Classical Conditioning & Interventions Flashcards
Classical Conditioning Procedure
Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning studies involved meat powder as what? because it automatically elicited salivation from the dogs which was considered what?
- an unconditioned stimulus (US)
- an unconditioned response
Classical Conditioning Procedure
the magnitude of a conditioned response (CR) is always (more than/less than/the same as) the magnitude of the UR. The CR is affected by what
- less than
- the number of times the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) are paired during conditioning trials
Classical Conditioning Procedure
when using ____ conditioning, the presentation of the CS precedes and overlaps presentation of the US.
delay conditioning
Classical Conditioning Procedure
which type of conditioning is the most effective?
delay conditioning
Classical Conditioning Procedure
when using ____ conditioning, the CS is presented and terminated just before the US is presented
trace conditioning
Classical Conditioning Procedure
when using ____ conditioning, the CS and US are presented and terminated at about the same time
simultaneous conditioning
Classical Conditioning Procedure
when using ____ conditioning, the US is presented before the CS
backward
Classical Conditioning Procedure
which type of conditioning is usually ineffective? why?
backward conditioning; suggests that it’s the contingency of stimuli (e.g., that the occurrence of th US depends on the occurrence of the CS) that accounts for classical conditioning
Classical Conditioning Procedure
when does classical extinction occur
when, after the CS is repeatedly presented without the US, the CS no longer produces a CR
Classical Conditioning Procedure
explain spontaneous recovery
after a CR has apparently been extinguished by repeatedly presenting the CS without the US, the CR returned in a reduced or less intense form when, after a period of time, the CS is again presented alone
Pavlov concluded that spontaneous recovery provides evidence that the apparent extinction of a CR is due to a physiological process that suppresses (rather than eliminates) the association between the CS and CR). He referred to this physiological process as internal inhibition
Classical Conditioning Procedure
explain stimulus generalization and give an example
- occurs when stimuli similar to the original CS elicit the CR without ever being paired with the US
- the establishment of a startle response in Little Albert, a nine-month old infant (illustrates how phobias can be acquired with classical conditioning and provides an exmaple of stimulus generalization)
Classical Conditioning Procedure
in the Little Albert study, what was the CS, US and CR
- CS: white rat
- US: unexpected loud noise
- CR: startle reaction
Classical Conditioning Procedure
explain stimulus discriminiation and give an example
- the opposite of stimulus generalization
- the ability to discriminate between the CS and similar stimuli
- if a dog was conditioned to salivate in response to a 2000-Hz tone and subsequently also salivated in response to a 2100-Hz tone, discrimination training would involve repeatedly presenting the 2000-Hz tone with meat powder and the 2100-Hz tone without meat powder
Classical Conditioning Procedure
what is conditioned inhibition and give an example
- a method for reducing or eliminating a conditioned response
- involves inhibiting a previously established conditioned response (CR) to a conditioned stimulus (CS)
- a ringing bell became a CS and produced a CR of salivation when presented alone; the process of conditioning inhibition involves repeatedly pairing presentation of the CS (aka CS+) and a new neutral stimulus (now referred to as CS-) without presenting the US
Classical Conditioning Procedure
explain higher-order conditioning
- treating a CS (e.g., a ringing bell) as an unconditioned stimulus and pairing it with a neutral stimulus (e.g., a blinking light) so that the neutral stimulus also becomes a CS and elicits a CR (e.g., salivation) when presented alone
when higher-order conditioning involves a second CS, it’s also referred to as second-order conditioning; when it involves a third CS, it’s also referred to as third-order conditioning; etc.
Classical Conditioning Procedure
explain compound conditioning
- when 2 or more stimuli are presented together and includes blocking and overshadowing
Classical Conditioning Procedure
when does blocking occur
- when conditioning trials are first used to establish an association between 1 neutral stimulus (e.g., a ringing bell) and a US (e.g., meat powder) by repeatedly pairing presentation of the neutral stimulus with the US.
- when the neutral stimulus becomes a CS and elicits a CR when presented alone, it’s repeatedly presented simultaneously with a second neutral stimulus (e.g., a flashing light) just before presenting the US
the second neutral stimulus does not provide any new information about the occurrence of the US
classical conditioning of the first neutral stimulus blocks classical conditioning of the second neutral stimulus, and the second neutral stimulus never becomes a CS
Classical Conditioning Procedure
when does overshadowing occur
- when 2 neutral stimuli are, from the start, repeatedly presented together before the US
- 2 stimuli will elicit a CR when presented together
- when presented alone, the more salient (stronger) stimulus produces a CR, but the less salient (weaker) stimulus does not
the failure of the less salient stimulus to become a CS is not due to its low salience but to being overshadowed by the more salient stimulus when the 2 stimuli are presented together during conditioning trials
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
list the interventions that use extinction
- Exposure with Response Prevention
- Cue Exposure Therapy
- Implosive Therapy
- EMDR
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
list the interventions that use counterconditioning
- systematic desensitization
- aversion therapy
*
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
Exposure with Response Prevention
1. assumptions
2. format conducted in
3. challenges
- assumptions
* anxiety-arousing stimuli that do not ordinarily elicit anxiety (e.g., elevators, crowds, white rats) become conditioned stimuli and begin to elicit anxiety because at some time in the past they were paired with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicited anxiety
* the conditioned fear response never extinguishes because the person avoids the conditioned stimulus in order to aovid experiencing fear - in vivo (in real life settings), virtual reality, or imagination
- can lead to the development of safety behaviors (some investigators argue that safety behaviors hinder the effectiveness)
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
give an example of Exposure with Response Prevention
a person who has a fear of elevators may have acquired this fear because he was in an elevator when there was an earthquake that automatically elicited a fear response. Now the person always takes the stairs to avoid feeling fear.
