Chapter 2- Elicited Behaviour, Habituation, Sensitization

Question 1

Reflex:

Answer 1

• Involves 2 closely related events- eliciting stimulus and corresponding response
  
  • Presentation of stimulus is followed by response , response rarely occurs in absence of stimulus
  • i.e. dust in nasal passage causes sneezing, sneezing does not occur in absence of nasal irritation

Question 2

Reflex Arc:

Answer 2

• In vertebrates, reflex arc represents fewest neural connections necessary for reflex action (3 neurons involved)
  
  • Environmental stimulus -> sensory neuron (afferent neuron) -> spinal cord -> motor neuron (efferent neuron) -> muscles
  • Sensory and motor neurons communicate through interneuron
  • Other structures can be involved (like the brain), but not always

Question 3

Respiratory Occlusion Reflex:

Answer 3

• Stimulated by reduction of air flow to baby (i.e. caused by cloth covering face or build up of mucus in nasal passages)
  
  • Baby’s reaction is to pull head back, if that doesn’t work, move hands in face wiping motion, if that still doesn’t work, baby will cry (expulsion of air to remove obstruction)

Question 4

Modal Action Patterns:

Answer 4

• MAPs
  
  • Response sequence typical of a particular species
  • i.e. Male fish establishes territory and builds a nest, female enters territory and lays egg, then male chases female away.
  • Threshold for eliciting response varies (same stimulus can have different effects depending on physiological state of animal and its recent animals)
  • Male fish will not court female to lay eggs until nest is finished, after she’s done laying eggs, he chases her away instead of courting her again

Question 5

Eliciting Stimuli for MAPs:

Answer 5

• Stimulus responsible for MAP more difficult to isolate if response occurs in course of complex social interactions
  
  • Herring gull chick pecks parent’s beak to stimulate parent to regurgitate food, could be elected by colour, shape of bill…etc
  • Tinbergen and Perdeck tested chicks with various artificial models instead of adult birds, discovered that eliciting stimulus is a long, thin, moving object pointed downward and had a contrasting red patch near the tip

Question 6

Sign Stimulus/ Releasing Stimulus:

Answer 6

• Essential features of stimuli to elicit a MAP

* i.e. Long, thin, moving object pointed downward and had a contrasting red patch near the tip

Question 7

Supernormal Stimulus:

Answer 7

• Sign stimulus is exaggerated to elicit a vigorous response

* i.e. sign stimulus- food, response- eating, supernormal stimulus- adding fat and sugar, response- eat a lot

Question 8

Danger and MAPs:

Answer 8

• Traumatic events elicit strong defensive MAPs

* i.e. People can detect snakes faster than flowers

Question 9

Natural Behaviour Sequences:

Answer 9

• Process for obtaining food can be characterized by a specific sequence
  
  • General search method (looking around for food source) -> focal search method (found food source, looking for specific type of food, i.e. ripe nut) -> food handling and ingestion mode (consummatory behaviour)

Question 10

Salivation and Hedonic Ratings of Taste in People:

Answer 10

• Salivation measured in 8 women in response to taste of lemon or lime juice
  
  • Participants had small amount of juice on tongue, asked how much they liked the taste
  • Salivation increased from trial 1-2 but decreased from trials 2-10 (similar decrease in hedonic ratings)
  • Continual exposure resulted in less pleasant flavour
  • Taste changed on trial 11, hedonic and salivation increased

Question 11

Habituation and Obesity:

Answer 11

Habituation occurs less in obese people

Question 12

Visual Attention in Infants:

Answer 12

• 4 month old infants assigned to 2 groups, each group tested with different visual stimulus
  
  • One group had 4x4 checkerboard, other had 12 x 12 checkerboard
  • 4x4 group demonstrated habituation effect (attention decreased)
  • 12 x 12 group demonstrated sensitization effect (increased attention from first to second trial, then experienced habituation

Question 13

Facial Recognition in Infants:

Answer 13

• Infants less than 3 days old familiarized with photograph of a face presented (either full face or slightly turned to the side)
  
  • 2 test faces (one the same face, one different) both faces were in a different orientation than training photograph
  • Infants spent less time looking at face of familiar photograph

Question 14

Startle Response:

Answer 14

• Defensive reaction to potential or actual attack

* Sudden jump and tensing of muscles of upper part of body, blinking of eyes

Question 15

Startle Response Test:

