Classical conditioning

Question 1

What is the free energy principle? What does it aim to do?

Answer 1

A formulation about how adaptive systems resist a natural tendency to disorder. It aims to minimise surprise (entropy) by formulating predictions about the environment.

Question 2

What are the four aspects of pavlovian conditioning?

Answer 2

Unconditioned stimulus → generates an innate response

Unconditioned response → elicited by the unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned response → elicited by the conditioned stimulus

Conditioned stimulus → random stimulus that has been associated with an innate response

Question 3

What is the difference between an unconditioned response and a conditioned response?

Answer 3

An unconditioned response is innate, whilst a conditioned response is learned.

Question 4

What is eyeblink conditioning?

Answer 4

The puff of air (unconditioned stimulus) generates an eyeblink (unconditioned response). The puff of air and the tone (neutral stimulus) are then played together. After a while, the tone alone (conditioned stimulus) elicits an eyeblink (conditioned response).

Question 5

What was Watson and Rayner’s views on learning, and what experiment did they conduct?

Answer 5

Watson viewed people as blank slates who are shaped by learnt experiences and environment. They conducted the Little Albert experiment.

Question 6

What occurred in the Little Albert experiment?

Answer 6

The little Albert experiment showed the acquisition of an emotional response, with a loud noise being associated with a rodent, teaching little Albert to associate the rodent with fear. Little Albert’s fear became generalised, as he started to fear rabbits and Santa Claus as well.

Question 7

What are the three stages of a classical conditioning experiment? Give an example with each stage.

Answer 7

1. Habituation
   Conditioned stimulus presented alone to ensure that is does not generate a response. Eg. A vacuum is on the floor, not turned on. The cat is not scared of the vacuum.
2. Acquisition
   Conditioned stimulus is presented with the unconditioned stimulus - the higher the acquisition trials, the higher the strength of the conditioned response. eg. The vacuum is turned on, producing a noise. The noise produces a fear response in the cat. The cat then avoids the stationary vacuum.
3. Extinction
   The conditioned stimulus is presented alone. After a while, the response weakens, until eventually the conditioned stimulus does not produce the conditioned response. eg. The cat avoids the powered off vacuum out of fear - eventually, the cat stops fearing the powered off vacuum.

Question 8

What two factors influence the acquisition curve?

Answer 8

Intensity of the unconditioned stimulus (more intense, more rapid learning) and order and timing (the conditioned stimulus coming before the unconditioned stimulus is better)

Question 9

Is short delay conditioning or long delay conditioning more effective?

Answer 9

Short delay conditioning (smaller interstimulus interval, stronger association).

Question 10

What is trace conditioning?

Answer 10

The conditioned stimulus occurs, then there is a temporal gap, then the unconditioned stimulus occurs.

Question 11

What is simultaneous conditioning?

Answer 11

The conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus are presented at the same time.

Question 12

What is backward conditioning?

Answer 12

The unconditioned stimululs is played before the conditioned stimulus. eg. Food brought out before the whistle is played.

Question 13

What is temporal conditioning?

Answer 13

The unconditioned stimulus is compared with a particular time of day.

Question 14

What is the optimal ISI (interstimulus interval)?

Answer 14

There is no optimal ISI - it depends on the stimulus, eg. eyeblink ISI is 200ms, whereas taste aversion ISI is 30 minutes.

Question 15

What is excitatory conditioning vs inhibitory conditioning?

Answer 15

Excitatory conditioning - Conditioned stimulus predicts the unconditioned response
Inhibitory conditioning - conditioned stimulus predicts the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (eg. a light predicts the absence of food).

Question 16

What two tests must the inhibitory stimulus pass to be a true inhibitor?

Answer 16

The summation test and the retardation test.

Question 17

What occurs during the retardation test, and what should the expected result be?

Answer 17

Pair an unconditioned stimulus with a neutral stimulus and with the inhibitory stimulus (training the inhibitory stimulus and the neutral stimulus to be excitatory).

→ train an inhibitor “I” and a neutral stimulus ‘N’ to become excitatory
- I-US, I-US, I-US
- N-US, N-US, N-US

Expected result: slower learning to the inhibitor than to the neutral stimulus indictates that the inhibitory stimulus is a true inhibitor

Question 18

What is the summation test?

Answer 18

A new excitatory stimulus (conditioned stimulus) is presented alone, and then with the inhibitor (conditioned stimulus + inhibitor).

Expected result - the CS + I should result in a weaker conditioned response than the CS alone.

Question 19

What does conditioned stimulus pre-exposure do?

Answer 19

It increases the duration of habituation - makes it much harder/ much less likely to learn an association to the pre-exposed conditioned stimulus.

Question 20

Is CS pre-exposure an example of habituation or an inhibitor? Why/ why not?

