Behaviour Modification (Classical Conditioning) Flashcards
Are most behaviour problems abnormal?
No, normal from animal’s standpoint, but an issue for the owner
What would be considered an abnormal behaviour
Patterns that are maladaptive, serve no purpose (even to the animal in the wild)
What is behaviour modification
Intentional/structured use of conditioning or learning procedures to modify behaviour
What does habituation prevent?
Continuous/needless fright by chronic/harmless stimuli
What is habituation
US causes emotional activation, but after repetitive/chronic presentations, changes to weak activation then no emotional activation
What age habituates easier
Younger animals
Is habituation always on purpose? Example?
No, can occur when animal naturally tunes something out
e.g. traffic on busy roads
What is desensitization
An intentional or structured habituation program
When a stimulus is presented repetitively at full strength during desensitization, this is…
Flooding
What can flooding cause, explain
Learned helplessness
The animal stops responding to the stimulus but only because there is no way to escape
How is desensitization different than flooding
It is a gradual process, relies on the animal telling you when they’re ready for the next step
Does habituation require maintenance?
Yes, period exposure to stimuli required
Systematic desensitization is…
Gradual desensitization
Stimulus that produces fear presented mildly
Once animal is habituated to mild, increase intensity
Once animal habituated to that intensity, gradually increase until habituated to stimulus at full strength
briefly explain Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning
When dogs fed every morning, the bell on the door would ring
Dogs salivated when bell rung
What is an unconditioned reflex
One we are born with, do not depend on experience
Explain US, UR, CS and CR
US = stimulus that naturally/involuntarily causes a response
UR = unlearned response to US
CS = previously neutral stimulus that once associated with the US, triggers a CR
CR = learned response to previously neutral stimulus (CS)
Classical conditioning is what kind of learning
Associative learning
What are the types of temporal paradigm
Simultaneous: overlap of bell and feeding
Delayed: bell occurs for long period, food given at end of period
Trace: anticipatory. bell occurs, then dog has to wait awhile for food
Backward: food occurs before bell, bell becomes inhibitory
A positive response to a stimulus is also known as..
appetitive
Unpleasant emotional reactions are also known as…
Aversive
Example of aversive classical conditioning
US (pain) = aversive emotion
CS (syringe) = US (pain = aversive emotion
CS (syringe) = aversive emotional reaction
What is happening during acquisition and extinction
Acquisition = repeated parings of CS and US lead to larger/more reliable CR
Extinction = CS repeated consistently without US, Cr becomes weaker/less reliable
Example of extinction
A dog shown meat (CS) but never gets to eat it (US), so does not salivate (CR)
What is conditioned suppression
CS paired with aversive US (shock) leads to negative CR (flinching, freezing)
A CS that reliably predicts a US and effectively produces a CR is…
excitatory CS
A CS that reliably predicts NO US and does not produce a CR is…
inhibitory CS
What is generalization
When a CS (bell A) has been established, similar stimuli (bell B) may also produce CR. Magnitude dependent on similarity to the CS
What is discrimination learning
If bell A is presented with food, and bell B is presented sometimes without food, generalized response will fade
Differentiation
The US is what kind of response? Give examples
Physiological response
e.g. food, electric shock, loud noise, caffeine
Two types of US
Appetitive or aversive
What kind of US more readily produces a CR
an intense one
How noticeable a CS is/its intensity is called…
Salience
What is salience important for
Establishing the stimulus as the CS (how well it is detected)
What happens when two stimuli are presented together, both of which could be a CS?
The more salient one overpowers the other one
Sensitization is also known as
Pseudoconditioning
Pseudoconditioning is what type of learning
Non-associative
What is pseudoconditioning
When a CS produces a response that looks like a CR, but no US has been paired
e.g. air puff (US) produces eye blink (UR)
CS should not be any stimuli that naturally produces an eye blink
What are the two types of association that may be learned through classical conditioning?
S-S association (stimulus-stimulus)
S-R association (stimulus-response)
What is S-S association
Appearance of CR means CS has substituted US
e.g. light paired with food in dogs, dogs will lick the light
What is S-R association
Association between CS and the last response made to it
Explain Harlow’s research on S-R association in chimps
buzzer (CS) + bag pop (US) = fear (CR)
Harlow then habituated chimps to bag pop while they were eating = no fear
BUT, when presented with CS, still presented as fearful
Why were the chimps scared of the buzzer in Harlow’s research
Because fear was produced the last time the buzzer was present
Association made between CS (buzzer) and CR (fear)
Difference between use of food in operant vs classical conditioning
Operant = food would act as reward for when the CR (salivation) appears
Classical = food is an elicitor which produces a strong CR (salivation) by producing a strong UR (eating)
In classical conditioning, responses are not maintained by their __________
Consequences
