Conditional learning

Question 1

Describe occasion setting of associations.

Answer 1

A phenomenon where the same stimulus can have two different outcomes & the type of association made is conditional on the context.

Question 2

The context appears to control choice of which CS-US association to use.

What is this called?

Answer 2

Occasion setting

Question 3

Occasion setters can also be called…

Answer 3

conditional cues, modulators or facilitators.

Question 4

If a light and tone are paired with food in a first trial and in the second trial the tone doesn’t predict food. What does associative theory predict?

Answer 4

All positive association strength goes to the light and there is no conditioned response to the the tone.

This is called feature positive discrimination.

Question 5

In Ross and Holllands’s 1981 study how did the rats respond to the light compared to the tone when followed by food?

Answer 5

The rats reared towards the light and head jerked to the tone.

Question 6

Ross & Holland found that if the light and tone aren’t presented simultaneously something different happens to when it is presented serially. What is that?

Answer 6

If the tone and light are presented simultaneously in the first trial, a stronger association with the light and food is made.

However if the light is presented before the tone then the rats made tone-type responses

Question 7

When the light and tone are presented serially in Ross & Holland’s study, why does the light not take all of the associative strength?

Answer 7

Because light is further in time from food than the tone.

They are both associated with food a little.

Question 8

Holland, 1989

Group FP: light->tone->food, tone->no food

Group PP:??

Answer 8

Group PP: light->tone->food, tone->no food, LIGHT->NO FOOD

Question 9

What did Holland, 1989 expect to find in group PP?

Answer 9

No difference in responses between:

light-tone-food and tone-no food in group PP if light isn’t associated with food at all.