Answer 20

It is neither
- CS pre-exposure is context specific, whereas habitutation is not.
- CS pre-expsoure passes the retardation test, but not the summation test (conditioned response is not reduced)

Question 21

What affects generalisation?

Answer 21

More similar to the conditioned stimulus, more generalisation.
Less trials, more generalisation.

Question 22

When do you see discrimination of the conditioned stimulus? What evolutionary benefit does this pose?

Answer 22

After extensive trials. Better able to identify when you are in danger compared to not.

Question 23

What two aspects do you need for a formal model of classical conditioning?

Answer 23

• Independent of conditioning procedures
• generate testable predictions

Question 24

What does the Rescorla-Wagner model explain?

Answer 24

• explains how the organism learns and predicts the unconditoned stimulus

-> based on surprise and expectations - it posits that the conditioned response is stronger if the unconditioned stimulus - conditioned stimulus pair is surprising.

Question 25

What does the Rescorla-Wagner model explain? What can it not explain?

Answer 25

It explains the blocking effect and the super-conditioning effect. It does not explain CS pre-exposure, as during acquisition it should still be exciting.

Question 26

What does Mackintosh’s theory posit? How does this explain blocking?

Answer 26

Mackintosh’s theory posits that organisms pay more attention to stimuli, that via their experience, prove to be strong predictors of important events. Blocking is due to ignoring the second conditioned stimulus bc it is not important.

Question 27

What does Pearce and Hall’s theory posit? How does this explain blocking?

Answer 27

Essentially the opposite to Mackintosh - organisms pay less attention to stimuli that, via their experience, prove to be strong predictors of important events.

Question 28

What specific type of classical conditioning violates the typical classical conditioning rules?

Answer 28

Taste aversion - acquire taste aversion after one association, and the ISI can be as long as 24 hours. Typically, you would require a short ISI and many acquisition trials to create a conditioned response.

Question 29

What is the garcia effect?

Answer 29

The garcia effect is that pairings that have an inherent association are learnt faster, eg. faster to learn noise/ light pairings than taste/ shock pairings.

Question 30

In contemporary research, researchers looked at the difference in conditioning when a fear-relevant (snake) or fear-irrelevant (mushroom) was paired with an unconditioned stimulus (electric shock). What were the extinction patterns in this research?

Answer 30

Extinction was much faster for the fear-irrelevant CS, and much longer for the fear-relevant CS.

Question 31

What does heroin use and overdosing reveal about conditioning?

Answer 31

The context within which the learning took place affects the tolerance of the unconditioned stimulus.
Many heroin users die after taking heroin in unfamiliar places.
US - heroin
UR - tolerance response in body
CS - environment
CR - tolerance response in body

• there are usually similar environmental cues when heroin is taken
• the endocrine system associates these cues with taking heroin, and ramps up the tolerance response
• if those cues are not present, the body isn’t as prepared to tolerate heroin - overdose is more likely

Question 32

What are the three conditions that can occur after extinction?

Answer 32

Spontaneous recovery - begin to show a conditioned response after extinction and a pause

Renewal - begin to show a conditioned response in a different context/ environment after extinction in another context/ environment

Reinstatement - after extinction, show the unconditioned stimulus - begin to show the conditioned response again. Unconditioned stimulus brings back the fearful association

Question 33

What are the three hidden assumptions of classical conditioning? What are the situations that prove these wrong?

Answer 33

Equipotentiality - any two stimuli can be paired together

Contiguity - the more two stimuli are paired together, the stronger the association

Contingency - conditioning changes trial by trial

Blocking, superconditioning and tast aversion prove them wrong.

Question 34

Explain blocking. How does this fit with the free energy principle? Which assumptions of classical conditioning does this violate?

Answer 34

Blocking was a fear response studied in mice.
In the control group, rats were presented with a light and tone, along with a shock, until they developed a conditioned fear response to the light and tone. When the ligth was played alone, they showed the same fear response.
In the blocking condition, the rats were presented with the tone and got shocked until they developed a conditioned response. They were then presented with the tone and light, aswell as the shock. When the light was presented alone, the rats did not show a fear response.

-> when a neutral stimulus is presented alongside an already learnt association, a new association between the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus is not learnt.

It supports the free energy principle as the shock is no longer suprising, meaning a new association does not need to be formed.

It violates equipotentiality and contiguity.

Question 35

Explain superconditioning. How does this fit with the free energy principle?

Answer 35

Rats were played a tone in the absence of a shock (tone = inhibitory stimulus, safety). Rats are then played the tone and a light, and gets shocked. Rats are then shown the light alone and show a strong, fast association between the light and the shock.

-> when a neutral stimulus is paired with an inbitory stimulus in the presence of the unconditoned stimulus, it creates a stronger association between the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.

It supports the free energy principle as a new association is formed when the light occurs (suprise) and the shock occurs (surprise), meaning the brain created the association to lower entropy.