

Some associations are learned faster than others;

The Garcia Effect or Preparedness

Question 35

In Garcia & Koelling’s study with rats, they paired compound stimuli: a taste, noise & light with a shock (US) & then the same 3 CSs with sickness (another US). What was found in the test phase?;
What does this result violate?

Answer 35

The rats associated feeling sick with taste & not noise + light, even though all had been presented together;
they also associated shock with noise & light
(shows learning what was associated with what); Equipotentiality - some things naturally go together

Question 36

Define Preparedness according to Seligman;

Prepared associations lead to what?

Answer 36

Dimension on which associations between CSs & USs differ;

Faster acquisition & slower extinction

Question 37

What is measured in Differential Conditioning?;

In Olsson et al.’s (2005) fear conditioning research, what was found during the extinction phase?

Answer 37

Difference in CR to the CS+ and CS-; e.g. 2 fear related images: snake as CS+ & spider as CS- & 2 non-fear related images: mushroom as CS+ & flower as CS-; then measure skin conductance response;
Extinction was slower in the fear relevant groups, despite no longer being shocked

Question 38

In Olsson et al.’s second experiment, black and white (American) participants viewed images of unfamiliar Black and White males, what were the results?

Answer 38

Fear of racial outgroups was only slightly more in acquisition, but extinction of fear much slower in outgroup conditions for both races

Question 39

There are usually similar environmental cues when heroin is taken. The endocrine system associates these cues with taking heroin, and ramps up the tolerance response. What if those cues are not present?

Answer 39

The body isn’t as prepared to tolerate heroin & overdose is more likely (an e.g. of the UR and CR being different)

Question 40

In Siegal et al.’s (1982) heroin overdose experiment with rats, the mortality rate in the same room was 32.4%, in a different room: 64.3% & for controls: 96.4%. What does this suggest?

Answer 40

Context conditioning affects tolerance

Question 41

In clinical psychology, a program of presenting the CS without the US is called what?;
Why do phobias persist?

Answer 41

Systematic desensitisation;
People avoid situations where they see the phobic object (avoid opportunities to extinguish fear); they can be self-sustaining (e.g., trying to overcome a fear of crowds can leave you feeling very embarrassed)

Question 42

Systematic desensitisation gradually exposes the client to the phobic object in a gradual way. Explain the process

Answer 42

A fear hierarchy is constructed; participant is given relaxation training; psychologist gradually exposes the client to things higher on the fear hierarchy as they relax