Classical Conditioning

Question 1

What is habituation?

Answer 1

It is the desensitisation to familiar stimuli that has been exposed repeatedly, resulting in declined responses.

Question 2

What is an example of habituation?

Answer 2

Turkeys showing alarm to a hawk shape and not a goose shape indicates that they have grown accustomed to the presence / sightings of geese.

Question 3

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 3

Discovered by Ivan Pavlov, he first introduced a neutral stimulus (NS) to the dog, eliciting no response. Then, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is introduced to elicit an unconditioned response (UR). The US and NS are paired repeatedly to elicit the UR. The previously NS is presented alone, becoming the CS when the CR is elicited.

Question 4

What did Watson & Raynor do to Little Albert?

Answer 4

Conditioned little Albert to not just be afraid of rats, but also other animals :(

Question 5

What is the compensatory-reaction hypothesis?

Answer 5

Using the example of insulin, the body can become resistant as it predicts that an insulin injection is incoming, hence raising blood sugars to compensate for the dip. Hence, more insulin is required to create the same effect of lowering blood sugar.

Question 6

What is the rate of acquisition (neutral stimulus becoming conditioned) dependent on?

Answer 6

Strength of the US, timing of the CS & US, and contingency (how good of a predictor CS is for the US)

Question 7

What are different types of temporal relations of CS and US?

Answer 7

Delayed (forward) conditioning, trace (forward) conditioning, simultaneous conditioning and backward conditioning.

Question 8

What is delayed (forward) conditioning?

Answer 8

It is the most effective conditioning method, where the CS is presented immediately before the US, overlapping.

Question 9

What is trace (forward) conditioning?

Answer 9

Second most effective, the CS is presented and ends before the US.

Question 10

What is simultaneous conditioning?

Answer 10

Failing to produce a CR, the CS is presented at the same time as the US.

Question 11

What is backward conditioning?

Answer 11

Least effective, the CS is presented after the US, and can often produce opposite effect.

Question 12

What is contingency in classical conditioning?

Answer 12

It is how good of a predictor the CS is for the US. If the CS is often unaccompanied by the US, the CS becomes a poor predictor of the US occurring. Hence, a conditioned response is not elicited.

Question 13

What is extinction?

Answer 13

It occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US often enough, decreasing the CR.

Question 14

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 14

When a CS-CR relationship is extinguished, the CR can be elicited again if exposed to CS again in the future. However, CR is less intense, and will become extinct quickly.

Question 15

How is classical conditioning applied in behavioural therapy?

Answer 15

An extreme application is flooding, where patients with phobias are exposed repeatedly to whatever triggers their phobias. However, this is unethical as it is too stressful for the patient.

Question 16

Instead of flooding, how can we apply conditioning therapies?

Answer 16

Through systematic desensitisation therapy, patients are instead slowly exposed to triggers of varying intensities. For example, an arachnophobic patient is presented pictures of spiders instead of the real thing first.

Question 17

What is stimulus generalisation? What is the opposite of it?

Answer 17

Stimulus generalisation is when a CR formed to one CS will occur to other similar stimuli. The opposite is stimulus discrimination, where a CR occurs only when exposed to that specific CS.

Question 18

What is blocking?

Answer 18

It is when a conditioned patient blocks out a new stimulus in favour of a pre-existing one. For example, rats who associate a loud sound with a shock will not react to the light alone even when the noise, shock and light are paired together.

Question 19

Use an example to explain what higher-order conditioning is.

Answer 19

Once a dog has been conditioned to salivate with a bell, the bell (NS turned CS) can be used to transform a NS to another CS, instigating a CR. The bell (NS) has become an effective CS for a certain CR, so that it can be used to condition other stimuli.

Question 20

What is pre-sensory conditioning?

Answer 20

Learning occurs in the absence of the UR, where the patient associates the two stimuli with each other. For example, by repeatedly pairing light and tone together, then light with meat powder, the tone alone will instigate salivation.