Chapter 3 Experimental Situations and 4 what determines the nature of the conditioned response Flashcards
Conditional Stimulus (CS)
The effectiveness of the stimulus in eliciting a reaction depends upon the condition of the pairing several times over with the unconditioned stimulus. There is no initial reaction to the stimulus at the start of the experiment, instead it develops over time.
Ex. The light or tone
Object Learning
The association of one feature of an object with another
Ex. Dogs associate people who bring food with food and therefore salivate
Unconditional Stimulus (US)
The effect of this stimulus is not dependent on trials over time
Ex. Food for saliva
Conditioned Response (CR)
The response received eventually by the conditioned stimulus.
Ex. The salivation to the light or tone
Unconditioned Response (UR)
A response that happens naturally and doesn’t need to be learned
Ex. Salivating at food
Conditioned Supression
Suppression of ongoing behavior, immobility
Ex. For rats studied there are two types
- licking suppressant
- conditioned fear response
Luck Suppression Prodecure
Measure of licks made is effected by CS of a tone or light to make the rats lick less frequently
The latency to complete a number of licks is a measure of conditioned fear
Conditioned Emotional Response
Measurement of conditioned fear
Rats trained to press lever for reward of food
After baseline gained fear conditioning introduced and they press the lever less frequently
Suppression Ratio
The ratio created to find out the conditioned emotional response
CS responding/ (CS responding + preCS responding )
- the ratio has a value of zero if the rats suppress lever pressing completely during CS
- if there is no change in response the ratio is .5
What does it mean to have a smaller suppression ratio?
There will be less motion in the animal because the CS get a larger conditioned fear response
What is used as a base line for human condition suppression experiments
Video games
Eye Blink Conditioning
Testing CS response using puffs of air to eyes
Good for tests on humans
Helps with research for autism, OCD, Alzheimer’s
Study of infants with CS = tone US= puff
Control group had CS and US spaced 4 to 8 seconds apart
Other group was 12 seconds apart
Paired group responded higher to CS at the begining of second session
Eye Blink Conditioning on baby’s showed what?
Classical conditioning requires a CS and US pairing
Learning is not observable at first
Engram
Biological memory of something learned in the brain that is stored for later use
Located in the hippocampus as it is used for CS-US associations
But also in the brain stem an cerebellum
Sign Tracking
Autoshaping
Presenting a discrete localized visual stimulus just before the delivery of food
Ex. Pigeons with food and light
What strange thing occurred when the light shown to signal the food for the birds
The birds would peck at it
Even though it wasn’t necessary
The reaction increases with the distance of the food
Make Quail approached light instead of female to mate
Conditioning Trial
A configuration of a CS and US trial put together that can come in different orders
Intertribal Interval
The time from the end of one trial to the start of another
Inter stimulus Interval
The time from the start of the CS to the start of the US with in a conditioning trial
This is also called CS-US interval
For larger responding it is better to have a shorter interval than inter trial interval
Short Delay Conditioning
Most frequently used
Delay the start of the us until slightly after (less than 1 min) the CS on each trial
The CS may continue through the US or end when it begins
Trace Conditioning
CS presented first followed by US but there is a short delay in between the two
This gap is the trace interval
Trace interval
The gap between the CS and the US in the trace conditioning trials
Long Delayed Conditioning
CS starts before US but US is delayed much longer (5-10 min)
There is also no trace interval as the CS lasts until the US begins
Simaltanious Conditioning
CS and US presented at same time
Backward Conditioning
US occurs shortly before CS
Test trial
Presenting the CS by itself
Magnitude
How much a behavior occurs
This is a way of measuring behavior during a CS
Ex. Amount of saliva from dogs
Probability of response
Measure of how often the CS elicits a CR
Ex. Ex blink response
Latency
How soon the CR occurs after the CS
The amount of time between CS and CR
Pseudo Conditioning
Exposure to the US produces increased responding to a previously ineffective stimulus
The use of controls helps to tell this from US-CS pairings
Random Control Procedure
Presenting the US periodically during both the CS and intertrial interval
Make sure the probability is the same for both
The CS does not here signal a change in probability that the US will occur
Not the most useful control because having the probability the same doesn’t stop conditioned responding
Explicitly Unpaired Control
Presenting the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli on separate trials
The CS and US are presented far enough apart to prevent their association
When is conditioning most effective
The CS is a good signal of the delivery of the US
The signal value is best in the Short delay procedure
As the CS-US interval increases the reaction decreases
The simultaneous and trace procedures also don’t have good Predictors in the CS
Temporal Coding Hypothesis
Classical conditioning that involves not only learning what to expect but when to expect it
Ex) rats stick heads outfit food at 30 or 90 second intervals after beep
Inhibitory Conditioning
Learn to predict the absence of the US
Ex. Out of gas at gas station vs lumber yard
An example of CS+ and CS- scenario
Red Traffic light = CS+
Traffic Guard = CS-
The CS- inhibits the effects of the CS plus and acts as a safety signal
Negative CS-US Contingency
A form of conditioned inhibition
No excitatory CS+ only a CS- negatively linked to US
Needs a CS- with a negative correlation
US occurs in the absence of CS usually and timing of US cannot be predicted
Ex. Students bullied when teacher leaves
How do you measure conditioned inhibition?
