Chapter 2 Flashcards
a process
primary process
in the opponent process theory of motivation
first process of the opponent process theory of motivation that is elicited by a biologically significant stimulus
afferent neuron
a neuron that transmits messages from sense organs to the CNS
appetitive behaviour
behaviour that occurs early in a natural behaviour sequence and serves to bring the organism in contact with a releasing stimulus
B process
opponent process in the opponent process theory of motivation
Consummatory behaviour
behaviour that serves to bring a natural sequence of behaviour to consummation or completion. Usually species-typical modal action patterns
drug tolerance
reduction in the effectiveness of a drug as a result of repeated use of the drug
efferent neuron
motor neuron
transmist impulses to muscles
fatigue
a temporary decrease in behaviour caused by repeated or excessive use of the muscles involved in the behaviour
occurs at the muscle!
focal search mode
the second component of the feeding behaviour sequence following general search, in which the organism engages in behaviour focused on a particular location or stimulus that is indicative if the presence of food. Focal search is a form of appetitive behaviour that is more closely related to food than general search
Food handling and ingestion mode
the last component of the feeding behaviour sequence, in which the organism handles and consumes food
similar to consummatory behaviour
general search mode
the earliest component of the feeding behaviour sequence, in which the organism engages in non directed locomotor behaviour.
general search is is a form of appetitive behaviour
habituated effect
a progressive decrease in the vigor of elicited behaviour that may occur with repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus
habituation process
a neural mechanism activated by repetitions of a stimulus that reduces the magnitude of responses elicited by that stimulus
interneuron
in the spinal cord that transmits impulses from afferent to efferent neurons
modal action pattern (MAP)
a response pattern exhibited by most, if not all members of a species in much the same way. MAPs are used as basic units of behaviour in ethological investigations of behaviour
opponent process
a compensatory mechanism that occurs in response to the primary process elicited by biologically significant events. The opponent process causes physiological and behavioural changes that are the opposite of those caused by the primary process.
reflex definition
a close relation between an eliciting stimulus and a resulting response that is mediated by a neural circuit (the reflex arc) that links afferent neurons activated by the stimulus with efferent neurons that trigger response output. As a consequence, the eliciting stimulus usually produces the reflex response, which rarely occurs otherwise
sign stimulus (releasing stimulus)
a specific feature of an object or animal that elicits a modal action pattern
feature or combination of features that elicit the behaviour
Sensitization effect
an increase in the vigor of elicited behaviour that may result from repeated presentations of the eliciting or from exposure to s strong extraneous stimulus
sensitization process
a neural mechanism that increases the magnitude of responses elicited by a stimulus
sensory adaptation
a temporary reduction in the sensitivity of sense organs caused by repeated or excessive stimulation
occurs at the sense organs
ex. blinded by a bright light temporarily
a change in the state of the afferent neuron or in the sensory organ that goes to the interneuron
spontaneous recovery
return of responding to baseline levels produced by a period of rest after habituation or sensitization
S-R system
the shortest neural pathway that connects the sense organs stimulated by an eliciting stimulus and the muscles involved in making the elicited response
state system
neural structures that determines the general level of responsiveness, or arousal of the organism
supernormal stimulus
a sign stimulus whose features have been artificially enhanced or exaggerated to produce an abnormally large MAP
exaggerating the original sign stimulus
provokes even more responding
ex. with the beetles and the beer bottles
Behaviour is not __________ flexible
infinitely
elicited behaviour
occurs in response to stimuli
- reflex/instinctinve behaviour that occurs in response to the environment
behaviour is controlled by the stimulus!
- pre existing behaviour systems
- range from 3 neurons to complex emotional responses
- general across all animals
/Users/mackenzieroth/Dropbox/Screenshots/Screenshot 2016-01-28 14.32.55.png
basic 3 neurone reflex
- doesn’t involve the brain!
- because of how the system is set up you don’t need more neurons/the brain to be involved
- even simple organisms without ability of complex thought can do these and it helps them survive
- lots of medicine is formed around the workings of the neurons, ex. knee jerk response at the doctor
What is a reflex?
reflexes are hard wired systems (a particular set of neurons that have a specific purpose, they are innate/built in and don’t need a lot of involvement from the brain )
Reflexes are adaptive
- contribute to an animals wellbeing/survival
ex. eyeblink, gag, head turning in infants (touching an infants cheek causes them to turn their head, helps with suckling!)
