Chapter #5 (p. 108-117)

Question 1

What does the positive reinforcement model assume about drugs initially?

Answer 1

That they are self administered initially because they act as positive reinforcers

Question 2

Do positive reinforcers always cause pleasure?

Answer 2

Nope! An electric shock could be used as a positive reinforcer

Question 3

A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that does what do behaviour?

Answer 3

increases the frequency of behaviour it is congruent upon

Question 4

What is one of the reasons that positive reinforcing stimuli continue to control behaviour, in spite of punishing effects? use alcohol as an example.

Answer 4

the positive stuff is usually experienced right away, and the punishing stuff is normally delayed. Alcohol intake can cause pleasure within minutes, and the hangover usually doesn’t occur for many hours after, so the pleasure rather then the hangover is likely to determine if the person will drink again

Question 5

Which is more likely to have influence over behaviour:

1. Instant pleasure/immediate gratification
2. punishing consequences that occur infrequently after a delay, no matter how sever

Answer 5

1

Question 6

In human research, what has been used as a measure of reinforcement in choice between a drug and placebo?

Answer 6

rate of responding or amount consumed and progressive ratio schedules

Question 7

Various drugs differ in their capability to act as a positive reinforcer, this property of a drug is often referred to as?

Answer 7

abuse potential or abuse liability

Question 8

Assessments have shown that psychomotor stimulants in general, and ____ in particular, are the most robust reinforcers yet encountered.

Answer 8

cocaine

Question 9

Dose of drug and reinforcing value?

Answer 9

larger doses of any drug are generally more reinforcing than smaller doses, but some studies show there might not be a difference, or that reinforcing ability may decline with some drugs when very large doses are used

Question 10

Is there a correlation between certain disorders and the use of drugs that are known to mitigate those disorders?

Answer 10

Yes! - although it is not widely supported

Question 11

It seems clear from human experience that the decision to use or not to use a drug depends on what?

Answer 11

the expected demands of a situation

Question 12

How does stress influence drug administration?

Answer 12

Stress enhances the acquisition of self-administration of a number of drugs and also has been shown to increase the reinforcing value of those drugs

Question 13

Intake of a drug due to stress is caused by what?

Answer 13

stress directly activates and sensitizes brain mechanisms responsible for the reinforcing value of a drug

Question 14

Does hunger stimulate self administration of drugs?

Answer 14

Yes! Even drugs that do not contain calories!

Question 15

Research shows that _____ symptoms increase the rate of self administration of drugs

Answer 15

withdrawal

Question 16

The priming effect, also called ____, has been studied for many years and appears to occur with many reinforcing stimuli

Answer 16

reinstatement

Question 17

It has been shown that extinguished responding for a reinforcer can be reinstated by what?

Answer 17

a noncontingent presentation of that reinforcer

Question 18

Priming can be caused by a ___ ___ and stimuli that were previously associated with drug _____

Answer 18

stressful stimulus; delivery

Question 19

If a drug related stimuli cause a compensatory response, they will do what to the effect of the drug? What is it called?

Answer 19

they will reduce the effect of the drug when they are presented along with the drug; a conditioned tolerance

Question 20

As place preference and second order schedules sho, stimuli paired with a reinforcing drug also acquire _____ properties

Answer 20

reinforcing

Question 21

If a conditioned stimulus and the drug produce the same effect, what happens when you present them together?

Answer 21

presenting the drug and the stimulus together will enhance the effect fo the drug and cause sensitization

Question 22

Any system that controls motivation must have at least two components; what are they?

Answer 22

1. must be able to energize or activate behaviour
2. must be able to direct that behaviour toward a particular goal and make sure the organism acts appropriately to obtain that goal

Question 23

Humans have guidance systems that are attracted to what?

Answer 23

specific targets

Question 24

An attraction to a specific stimulus is called ____

Answer 24

incentive

Question 25

It is now clear that a number of brain regions form an integrated circuitry responsible for learning, motivation, and the control and direction of behaviour - this is referred to as the ___ ___ system

Answer 25

motivation control

Question 26

When there is an imbalance or deficiency in some internal system, this input stimulates what area of the midbrain?

Answer 26

the ventral tegmental area

Question 27

Axons from the ventral tegmental area are connected to the ____ ____, and the ventral tegmental area stimulates that area by releasing ____ at its synapses

Answer 27

nucleus accumbens; dopamine

Question 28

The connection between the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens is known as what?

Answer 28

the mesolimbic dopamine system

Question 29

Calls in the nucleus accumbens send axons back to the ventral tegmental area where they release an ____-like peptide neurotransmitter, forming a circuit.

Answer 29

opioid

Question 30

The nucleus accumbens also sends axons to the ___ ___, which, together with parts of the cortex, belong to the ____ ___

Answer 30

basal ganglia; motor loop

Question 31

In the absence of any other sensory input, activation of the ______ _____ system by a homeostatic imbalance, such as hunger, will stimulate the motor system and cause a general increase in the _____ of the organism

Answer 31

mesolimbic dopamine; activity

Question 32

The discovery that dopamine mediates general arousal, physical effort, and motor activity formed the basis of ____-____ hypotheses of dopamine funciton

Answer 32

activation-sensorimotor

Question 33

When dopamine is released in the nucleus accumbens, what does it do with regards to the motor system?

Answer 33

it actually inhibits the inhibitory output to the motor system, and this has the same effect as stimulating the motor system

Question 34

The motivation control system also receives sensory information about the environment - this info is processed by the ___ and ___ and then sent to the ___ and the ____ which are part of a ___ and ___ system

Answer 34

thalamus and cortex; amygdala and the hippocampus; learning and memory

Question 35

Learning and memory circuitry provide the basis for ___ ____ hypotheses of dopamine function, which implicate dopamine in the the acquisition of what?

Answer 35

reward learning

• operantly conditioned response–reward actions
• classically conditioned stimulus–reward associations
• coding of predictions about reward availability based on the presence of conditioned stimuli

Question 36

When a need state occurs, it is detected by the motivation control system and the ___ ___ is activated. What does this cause?

Answer 36

mesolimbic system; causes an increase in general activity

Question 37

In the absence of any previous learning or relevant salient stimuli, what ensures that an organism will move around its environment and maybe find food accidentally?

Answer 37

The motivation control system and mesolimbic system is activated when a need state occurs and it increases general activity

Question 38

Break down the meaning of ‘incentive salience’

Answer 38

salience = the stimuli will be able to grab the animals attention in the future 
incentive = the animal will be attracted to them

Question 39

Once an animal learns the incentive value of once-neural stimuli that have comet o reliably predict reward, what happens?

Answer 39

the dopamine neurons respond no to the reward itself, but to those predictive stimuli

Question 40

When dopamine activity elicited by the presence of the predictive (conditioned) stimuli is quickly followed by a sudden lack of activity at the point in time where the food normally would have been consumed - what happens to the dopamine neurons now?

Answer 40

the inactivity of dopamine neurons codes a prediction error - those stimuli lose their incentive salience

Question 41

The dopamine surge may be a consequence, rather than a cause, of ___ ___ and ___ ___.

Answer 41

associative learning and reward prediction