Exam 1 (Chapters 1-4) Flashcards
An enduring change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice or experience
Learning
“Internally stored information about the world and about how things work”
Knowledge
What are four examples of declarative knowledge?
- Past events
- General Information
- Meaning and Concepts
- Significance of things
What are two examples of explicit knowledge?
- Episodic
2. Semantic
Type of knowledge
Autobiographical
Episodic
Type of knowledge
Concepts, meanings, and general information
Semantic
Behavior is dormant until such time as it is expressed in some other situation (devaluation)
Latent Learning
Who said this?
- The body controls involuntary behavior in response to external stimuli
- Involuntary behavior is mediated by the reflex, which is an automatic reaction to external stimuli and connects a stimulus with a response
Descartes (Dualism)
Who said this?
- The mind is a blank state at birth
- All knowledge is built from experience
- Sensations are combined to form complex ideas by associations
John Locke (Tabula Rasa)
If two events repeatedly occur together in space or time, they will become associated
Contiguity
Association formed if two things are similar (ex: stop sign and red traffic lights)
Similarity
____________________ that events occurred together (ex: quiet tone and small shock, or loud tone and large shock)
Frequency and intensity
Who said this?
- All human thought and action (voluntary behavior) is governed by hedonism
- The pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain
Thomas Hobbes (Hedonism)
Who said this?
Not all reflexes are innate. New reflexes to stimuli can be established through mechanisms of association.
Ivan Pavlov (Classical Conditioning)
What is the General Process Approach?
- Driven by the search for commonalities
- Formulate general laws that govern behavior across species and circumstance
- Learning phenomena are the product of elementary processes that operate in much the same way in different learning situations and species
- What this means is that there are general rules of learning that may be discovered by studying any species or response system that exhibits learning
Why do we do research?
Research on nonhuman animals can provide information that may help us better understand human behavior and what goes wrong with it in psychiatric disorders
What constitutes a good animal model? (3)
- Relevant feature or function
- Similar causal mechanisms (Construct validity)
- Criterion validity
For a model to be valid it must be comparable to its target in terms of the feature or function understudy
Relevant feature or function
We can gain insight into human behavior from animal models if the causal factors governing the behavior are similar
Similar causal mechanisms (Construct validity)
What are two examples of construct validity said in class?
- Drug administration by mice, rats, monkeys, and humans
2. Age
The extent to which laboratory-animal behavior induced by an experimental manipulation predicts human behavior induced by a similar event in the modeled condition
Criterion Validity
What is an example of the incubation of craving?
Rat in Cage
Phase 1 = See’s light and eats the cheese
Phase 2 = After too much cheese and got sick
Phase 3 = Light comes on, but the rat remembers that cheese makes him feel sick
Learning is an example of experimental science because…
We manipulate variables and examine how behavior changes
What are examples of how we manipulate a variable and examine how the behavior changes? (5)
- Drugs
- Cue lights
- Odors
- Rewards
- Shock
Subjects of an experiment are assigned to different conditions, with each subject experiencing only one of the experimental conditions.
Across Subjects Design
aka Between
How would you run an across subject’s design using this vignette:
Scientists want to find out if nicotine is rewarding. So they come up with an experiment to test nicotine self-administration in rats. Is nicotine rewarding? And will rats work for it?
Three groups of different rats.
- Lever press gets nicotine infusion and visual stimulus.
- Lever press gets saline infusion and visual stimulus.
- Lever press gets saline infusion and no visual stimulus.
How would you run a within subject’s design using this vignette:
Scientists want to find out if nicotine is rewarding. So they come up with an experiment to test nicotine self-administration in rats. Is nicotine rewarding? And will rats work for it?
Similar to the across subjects design except you will be using the same rat/rats for each trial.
- Lever press gets nicotine infusion and visual stimulus.
- Lever press gets saline infusion and visual stimulus.
- Lever press gets saline infusion and no visual stimulus.
What are the practical considerations for why we use nonhuman animals in research?
- Known behavioral history; can control prior experience
- Often know full genetic sequence (DNA)
- Animals will not try to guess the goals of the experiment
- Can control confounding variables such as inherent traits
What are other considerations for why we use nonhuman animals in research?
- Can ask questions about human behavior that can not be studied directly in humans
- Acquisition of maladaptive emotional responses (PTSD, addiction…)
What are the alternatives to research with animals? (3)
- Observational techniques
- Tissues cultures (neurons in a dish)
- Computer simulations
What is the problem with using observational techniques in research?
Can not be used to investigate learning, but not well controlled
What is the problem with using plants in research?
They have no nervous system
What is the problem with using tissue cultures in research?
Examine cellular processes, but cells in a dish don’t behave
What is the problem with using a computer simulation in research?
Creating simulations requires knowledge of the natural event first
What are the three R’s that Russell and Burch (1959)
use as guiding principles for the use of animals in research in many countries
- Replacement
- Reduction
- Refinement
The preferred use of non-animal methods over animal methods whenever it is possible to achieve the same specific aim
Replacement
Methods that enable researched to obtain comparable levels of information from fewer animals, or to obtain more information from the same number of animals
Reduction
Methods that alleviate or minimize potential pain, suffering, or distress, and enhance animal welfare for the animals still used
Refinement
Any kind of behavior (innate or learned) that is demonstrated (or drawn out of an organism) in response to stimuli.
Elicited behavior
A simple elicited behavior; a relatively simple, automatic response to a stimulus. Reflexes are often closely tied to survival.
Reflex
What defines a reflex? (2)
- Presentation of stimulus always triggers the response, but the response rarely occurs without the stimulus.