What are MAPs?
slightly more complex than general reflexes
species specific instincts
genetically programmed
MAPs are seen for: aggression., predator avoidance, catching prey
occur in subsets of animals
ex. Goose egg rolling
Web -building is an example of…
MAP web building not taught this do it from birth able to do, built in behaviour fairly complex, but not necessarily learned
MAP Harring gulls example
harring gulls
adult fees the chick
chick pecks at parent peak and parent vomits up food
adult has on its beak underside a bright red spot
and that spot is where the chick will peck
a sign stimulus
the chick pecks the adult peak because they want food, but obviously this is not the real reason they peck because they will peck the pencil. Therefore its a reflex at this point!
= reflexive can be maladaptive in their inflexibility***
ex. chick pecks at red branch instead of parent and starves
pecked the red pencil even more than the real parent!
MAPs Cuckoo Bird example
rude parasite (ex. cuckoo bird)
will lay eggs in other birds nests
so that the foster parent will feed and raise the bird
baby cukoos are bright and have large mouths
the foster parent will feed the cuckoo to the exclusion of its own young (because the cuckoo is exploiting the sign stimulus (ex. the begging call and red gaping mouth)
Contrary to _______ beliefs, elicited behaviour is _________ fixed. Why?
Decartes’
not
Because repeated stimulation can alter the behavioural response!
Habituation
decrease in response intensity with repeated stimulus presentations
- example of learning, change in behaviour due to repeated exposure to stimuli
- it could be detrimental if you didn’t have habituation (couldn’t sleep, could’t eat)
Habituation in the startle response
long term habituation
- when stimuli are presented spaced over time
- slow, stable
- (not a lot of learning opportunity on a daily basis)
Short term habituation
- when stimuli are presented close together over time
- fats, volatile
_____ habituation tends to last longer than _____ habituation
long term
short term
sensitization
increase in vigour of behaviour that can result from repeated presentations of a stimulus, or by arousal from extraneous stimulus
sensitization ex. rats with background noise
rats with high background noise were more startled by the loud noise
will startle more over time
change in the reflex for the reflex to get stronger because of the background noise
Stimulus specificity
Epstein et al. (1992)
Gave human subjects lemon or lime juice
- measured saliva output over trials
(reflex response)
- measured hedonic ratings over trials
results: habituation in how much they enjoyed the juice and how much they salivated.
when given the other juice the reflex response goes up again (almost back to normal)
Habituation is _______ specific
highly
its important to only habituate to the “safe” background noises and still be startled/aroused by the new noises
sensitization is ______ specific . Why?
often not
want to have startle response to watch for predators (have to distinct sounds) its important to only habituate to the “safe” background noises and still be startled/aroused by the new noises
anxiety and sensitization
people with anxiety disorders often have stronger startle responses
PTSD
startle responses will be to lots of things (even to innoculous stimuli (harmless sounds etc)).
habituation in looking response
Bashisnki et al. (1985)
examined human infant visual fixation to artificial stimuli
- over trials, infants fixated longer to complex rather than simple stimuli
- the nature of the stimulus can either cause sensitization or habituation
- something about the 12x12 stimulus is stimulating for the baby (unlike the 4x4), they want to look at it longer the second time!
- initial sensitization in the response (even though they’ve already seen this one before)
followed by habituation
stimulus specificity and infants
fixation trials are the gold standard for testing infants
- habituate to one target, and sensitize to the other target
- used to study novelty
- sensitization effect followed by habituation
What is not habituation?
sensory adaptation
fatigue
classical conditioning
CNS is the site of
habituation and sensitization
Classical conditioning vs. Habituation
classical conditioning: an associative change from no response to a response
Habituation: a non-associative change in reflexive responding (not creating a new response)
when the animal has been habituated to a stimulus, and then you stop presenting the stimulus for a time and then you present the stimulus again
spontaneous recovery
- loss of habituate after intervening time
long term: habituation lasts longer, less chance of spontaneous recovery
short term habituation does not last as long, and you get spontaneous recovery more often!
