4.2 Contingency & Conditioning

Question 1

Is TC sufficient or necessary for learning?

Answer 1

No - the CS and US is not required to be co-occurring together in time for us to learn something about it

TC is not necessary for learning eg. Food aversion

Question 2

Give examples of TC being insufficient for learning

Answer 2

TC has to be present and no learning happen for it be considered insufficient

Overshadowing and blocking are examples of TC being insufficient

Question 3

Define contingency

Answer 3

The relationship between 2 events

Question 4

What did the results of Rescorla’s truly random control show?

Answer 4

Due to the extra shocks that occur when CS isn’t present, we don’t get conditioning

Suggests the occurrence of the CS must be contingent on the presence of the US

Causality driving conditioning

Question 5

What does contingency imply?

Answer 5

Contingency implies causality

Conditioning is an attempt of animals to understand causal relationships in the world

When the CS does not “cause” the US = no causality, no contingency & no learning

Question 6

When does conditioning occur in terms of contingencies?

Answer 6

Conditioning occurs when there is a +ve contingency

We care about what happens when the CS is present and when it is absent

Question 7

What is it called when the probabilities of CS and US occurring are equal?

Answer 7

Zero contingency

Question 8

Who came up with a way of systematically investigating contingency?

Answer 8

Rescorla

Question 9

How did Rescorla (1968) show how contingency affects conditioning?

Answer 9

Rats on PRft schedule - noise followed by shock on 40% of CS presentations
CS and US do not always occur together

Systematically varied the rate of US occurrence in the ABSENCE of the CS
In instances where no CS, there were 4 groups:

0 group = no CS and no US (No shock when CS is absent)

0. 1 group = no CS, US 10% of time
1. 2 group = no CS, US 20% of time
2. 4 group = no CS, US 40% of time (4 more shocks when CS is absent)

Question 10

What does a suppression ratio of 0 imply?

Answer 10

You have learned a lot

Question 11

What gives the best learning in terms of the probability equation?

Answer 11

The largest difference between the 2 sides of the probability equation gives the best learning

Question 12

Which group in Rescorla’s 1968 experiment learnt the most about contingency?

Answer 12

0 group learnt the most about the contingency - experienced no shocks when CS is absent so learnt the causal relationship between CS and US

Question 13

Which group in Rescorla’s 1968 experiment learnt the least about contingency?

Answer 13

0.4 group learnt little because US occurred without CS so causal relationship is less clear - do not stop pressing the lever as no conditioned anxiety experienced

Question 14

Does it matter how many shocks are presented?

Answer 14

No - the absolute value of the shocks is not what leads you to being afraid

Depends on what you are specifically afraid of i.e. the CS

Question 15

Describe the experiment that shows what happens if probability of US in presence of CS is less than probability of US in the absence of CS.

Answer 15

The setup is that whenever there is a noise, there is never a shock that appears at the same time

Only in the absence of noise do you get a shock

Explicit -ve contingency that is being set up

Question 16

Under the conditions of an explicit -ve contingency being set up, do we still get learning?

Answer 16

Yes - inhibitory conditioning occurs

The animal learns a safety signal - the tone means safety as no shock will occur

This contrasts excitatory conditioning

Question 17

How did Gallistel view conditioning?

Answer 17

The process of conditioning is use seeking out information

Conditioning = computational process where trying to work when/if important event occurs

Only going to learn if there is worthwhile info there to be learnt about
If the CS carries no meaning, there is no learning

CS that carry the most info are the ones we learn the most about

Question 18

Reference Shannon’s information theory when explaining conditioning

Answer 18

When we seek out info, it is all about the reduction of uncertainty in the receiver - it is not about how much info is conveyed by the signaller

Exchange of info between signaller and receiver

What is important is what happens on the receiver end and whether there is reduction in uncertainty or not

Question 19

What happens when the CS provides useful info and how do we quantify this?

Answer 19

The animal will learn that it is a useful predictor

We can quantify how useful a CS is through observing how the animal responds

There will be no responding to useless CS’s

Question 20

Give an example of meaningful CS’s in terms of catching trains.

Answer 20

Example: catching train to uni during peak time

Trains come every 5 mins, the train announcement doesn’t carry much info because train comes every 5 mins so don’t listen

Trains less frequent, listen out for train announcement to know when the next train is - this CS (train announcement) provides you with a lot of info

Question 21

What is important for conditioning?

Answer 21

Ratio of the “interval between US’s: CS duration”

It reduces the amount of uncertainty by a proportionate amount