Behaviour Modification A Flashcards
Flooding
A method of desensitization involving frequent, repetitive exposure to a stimuli at full intensity
An unfavorable outcome of flooding
Learned helplessness, when an animal does not react to a stimuli due to being overwhelmed and paralyzed with fear rather than being habituated to it
Desensitization
A method of using structured, repeated exposure to a stimulus in order to eliminate a stress or fear response in an animal and encourage a lack of emotional activation by creating a neutral association
Habituation
The process of slowly eliminating a response to a stimulus by repeated, consistent exposure to it
Behaviour modification
The use of various strategies to encourage a certain behaviour or to unlearn a problem behaviour
Abnormal/abhorrent behaviour
Maladaptive behaviour exhibited by an animal that does not serve any purpose to it (even in the wild)
Ethological approach
Observing an animal in the environment they live in to assess behavioural concerns.
Understanding that behaviours are probably normal to the animal, and may serve a welfare purpose, but are considered undesirable to the caregivers
Unconditioned stimulus
A stimulus that causes a natural, involuntary response. No correlation with anything (the smell of food)
Unconditioned response
An innate, unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus (drooling at the smell of food)
Conditioned stimulus
A previously neutral stimulus that has become associated with an unconditioned stimulus. Produces a conditioned response (bell at feeding time)
Conditioned response
A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus (drooling at the sound of a bell)
Associative learning
classical conditioning
How does an unconditioned stimulus eventually produce a conditioned response?
Repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus (food) leads the conditioned stimulus (bell) to assume some of the response -eliciting power of the US. Eventually the animal associates the CS with the US. The animal has a conditioned response to the CS when it occurs in the absence of the US.
Respondent conditioning
classical conditioning/ associative learning
Does Pavlov say that all behaviour can be described as a collection of conditioned reflexes?
No.
Describe the temporal paradigm of classical conditioning
TRACE pairings where the CS comes a few seconds before the US develops the CR fastest
Learning occurs slower with DELAYED pairings
SIMULTANEOUS pairing can overwhelm and distract the animal, this prevents learning
BACKWARDS pairings renders the CS inhibitory (prevents the association from forming)
Pseudoconditioning
sensitization
non-associative learning, when a conditioned stimulus produces a response but is not paired with a US, so is not a CR
eg. puff of air causes blink, but so does a bright flash of light
aversive
bad feeling, repellant, remembered much more readily than pleasant experiences
aversive reaction
unpleasant response to a stimulus
e.g. fear
acquisition
learning, forming an association
repeated pairings of the conditioned stimulus (bell) with the unconditioned stimulus (food)
conditioned response becomes more reliable and stronger
extinction
unlearning, removing an association
repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus (bell) without the unconditioned stimulus (food)
the conditioned response becomes weaker and occurs less often
Conditioned suppression
conditioned stimulus is paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus
produces a responce like flinching or freezing
can be mistaken as a lack of response (not the same as flooding)
excitatory
a CS that reliably predicts (always get food after clicker) an US and is effective in producing a CR
inhibitory
A CS that predicts NO US (never get food after the clicker) and is ineffective at producing a CR
May produce an opposite response to the CR
