9a. Learning about the World and the Psychology of Action Flashcards
Animal Cognition Quote
Lloyd Morgan 1903
““In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted in terms of higher psychological processes if it can be fairly interpreted in terms of processes which stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution and development”
2 Types of Behaviour
- Unleared
- Learned
Unlearned Behaviours
- 2 Basic Level Behaviour Types
Simple spinal reflexes and brainstem reflexes critical for survival
- Respiratory movements
- Pain withdrawal reflexes
- Postural control
- Salivation
Autonomic function
- Regulation of heart rate
- Maintenance of blood pressure via vascular smooth muscle tone
Unlearned Behaviours
- 2 Complex Level Behaviour Types
Swallowing, which involves >10 muscles in precise temporal order
Complex innate species specific behaviours, which are highly stereotypical
- Egg rolling in female greyly geese
Female GreyLay Geese
Egg rolling - unlearned (innate), complex, species-specific, stereotypical behaviour
Will continue the movement if the egg is replaced with another object, or even removed
Learned Behaviours
- 2 Mechanisms
- Pavlovian conditioning
- Instrumental conditioning
Pavlovian Conditioning
- Date
First described by Pavlov in 1927
Learned Behaviour
Animals and humans are readily able to learn associations between environmental stimuli and movements/actions
Pavlovian Conditioning
- Definition
Describes the acquisition of a new response to a previously neutral stimulus as a result of experiencing a predictive relationship between the neutral stimulus and a biologically relevant stimulus.
This predictive relationship is independent of the animal’s behaviour.
Pavlovian Conditioning
- Example
Pairing presentation of food (unconditioned stimulus), which generates salivation (unconditioned response), with a bell (neutral stimulus) so that the bell (conditioned stimulus) causes salivation (conditioned response).
Pavlovian Conditioning
- Neural Basis
3 possible associations form
- CS-response association
- CS-US association
- CS-affect association
Pavlovian Conditioning
- CS-Response Association Description
Simple stimulus response association
Carries no information about US
Devaluing US would have no effect on response - LiCl contamination of food which causes strong nausea would have no effect on salivation
Pavlovian Conditioning
- CS-Response Association Mapping
Mapped by Krupa et all in 1993
Found to work via the deep nuclei of the cerebellum
Pavlovian Conditioning
- Cs-Response Association Evidence
Demonstrated in:
- Aplysia by Kandel in 1991
- Rabbit eye blink conditioning process
Pavlovian Conditioning
- CS-US Association Description
Pavlov’s theory of the neural mechanism
Carries no information about the US
Devaluing US would reduces salivation - LiCl contamination of food which causes strong nausea would reduce salivation
- This does occur
Pavlovian Conditioning
- CS-Affect Associations Description
Emotionally/motivationally significant US:
- Fear association
- Reward expectation
Used extensively to study conditioned fear and is highly relevant to negative emotional dysregulation in humans, such as the fear potentiated startle and cued conditioned fear
Rescorla Wagner Model
- Description
Describes Pavlovian Conditioning
Formulates a value (V = 0-1) for the associative strength of synapses in each association
Proposes that an animal learns the associations by comparing what they think is going to happen against what happens, where the larger the surprise the more is learned.
Rescorla-Wagner Model
- Date
Formulated by Rescorla dan Wagner in 1972
Rescorla-Wagner Model
- US
The US-response association always generates a high V value as there is strong synaptic association
Pavlovian Conditioning
- Blocking
Blocking is where one full predictive conditioned stimulus blocks learning about another fully predictive conditioned stimulus when presented simultaneously.
This can be explain by the Rescorla-Wagner Model as the first fully predictive conditioned stimulus means that there is no surprise when the US is presented, so nothing new is learnt
Pavlovian Conditioning
- 3 Adaptation Examples
- Birds learn to fly after 1-2 trials
Birds learn quickly not to eat bad tasting poisonous catapillars of the Cinnabar Moth - Honeybees associate flower colour with sugar content - Experimentally investigated using artificial flowers
Pavlovian Conditioning
- Adaptation
Some pavlovian conditioning can be learnt fast, particularly when it is highly advantageous to the animal
Instrumental Conditioning
- Date
First described in 1911 by Thordike
Instrumental Conditioning
- First Experiment
Thordike placed cats in a puzzle box, and upon successful repetition they took less and less time for the cat to perform the behaviour to open the box.
Instrumental Conditioning
- Description
Instrumental conditioning involves an animal’s behaviour bringing about an outcome. Associations form between the behaviour and the outcome
Instrumental Conditioning is not Explicable in Terms of Pavlovian Conditioning
Grindley showed this in 1932
Guinea pig was trained by 2 contingencies:
- Pavlovian contingency = buzzer sounds as a carrot is presented directly in front of them
- Instrumental contingency = turn head to the left to gain access to the carrot
Reversing the head turning relationship, so that the head must be turned to the right, to gain access to the carrot was learned, even through the pavlovian contingency remained the same.
This indicates that behaviour is controlled by instrumental contingency
Pavlovian Conditioning is not Explicable in Terms of Instrumental Conditioning
Sheffield showed this
Dog was trained using 2 contingencies:
- Pavlovian contingency = associate the sound of a bell with food so that the bell induces salivation
- Instrumental contingency = if the dog salivates the food is not given
However, salivation cannot be controlled by an instrumental contingency
Pavlovian and Instrumental Behaviours
Some behaviours can be controlled by pavlovian conditioning:
- Salivation
- Chick’s walking
Other behaviours can be controlled by instrumental conditioning:
- Head turning
- Lever pressing
Instrumental Conditioning
- Neural Basis
- Stimulus-response associations
- Goal directed behaviour
Instrumental Conditioning
- Stimulus-Response Association Description
Stimulus triggers the performance of a behaviour which leads to an outcome generated with environmental contingency.
The outcome strengthens the neural association between stimulus and behaviour
Model-free habit learning as there is no representation of the outcome making this link relatively inflexible
Devaluing the outcome would have no effect on the stimulus response
Instrumental Conditioning
- Goal-Directed Learning
Stimulus is given neural representation which triggers modelling of the action and predicted outcome, and assessment of its value, which feeds into the action generator to influence behaviour.
Devaluing the outcome reduces the stimulus response
Pavlovian and Instrumental Interaction
- 2 Examples
- Pavlovian to intrumental transfer (PIT)
- Conditioned reinforcement
PIT
- Experiment
Rat is trained with Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning:
- Pavlovian conditioning = bell is associated with sucrose
- Instrumental contingency = lever pressing is associated with sucrose
A PIT probe is performed, where a rat is presented with a bell or a light alongside the lever. When the bell is presented lever pressing increases, showing that pavlovian conditioned stimuli that predicts sucrose enhances the goal-directed response of lever pressing that is also paired with sucrose
PIT
- Description
Pavlovian instrumental transfer
Pavlovian conditioned stimuli can modulate instrumental performance
Conditioned Reinforcement
- Description
Animals will perform a behaviour to gain a conditioned stimuli (instrumental) previously paired with a reward (pavlovian), even when the reward is removed.
Conditioned Reinforcement
- Example
A rat is trained by:
- Pavlovian conditioning to associate a bell with sucrose
- Instrumental conditioning to press a lever to hear a bell
A rat will still press a lever to receive the bell, even if it no longer receives the sucrose reward