Bi-directional response systems
Systems like pulse heart rate temperature all increase and decrease from a baseline
Some behavior responses are also like approach or withdraw
Compound Stimulus or Summation Test
One of best predictors of conditioned inhibition
Based on the idea that it counter acts conditioned excitation
Ex. Light gave shock when lick
But light with tone didn’t
The light was able to transfer fear even when a different tone was involved that they had never correlated before
Retardation of acquisition test
If a stimulus actively inhibits a response then it should be difficult to condition that stimulus to get a behavior
The rate of excitatory conditioning should be retarded if the CS is a condition inhibitor
Latent-Inhibition Effect or CS preexposure effect
Having a familiar stimulus makes it hard to associate with a US as a novel stimulus
Disrupts the learning process
Involve two phases
1) subjects given repeated presentation of the CS by itself (preexposure phase)
2) the CS is paired with a US with classical conditioning procedures
This results in subjects slower to respond
How is latent inhibition similar to habituation
Both limit processing and attention to stimuli that are presented
Habituation serves to bias gained behavior in favor of novel stimuli and latent inhibition serves to bias learning in favor of novel stimuli
US preexposure effect
Subjects shown US on its own for a couple trials then paired with CS the results show a slower learning rate then those with out previous US exposure
Stimulus Salience
The significance or intensity of a stimulus effects the conditioned response
Learning is assumed to occur more rapidly with a more salient stimuli
Higher order Conditioning
Classical conditioning with out a US
An old CS becomes so conditioned it becomes a stand in US
Irrational fears
2 phases 1) a cue (CS1) is paired with a US that conditions a strong response 2) pairing the CS1 with CS2 conditions response now
Higher order because levels
Ex. Woman afraid of movies because of crowds
(CS1 w/ US is first order conditioning and CS2 with CS1 is second order
Sensory Preconditioning
An associated pair can create an aversion to the second item when a CS is paired with the first
2 stage processes
1) cinnamon (CS1) and vanilla (CS2 ) become associated with one another ( no US)
2) the CS1 is now paired with a US such as illness and a CR develops not just for the CS1 but for CS 2 also
CS2 was never directly paired with the US
Stimulus substitution model
He association of the CS with the US turns the conditioned stimulus into a surrogate US
And activates neural circuits Only activated by the US before
What evidence is there for Stimulus Substitution model?
The fact that salivation occurs with food CS and not blink test
Pigeons open mouth wider for rice and not for water
Homeostasis
Maintaining the stability of critical physiological functions
A compensatory reaction is needed to neutralize the disturbance
By anticipating changes subjects use conditioned responses to environment
Conditioned Compensatory Responses
The impact of a drug will be reduced when around cues already associated with the drug
US Devaluation
Method to tell the difference between SR responding and SS
Establish association between CS and US, experimental group then try to make US less important from this the experimental group shows less CR
Blocking Effect
By knowing the CS1 is paired with the US there is less of a chance for CS2 to be paired with US when CS1 as CS2 are presented together
Rescorla Wagner Model
Effectiveness of a US is determined by how surprising it is
What level of surprise would be involved in strong conditioned responses?
Very little surprised and little learning since it is already learned
What is the formula for Rescorla Wagner Model
What problems exist with Rescorla Wagner Model
The prediction of the conditioned inhibition doesn’t match reality
Rw model says would reach zero but I reality sometimes becomes more negative
Views extinction as reverse aquaition but really seems to be new learning altogether between the CS and US (aka US doesn’t follow CS)
The same CS under different conditions can be both excitatory and inhibitory
Augmentation or Contrablocking
Instead of distrusting conditioning of the added CS in phase 2 the previously conditioned stimulus or facilitated the conditioning of the added CS
The Contrablocking or augmenting effect is one of a growing list of phenomena where the presence of one stimuli facilitates responding to another when simultaneously presented CS
Temporal Coding Hypotheis
Participants learn when the US occurs in relation to a CS and use this info in blocking, second order conditioning