* CS: the elevator
* US: the earthquake
* stimulus generalization: pairing the CS (the elevator) and the US (the earthquake) = fear of all elevators
* CR: avoiding elevators by always taking stairs
when using ERP, the client is exposed to the feared (conditioned) stimulus (e.g., the elevator) while preventing the client from making his/her usual avoidance response = conditioned response is extinguished
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
define flooding and graded exposure according to ERP
e.g., fear of wasps - begin with a cartoon picture of wasp
flooding: sustained exposure to stimuli that elicit the most intense levels of anxiety during all exposure sessions
graded exposure: (aka gradual exposure) progressive exposire to anxiety-arousing stimuli, beginning with the least anxiety-arousing stimulus and gradually progressing to stimuli that produce increasingly greater levels of anxiety
graded exposure sessions should not end until client has experienced a substantial decrease in anxiety
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
when treating agoraphobia, (flooding/graded exposure) can be effective
flooding
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
Cue Exposure Therapy
1. what is it
2. what disoder(s) does it treat
3. how does it treat the disorder(s)
- a type of exposure with response prevention
- SUDs
- exposing a client to cues (CS) associated with a substance while prohibniting them from using the substance
* doing so weakens the strenght of the relationship between the cues & substance use (e.g., result of extinction or habituation)
* cues include internal & external triggers for subtance use (e.g., cravings, interpersonal conflicts, the sight of the substance)
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
Implosive Therapy
1. what is it
2. how does it work
- a type of exposure that’s always conducted in imagination & incorporates psychodynamic elements
- the therapist encourages the client to exaggerate their image of the feared object or event in order to elicit a high level of anxiety & embellishes the scene being imagined by the client with psychodynamic conflicts that are believed to underlie the client’s anxiety (e.g., conflicts related to sexuality, hostility, or rejection)
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
EMDR is based on Shapiro’s (2001) Adaptive Information Processing (API) model that proposes…
a) pathology results when traumatic experiences are not fully processed or are processed in a maladaptive way by the brain’s information processing system
b) EMDR facilitates information processing, resulting in an adaptive resolution of traumatic memories
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
research on EMDR has confirmed it is an effective treatment for PTSD but it does not seem to be superior to what?
CBT & other evidence-based treatments
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
Davidson & Parker (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of the research on EMDR concluded that what does not add to the effectiveness of EMDR and that its beneficial effects are due to what? Inconsistent results of the researc on EMDR has lead some investigators to take the position that…
- eye movement
- repeated exposure in imagination to the feared event
- the precise mechanisms of effectiveness in EMDR have yet to be determined
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
Joseph Wolpe’s Systemic Desensitization
1. developed for the treatment of what disorder(s)
2. list the 3 steps involved
- phobic anxiety disorders
- steps
a) the client learns deep muscle relaxation or other procedure that produces a state of relaxation
b) the client and therapist create an anxiety hierarchy, which is a list of stimuli that cause low to high levels of anxiety
c) the client imagines the stimuli included in the hierarchy and uses the relaxation procedure while doing so
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
according to Wolpe, systematic desensitization uses counterconditioning and involves replacing an undesirable anxiety response with an incompatible and more desirable relaxation response. Research using the dismantling strategy has found that effectiveness of this intervention is due to what? how?
- classical extinction
- Wolpe believed:
- CS: anxiety-arousing stimulus
- US: relaxation
- result of pairing presentation of the CS & US, the CS produces relaxation rather than anxiety
- classical extinction perspective:
- CS: anxiety-arousing stimulus
- US: unsure - created at some point in the past
- result of repeatedly presenting the CS without the US
Interventions Based on Classical Conditioning
Aversion Therapy (aka aversive counterconditioning)
1. what disorder(s) its used to treat
2. how it is used
3. give an example
- addictions & other self-reinforcing behaviors
- stimuli associated with the problem behavior are paried with an unconditioned stimnulus that naturally produces an unpleasant response that’s incompatible with the reinforcing response; as a result, stimuli associated with the problem behavior become conditioned stimuli & produce the unpleasant response rather than the self-reinforcing response
- treating a client’s fetish, presentation of the fetish object might be paired with electric shock to the cient’s arm. In this situation, the fetish object is the CS, the electric shock is the UC, and the pain caused by the electric shock is the UR. Results in the fetish object producing a conditioned response (CR) of pain rather than sexual arousal
if conducted in imagination rather than in vivo = covert sensitization & involves having the client imagine a relief scene (client imagines facing the stimulus associated with the problem behavior but refraining from engaging in the behavior and, as a result, experiencing a sense of relief or other positive sensation
