Instrumental Learning Flashcards
What did Thorndike provide evidence of>?
That instrumental behaviour is caused by the formation of incrementally acquired associations
What is Thorndike’s law of effect? General gist
In presence of a stimulus, if reponse is followed by satisfying state of affairs, conenction between stimulus and response will be strengthened. and vice versa
What did Adam and Dikinson’s (1981) experiment show?
initially learning seems to reflect SOR learning, extended training reflect S-R learning
What did Adam and Dickinson’s experiment involve?
rats. sucros, pellets. Reevaluation - lithium chloride –> regularly chose the one that didn’t make them sick. read notesssss
Which area is a likely neural candidate for instrumental behaviour and why?
Striatum - receives infor from a variety of cortical and sub-cortical areas and then send s that information back to the motor cortex
What do lesions in the dorso-medial striatum do in rats?
impairs sensitivity to outcome devualtion (e.g. lesioned rats behave in habitual manner)
Who did an experiment into hte role of hte Dorso-meidal striatum in instrumental learning?
Yin e al, 2005
what conclusion did Yin et al ome to?
posterior region of hte dorso medial striatum = crucial neural substrate for the acquisition adne xpression of action-outcome associations in instrumental conditioning
What other part of the brain might is important for outcome devaluation
amygdala
Why is the amygdala imp;ortant for outcome devaluation?
Appears to be necessary to represent the sensory-specific qualities of an outcome
What is the evidence for amygdala being important for outcome devaluation?
Balleine et al, 2003 - basolaterlay amygdala is necessary for outcome representation
What two main points did Killcross & Contureau, 2003 conclude?
READ NOTES
What does the doble dissociation killcross & Contureau found imply?
2003 - SR & SOR learning must occur independently of one another - SOR associations do not simply turn into SR associations with training.