- Pre-wired
What is the advantage of reflexes?
Having pre-wired reflexes allows us to respond much quicker to our environment.
A response pattern exhibited by most, if not all members of a species in much of the same way. Modal action patterns are used as basic units of behavior in ethological investigation of behavior.
Modal Action Patterns (MAPs)
What are the two types of MAPs?
- Releasing or sign stimulus
2. Supernormal Stimulus
A specific feature of an object or animal that elicits a modal action pattern
Releasing or sign stimulus
An artificially enlarged or exaggerated sign stimulus that elicits an unusually vigorous response.
Supernormal Stimulus
- MAPs are highly dependent on ___________________ (e.g., physiological state)
- MAP does not depend on _________ or ___________
- Circumstances
2. Reinforcement; feedback
Startle responses are vestiges of defensive modal action patterns in humans
Defensive Behaviors
How can we determine what exactly that eliciting stimulus is in MAPs?
The eliciting stimulus for a MAP can be difficult to determine if it is part of a complex behavioral sequence. Break into components to determine the best way to elicit the response
Behaviors are broken down into two components…
- Appetitive (Early)
2. Consummatory (End)
What type of behavior?
- More individual variability
- More likely to be shaped by learning
- Aimed at making contact with the target
Appetitive (Early) Components
What type of behavior?
- More stereotypic (e.g., MAPs)
- Finish sequence (chew, swallow, copulate)
Consummatory (End) Components
Using the squirrel from Ice Age, explain what appetitive and consummatory components of behavior would look like.
Appetitive: Squirrel trying to get the nut
Consummatory: Squirrel eating the nut
Elicited behavior is not _________ (Sorry Descartes)
Invariant
It is highly PLASTIC (can change over time)
Repeated stimulation can _________ elicited behavior
Alter
What are the two processes seen with elicited behavior?
- Habituation
2. Sensitization
A decrease in the vigor of elicited behavior that may occur with repeated representations of the eliciting stimulus.
Habituation effect
An increase in the vigor of elicited behavior that may result from repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus or from exposure to a strong extraneous stimulus.
Sensitization effect
Effects, last much longer, occur after presentations of a stimulus are repeated over several trial periods
Long-term habituation
Effects, usually last minutes or seconds, and occur after closely spaces presentations of an eliciting stimulus
Short-term habituation
Recovery of a response produced by a period of rest after habituation or extinction
Spontaneous Recovery
How would you rule out sensory adaptation?
Response-specific (motor output)
Look for different responses. Might get habituation to start but they are still responding (in different ways)
How would you rule out fatigue?
Play a different stimulus, if they still respond/move, they are not fatigued.
A decrease in the sensitivity of sense organs caused by repeated or excessive stimulation. Ruled out by evidence that a decrease in behavior is response-specific. An organism will stop responding to the stimulus in one aspect but continue to respond in other ways (e.g., might not jump but will still orient).
Sensory adaptation
A decrease in behavior caused by repeated use of the muscles involved in the behavior. Ruled out by evidence that decreases in behavior is stimulus-specific (i.e. startle with some other sensory stimulus).
Fatigue
Habituation and sensitization are assumed to involve neurophysiological changes that _______ or ________ the transmission of neural impulses from sensory to motor neurons.
Hinder; facilitate
The organism may stop responding to a stimulus in one aspect of its behavior but continue to respond to the stimulus in other ways (rules out sensory adaptation).
Response-Specific
The habituated response will quickly recover when a new stimulus is introduced (rules out response fatigue).
Stimulus-Specific
A stronger than usual reaction to an eliciting stimulus, typically under conditions of heightened arousal.
Sensitization
We tend to habituate to _______ intensity stimuli
Low
Show sensitization to ________ intensity stimuli
High
The shortest neural pathway that connects sense organs activated by eliciting stimulus to the muscles involved in the response
Ex: the reflex arc
S-R System
Other parts of the nervous system that determine an organism’s general level of responsiveness or arousal
The state system determines your general readiness to respond
State System
A primary reaction during the eliciting stimulus is often followed by an opposite after-reaction when the stimulus is terminated
Biphasic
The neurophysiological mechanisms involved in emotions are tuned to achieve stability (homeostasis)
Opponent Process Theory
A stimulus that reliably elicits the characteristic response (no learning involved).
Examples: footshock, food
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
The behavior that is elicited by the US. Examples: startle, salivation
Unconditioned Response (UR)
A previously neutral stimulus (i.e., does not normally elicit any response similar to the UR) that following repeated pairings with the US, will elicit the response. Examples: light-cue, tone
Conditional Stimulus (CS)
The response elicited by the CS, without presentation of the US. It should be similar to the UR.
Conditional Response (CR)
What type of conditioning was Watson & Rayner (1920) - Little Albert experiment?
Fear Conditioning
Trial 1: Albert plays with rat
Trials 2-5: Albert reaches for the rat, loud noise occurs, Albert cries
Trial 6: Albert sees a rat, Albert cries
What is an example of a Conditioned emotional response (CER) experiment?
Phase 1: Baseline training: Train rat to press a lever for a reward
Phase 2: Conditioning + Test: CS predicts shock while rat is pressing for reward
Suppression Ratio = CS responding/(CS responding + pre-CS responding)
What type of conditioning is an early component of a startle response
Eye-blink conditioning
What type of conditioning?
- Will develop if a novel flavor is followed by an aversive consequence (e.g., indigestion, food poisoning)
- Very rapid learning (1 trial learning)
Learning occurs even if the subject gets sick hours after CS presentation - A powerful form of conditioning that survives a long time
Conditioned taste aversion