Startle response in rats: dishabituation
rapid decay of habituation after novel stimulus
present novel stimulus, after habituating the animal to a different stimulus. You see a large response to the new stimulus and to the original stimulus (a dishabituation to the origial response they go back to the original startle response)
you see a large increase in the startle reopens due to the presentation of something new
the novel stimulus does’t need to be in the same modality as the original stimulus
Advantages of habituation
allows animals to focus on important features of the environment, while ignoring features that do not provide unique or important information
allows animals to conserve energy and to carry on their daily lives
Functional habituation (seals and whales)
seals need to avoid killer whales in the wild
tested harbour seal behaviour in response to three stimulus classes
- familiar mammal eating whales
- familiar fish eating whales
- unfamiliar fish eating whales
tested behaviour in response to vocalizations made by the different killer whale types
reaction of seals in baseline and familiar fish eaters sounds is very similar = habituation
seals have learned that these sounds mean that they won’t be hunted
reaction of seals is very strong and innate when hearing the mammal eaters and the unfamiliar fish eaters
= seals think they’ll be hunted!
neophobia
fear of new things
wildlife and neophobia
habituation leads to loss of fear for novel stimuli
wildlife interact with us.
these animals have learned that these things don’t signal danger,and its not until they get tranquilized/killed that they realize its a bad thing.
Obesity and habituation
suggests that it is easier for non-obese people to maintain their weight because the food loses its value as they eat it
tested response to yogurt:
- in the non-obese group, there is habituation of their salivary response
- in the obese group there is no salivary habituation
- something about the habituation in the hedonic or salivary responses to food that can lead to obesity
- infer link that makes food more value/less likely to be habituated to in obese individuals
what is it good to be plastic in behavioural responses to elicited stimuli
habituation and sensitization effects are end products of processes that focus behaviour to respond to important stimuli
Dual-process theory of habituation and sensitization
this is an underlying (neural) process that is presumed to cause behaviours that are habituation and sensitization effects
- two processes
- habituation process and sensitization process
these processes are not mutually exclusive
end result could occur because of both these processes working against each other
effects
observable behaviour
processes
mechanisms underlying observable behaviour
what effect is observed depends on the relative strength of the ________ at work
processes
Habituation process occurs in the _______ system
S-R system
- shortest neural pathway that connects the sense organ to the muscle to produce an elicited response
- always activated when the eliciting stimulus is present
- stimulus specific (if X happens over time the system will build up habituation)
Sensitization process occurs in the ______ system
state system
- neural structures that determine the general level of arousal an organism is experiencing
- not always activated
- not stimulus specific
- ex. how afraid am I right now?
- not due to any particular stimulus
ex. how excited am I?
ex. amygdala
- bad to always be at a high state of arousal
emotional responses and after effects
Biphasic
- one emotion during the eliciting stimulus
- opposite emotion when eliciting stimulus is terminated
Change with experience
drug tolerance
decline in the effectiveness of the drug with repeated exposures
opponent process theory of motivation
characteristics of emotional responses
- biphasic
- primary becomes weaker with repeated stimulation
- accompanied by strengthening after-reaction
- lead to OPTM
- homeostatic
emotional changes are the net effect of
the primary and opponent processes of the opponent process theory
Opponent process theory of motivation mechanisms
initial stimulus exposure
a process: happens immediately (ramps up slowly) with administration of caffeine, a process decreases as Caffeine leaves the body vigilance response (constrict of blood vessels, alertness)
Weak b process: wants to get the body back into a normal state (homeostatic process)
dilate blood vessels
Opponent process theory of motivation mechanisms
after repeated stimulus exposure
little to do with the actual effects of the drug, and has to do with the body working harder to decrease the drug’s effects on the body! It’s all about homeostasis!
decrease in reaction to caffeine
much larger opponent emotion immediately after
opponent proces is exact same magnitudee of he a process
the difference is that the b process is now a lot stronger and has its effects almost immediately at stimulus onset
Why drug addiction?
sustain use to alleviate opponent effects that are experienced when the stimulus (the drug) is withdrawn
drugs are taken to not feel bad, rather than to feel good (avoiding the bad effects)
