Applications in Classical Conditioning Flashcards
What is aversion therapy?
A form of behaviour therapy that attempts to reduce the attractiveness of a desired event by associating it with an aversive stimulus.
Explain the compensatory-response model.
A model of conditioning where a conditioned stimulus that has been repeatedly associated with the primary response (a-process) to an unconditioned stimulus will eventually come to elicit a compensatory response (b-process).
What is counterconditioning?
The procedure where a conditioned stimulus that elicits one type of response is associated with an event that elicits an incompatible response.
Explain flooding therapy.
A behavioural treatment for phobias that involves prolonged exposure to a feared stimulus, providing maximum opportunity for the conditioned fear response to be extinguished.
Define incubation.
The strengthening of a conditioned fear response as a result of brief exposures to the aversive conditioned stimulus.
What is the overexpectation effect?
The decrease in the conditioned response that occurs when two separately conditioned conditioned stimuli are combined into a compound stimulus for further pairings with the unconditioned stimulus.
What is the preparatory-response theory?
A theory of classical conditioning that proposes that the purpose of the conditioned response is to prepare the organism for the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus.
Define preparedness.
An inherited predisposition within a species to learn certain kinds of associations more easily that others.
What is reciprocal inhibition?
The process where certain responses are incompatible with each other, and the occurrence of one response inhibits the other.
Explain the Rescorla-Wagner theory.
A theory of classical conditioning that proposes that a unconditioned stimulus can support only so much conditioning and that amount of conditioning must be distributed among the various CSs available.
What is selective sensitisation?
An increase in one’s reactivity to a potentially fearful stimulus following exposure to an unrelated stressful event.
What is the S-R (stimulus-response) model?
A model that assumes that the neutral stimulus becomes directly associated with the unconditioned response and therefore comes to elicit the same response as the unconditioned response.
What is the S-S (stimulus-stimulus) model?
A model that assumes that the neutral stimulus becomes directly associated with the unconditioned stimulus, and therefore comes to elicit a response that is related to that unconditioned stimulus.
Explain stimulus-substitution theory.
A theory of classical conditioning that proposes that the conditioned stimulus acts as a substitute for the unconditioned stimulus.
What is systematic desensitisation?
A behavioural treatment for phobias that involves pairing relaxation with a succession of stimuli that elicit increasing levels of fear.
Define temperament.
An individual’s base level of emotionality and reactivity to stimulation that, to a large extent, is genetically determined.
Who promoted the S-R approach?
Watson and Hull.
Who created stimulus-substitution theory?
Pavlov.
Unlike stimulus-substitution theory, preparatory-reponse theory allows for:
Situations where the CR and the UR are different.
What is the compensatory-response model similar to?
Opponent-process theory.
Which model has important implications for drug addiction?
Compensatory-response.
What is the Rescorla-Wagner explanation for overshadowing?
There is only so much associative value available for conditioning, and the more salient stimulus in the compound picks up most of the associative value.
What is the overexpectation effect associated with?
Rescorla-Wagner theory.
How do phobias represent overgeneralisation?
The conditioned fear response to one event has become generalised to other harmless events.
How are real phobias different from Little Albert’s fear conditioning?
They usually require only one pairing of the US and CS, and grow stronger over time.
Give some variables that may be involved in the development of phobic symptoms. (7)
Observational learning, temperament, preparedness, history of control, incubation, US revaluation, and selective sensitisation.
How can observational learning be implicated in the development of phobias?
Observing a fearful reaction in others.
Who named incubation?
Eysenck.
Name Wolpe’s three basic aspects of systematic desensitisation.
Training in relaxation, creation of a hierarchy of imaginary scenes that elicit progressively intense levels of fear, and pairing of each item in the hierarchy with relaxation.
Wolpe assumed that systematic desensitisation is a ___ procedure that works through the process of ___ ___.
Counterconditioning, reciprocal inhibition.
What is the evidence for systematic desensitisation as extinction?
The relaxation is not necessary for the fear to reduce.
Explain imaginal flooding.
The client is asked to vividly visualise a scenario involving the feared event in different situations.
What is the treatment of choice for phobic disorders?
Exposure-based treatments or exposure therapies.
What is aversion therapy called when it is carried out with imaginal stimuli?
Covert sensitisation.
Give two examples of an S-S association.
Blocking and US revaluation.
What have modern theories of conditioned attempted to explain (in terms of relationships)?
How the neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus become associated.
Name the phenomenon associated with stimulus-substitution theory.
Sign tracking.
Why is Pavlov’s theory both a S-R and an S-S theory?
On a cognitive level, a relationship forms between the US and NS, but behaviourally it predicts that the conditioned response will be similar to the unconditioned response.
What is the compensatory-response model a version of?
Preparatory-response theory.
Which model has implications for drug tolerance?
Compensatory-response model.
Stimulus associated with drug-use sometimes elicit ___-___ reactions rather than drug-compensatory reactions.
Drug-like.
Give the main assumption of Rescorla-Wagner theory.
Stronger unconditioned stimuli support more conditioning.
In Rescorla-Wagner theory, what does V stand for?
The associative value of the conditioned stimulus.
How does Rescorla-Wagner theory account for blocking?
The stimulus can acquire no associative value because all of the associative value has already been assigned to the first stimuli.
What does it mean to say that a CS has high associative value?
It is a strong predictor of the unconditioned stimulus.
Who originally proposed preparedness?
Valentine.
Explain history of control.
A history of being able to control important events in the environment.
Eysenck claimed that systematic desensitisation is:
Extinction.
What principle is flooding based on?
Extinction.
Give three names for the therapeutic use of modelling.
Participant modeling, contact desensitisation, or guided participation.
Describe taste aversion conditioning.
Pairing the taste of a substance with nausea.
Covert sensitisation will be less/more effective than aversion therapy.
Less.
Classical conditioning has important implications for understanding the ___ effect.
Placebo.
In classical conditioning terms, the placebo effect can be seen as the result of what?
Pairing the neutral stimulus (appearance of the drug) with the unconditioned stimulus (ingredients of the drug).
