lecture 1

Question 1

what is associative learning

Answer 1

Relating memories of experience to knowledge of objects and semantics - the particular way this information is put together is how we learn to do things
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour as a consequence of experience

Question 2

what are the simplest forms of learning

Answer 2

experiencing stimuli/ perceiving events and habituation/sensitisation

Question 3

cross et al (1967)

Answer 3

65 rats were exposed to either Mozart or Schoenberg for 12 hours a day, for 52 days.
The subsequent choice test showed that those exposed to Mozart showed a strong preference for Mozart, spending more time where this was played (and vice versa).
Thus naive rats exposed to complex auditory stimuli show a preference to that stimulus in a subsequent location test.

Question 4

what are the experimental conditions that support learning (Pavlovian Methodology)

Answer 4

US → UR
CS + US → UR
CS → UR

Question 5

what are the different types of relationships between CS and US cues

Answer 5

Delay conditioning: US is presented immediately after CS
Trace: US is presented a while after the CS
Simultaneous: US and CS presented at the same time
Backward: US is presented before CS

Question 6

what are the temporal constraints for eliciting a conditioned response (Pavlov, 1927)

Answer 6

Testing the change (increase/decrease) in behaviour to test whether an animal is learning
Manipulates the relationship between cues
Found that each relationship can be learnt but they manifest in different behaviours
CS can come to mean the absence of food

Question 7

how can we measure learning with behaviour

Answer 7

behaviour is a correlate for learning and memory
measuring absolute/relative change in behaviour (increase/ decrease)
compared to a baseline indicates learning
we can also use suppression ratios e.g with lever press where pressing suppression ratio = CS/ (CS+preCS)
.5 = same rate no learning
0 means total cessation strong learning

Question 8

excitatory conditioning

Answer 8

Salivary conditioning in Dog ( CS-US (e.g., Food))
Eye-Blink conditioning in Rabbit (CS-US (e.g.,Air-Puff))
Conditioned Suppression in Rat (CS-US (e.g., Electric Shock))
Each one is an example of A+, the + does not reflect valence
Stimulus and produced behaviour indicates learning

Question 9

extinction

Answer 9

Following CS-US training the CS can be presented by itself, this procedure is Extinction.
The CR is extinguished and the suppression ratio gradually decreases.
Spontaneous Recovery occurs when the CS is presented after an interval following extinction training.
Suggests two processes are happening: habituation with repeated exposure and learning/unlearning about the association

Question 10

Morris & Bouton 2006

Answer 10

intensity and salience
Animals learn faster as the intensity of a US is increased - forming stronger associations
E.g more pellets or greater intensity shock corresponded to increased rate of food cup entries and increased amount of freezing.

Question 11

Garcia & Koelling 1966

Answer 11

Bright Noisy Water
congruency in learning
animals can learn about almost any stimulus they can perceice but some responses are resistant to association
rats were trained with either a taste or light CS paired with either illness or shock US found that rats easily learn taste-illness relation and light-shock relation but struggles with the reverse associations suggesting certain modalities are more available for motivational systems to learn about

Question 12

Kandel 2001

Answer 12

synaptic model of habituation and sensitisation
Used aplysias to test how habituation/sensitisation learning may occur
Showed that it is due to changing synaptic efficiency of cells - specifically between the sensory neuron receiving the touch and motor neuron producing the response
Related to neurotransmitter release including inhibition and interneurons
Map of how learning might take place

Question 13

what is relation learning

Answer 13

Complex relationships that the animal can generate for things that don’t exist in their environment (what the absence of food might mean)
Increased complexity of conditions given to the animal

Question 14

what is filled trace conditioning

Answer 14

Animals can generate chains of associations (trace learning) such that they know CS2 is associated with US even in the absence of CS1
Can transfer learning about CS1 to another stimulus

Question 15

what is higher order learning

Answer 15

Pavlov (1927) neutral cues [lights or sounds (e.g., tone)] food.
Phase 1: CS1-US
Phase 2: CS1-CS2
Test CS2
Animals able to transfer what was learnt in the first phase to the next

Question 16

what is sensory preconditioning

Answer 16

Brogden, 1939) tone or light CSs with Shock US
Phase 1: CS1-CS2
Phase 2: CS1-US
Test: CS2
Pairings of CS1 and CS2 can occur regardless of motivational significance
Animals can also transfer what they have already learnt about biologically irrelevant stimuli to a US

Question 17

what is inhibition

Answer 17

Learning that a biologically relevant event is not occurring
E.g
CS1 = shock
CS1+CS2 = no shock (i.e CS2 = no shock)

Question 18

Rescorla (1969) two tests for inhibtion

Answer 18

Retardation and Summation
1)Retardation test:if a Tone (X) is an
inhibitor [A+ AX-
]for a Shock (US) then
after inhibitory training, it should take
more training to turn the Tone into a
positive predictor for Shock.
• But what if the retardation test doesn’t assess inhibition
but simply the time it takes to overcome habituation or
general attentional processes?
• Summation test-pair the possible inhibitor (X) with
another excitor (C) and see whether the response to XC is
less than to C alone, explain why you can’t just use this
test, why do you need both? This also demonstrates that
inhibiton transfers to new stimuli

Question 19

Is inhibition specific to the CS with which it is trained (Rescorla & Holland, 1977)

Answer 19

No - both pairings of A and B with X showed reduction in fear responses