Answer 15

• Measures startle response
  
  • Animals allowed to get used to chamber, then tone presented once a day for 11 days
  • After 11 days, tones presented every 3 seconds
  • After 300 trials, tone presented once day for 3 days

Question 16

Spontaneous Recovery:

Answer 16

• Response reoccurs
  
  • i.e. After 300 trials when tone presented once a day, startle response recovered to the same level as the 11th day because the tone had not been presented for a long time
  • One of the defining features of habituation

Question 17

Long Term Habituation:

Answer 17

• Occurs for 24 hours or longer

* Occurs when stimuli presented widely spaced over time

Question 18

Short Term Habituation:

Answer 18

• Stimuli presented very closely in time

* Identified by spontaneous recovery of responding following a period without stimulation

Question 19

Sensory Adaptation:

Answer 19

• Decreases in sensitivity due to (temporary) disabling of sense organs
  
  • i.e. temporary hearing loss because of exposure to loud noise
  • Sensory adaptation as a cause of habituation ruled out by evidence that habituation is response specific (organism will stop responding in one aspect of behaviour but continue to stimulus in other ways)

Question 20

Response Fatigue:

Answer 20

• Fatigue as a cause of habituation ruled out by evidence that habituation is stimulus specific
  
  • Habituated response will recover when new stimulus is introduced

Question 21

Dual Process Theory:

Answer 21

• Developed by Groves and Thompson
  
  • Assumes that different types of underlying neural processes are responsible for increases and decreases in responsiveness to stimulation
  • Habituation and sensitization processes are not mutually exclusive, often both are activated at the same time
  • Habituation or sensitization effect is a net result of habituation and sensitization processes
  • Spontaneous recovery from both processes serves to return responding to baseline levels

Question 22

Habituation Process

Answer 22

◦ Neural process that produces decrease in responsiveness

◦ Not the same as habituation effect, habituation effect could occur because of sensitization process, or vice versa

Question 23

Sensitization Process

Answer 23

Neural process that produces increase in responsiveness

Question 24

S-R System:

Answer 24

• Habituation process occurs here
  
  • Shortest neural path that connects sense organs activated by eliciting stimulus and muscles involved in making elicited response
  • Also known as reflex arc
  • Each presentation of an eliciting stimulus activates S-R system and causes build up of habituation
  • Habituation is stimulus specific, if stimulus is changed, new stimulus will exhibit no habituated response by activating different S-R circuit

Question 25

State System:

Answer 25

• Sensitization processes occur here
  
  • Consists of parts of nervous system that determine organism’s general level of responsiveness or readiness to response
  • Only arousing events activate state system (i.e. loud noise)

Question 26

Drug Tolerance:

Answer 26

• Habituation of primary drug reaction
  
  • Decline in the effectiveness of a drug with repeated exposures
  • Growth in opponent after reaction (i.e. more intense hangovers)

Question 27

Opponent Process Theory of Motivation:

Answer 27

• Emotional reactions are biphasic (primary reaction followed by opposite after reaction
  
  • Primary reaction becomes weaker or habituates with repeated stimulations
  • Weakening of primary reaction with repetition is accompanied by strengthening of after reaction
  • Assumes that neurophysiological mechanisms involved in emotional behaviour serve to maintain emotional stability

Question 28

Primary Processes/ a Process:

Answer 28

• Process responsible for the quality of emotional state (i.e. happiness) that occurs in the presence of stimulus
  
  • Elicits opponent process

Question 29

Opponent Process/ b Process:

Answer 29

• Generates opposite emotional reaction to a process

* Activated by primary reaction

Question 30

Opponent Mechanisms During Initial Stimulus Exposure:

Answer 30

• A process occurs unopposed by b process, primary emotional reaction reaches its peak quickly
  
  • B process activated and opposes A process, but B process is not strong enough to completely A process
  • Once stimulus is withdrawn, A process returns to baseline, B process lingers to a while

Question 31

Opponent Mechanisms After Extensive Stimulus Exposure:

Answer 31

• B process becomes strengthened with repeated use, activated sooner after onset of stimulus, maximum intensity becomes greater
  
  • Results in stronger after reaction when stimulus is withdrawn

Question 32

Opponent Aftereffects and Motivation:

Answer 32

Drugs addiction is mainly an attempt to reduce aversiveness of affective after reaction to drugs (take drugs to reduce withdrawal pains)