Chapter 3 Flashcards
Why is learning important for us?
Learning about the relations of cause and effect in our environment helps us to interact with it and predict it (survival)
We learn about our environment with Classical Conditioning
What did Pavlov study at first? What did he believed?
At first studied digestion in dogs; he realized that more digestive juices were produced when food was in sight
He thought that they were psychic secretions
Then he realized it was linked with the nervous system and not digestion
What are the main discoveries/achievements of Vul’fson and Snarskii
They were the first to perform classical conditioning experiments (before pavlov)
They tested how dogs salivated with different types of food
What is orosensory stimuli?
The taste and texture sensations of food (or anything that goes in the mouth)
What is object learning (for example with dogs food)
The association between an object’s visual features and how they feel in the mouth (for example)
More general: the association between two features of an object
What is Pavlov’s classical conditioning paradigm?
The basic procedure for classical conditioning
Goal is to associate 2 stimuli, one that doesnt elicit salivation (light/sound) (CS) and one that does (food) (US)
The response to this association is salivation to light and or sound (CR)
The salivation that was already elicited by food is the unconditioned response (UR)
What is sign tracking?
Animals (and humans) are interested by stimuli that suggests another stimuli (My dog goes to the door where her food is kept rather than to her bowl of food (in another room) to when she is hungry and wants us to give her food.)
Is sign tracking always observed?
No, depending on individual differences, it will show to varying degrees
Sign tracking is correlated with human problems of what?
Impulsivity and sensitivity to drug addiction
What is goal tracking
Going directly for the goal rather than the signs of it (ex: my dog would go directly to sniff/scratch her food bowl to tell us she is hungry)
What is the CS and US of a food preference?
CS= taste of food US = nutritional repletion
What is the CS and US of a food aversion?
CS = taste of food US = indigestion of food (for ex)
Is food aversion dependent of rational thinking? Can we convince ourselves that its not the food that caused our illness?
No, it is independent, 20% of people knew the food did not cause the sickness and still got aversion
How many trials does it take for a food aversion to develop?
only 1
Can food aversion happen if the sickness happens a long time after the food ingestion?
Yes, it is called long-delay learning
What is evaluative conditioning
Liking or not a stimlulus by pairing the stimulus with something we like or not (used in advertising)
What is excitatory conditiong
Organisms learn the relation between a CS and a US, and can develop a response to the US with the only presentation of the CS
What is one major factor of excitatory conditioning?
The relative timing between the CS and US
What is short delayed conditioning?
The CS starts, and the US comes less than 1 min after
What is trace conditioning?
The US starts right when the CS ends (or a few seconds after)
The interval between the end of the CS and the beginning of the US is called the trace interval
What is long delayed conditioning?
Same as short-delayed but with a much longer delay (5-10 mins), no trace interval - CS lasts for a long time
What is simultaneous conditioning?
CS and US happen at the same time (no predictice relationship, therefore doesnt work that well)
What is backwards conditioning?
US happens before the CS
What is a test trial?
When the CS is presented alone: we observe the response without interference from the US (then easier to know which responses are caused by the association)
What is the magnitude of the CR?
How much it occurs (quantity, intensity, how many times, etc)
What is the probability of a CR?
How often it happens
What is the latency of a CR?
How fast it occurs after a CS
What is pseudo-conditioning?
Exposure to just the US produces increased responding to a previously ineffective stimulus
(Can make a link w sensitization??)
What is a random control procedure?
Presenting the US at random times during/after CS (useless)
What is explicitly unpaired control?
Presenting the CS and US on separate trials (prevents association)
What is the temporal coding hypothesis?
When one learns not only an association between CS and US, but also WHEN it will occur
What is inhibitory pavlovian conditioning?
Predicting the absence of a US
What is a conditioned inhibitor?
A signal for the absence of a US
What is the pavlovian procedure for inhibitory conditioning?
2 trials - 1 excitatory conditioning, one inhibitory
US happens in excitaroty trials, announced by a CS+
CS+ becomes a signal for the US
During inhibitory trials, the CS+ happens with the CS-, and with NO US
Therefore the CS- is not paired with the US (rather paired with its absence)
What is a negative CS-US contingency or correlation
When there is no CS+, only a CS- that is negatively correlated with the US (therefore the CS- signals a reduction in the probability that US will occur)
What is a bidirectional response system?
A way to measure conditioned inhibition
when physiological measures behave in the opposite way of excitatory conditioning (heart rate slows down)
What is a compound stimulus/summation test?
A way to measure conditioned inhibition
Measuring how the CS- disrupts or suppress the CR normally elicited by a CS+
What is the retardation of acquisition test?
A way to measure conditioned inhibition
If a stimulus inhibits a CR, it should be difficult to turn that stimulus into a excitarory CS
