Lecture 1 - Non-associative Changes in Behavior

Question 1

What is Cartesian dualism?

Answer 1

The mind was assumed to be a nonphysical entity. Descartes believed that the mind was connected to the physical body (brain) by way of the pineal gland, at the base of the brain.

Involuntary vs voluntary (involving the mind) action

Question 2

Descartes believed in nativism. What is nativism?

Answer 2

The philosophical approach that assumes we are born with innate ideas about certain things

Question 3

What did the British philosopher John Locke believe?

Answer 3

All of the ideas people had were acquired directly or indirectly through experiences after birth

The mind started out as a clean slate (tabula rasa, in Latin), to be gradually filled with ideas and information as the person encountered various sense experiences. This philosophical approach to the contents of the mind is called empiricism.

Question 4

What did British philosopher Thomas Hobbes believe?

Answer 4

The mind operated just as predictably and lawfully as a reflex. More specifically, he proposed that voluntary behavior was governed by the principle of hedonism.

Question 5

What is the contiguity principle?

Answer 5

It states that if two events repeatedly occur together in space or time, they will become linked or associated.

Question 6

How is learning defined?

Answer 6

Learning is defined in terms of a change in the mechanisms of behavior to emphasize the distinction between learning and performance.

Question 7

Other than learning, what are some other sources of behaviour change?

Answer 7

Fatigue
Stimulus conditions
Physiological or motivational state
Maturation

Question 8

What are the levels of learning mechanisms?

Answer 8

Behavioural (whole organism)
Neural system or network (neural circuits and neurotransmitters)
Molecular, cellular, and genetic (neurons and synapses)

Question 9

What is the general-process approach?

Answer 9

Focusing on the commonalities of various instances of learning and assuming that learning phenomena are products of elemental processes that operate in much the same way in different learning situations.

Question 10

What is a reflex?

Answer 10

A reflex involves two closely related events: an eliciting stimulus and a correponding response. Furthermore, the stimulus and response are linked. Presentation of the stimulus is followed by the response, and the response rarely occurs in the absence of the stimulus.

Question 11

What is associative learning?

Answer 11

Associative learning is the study of how associations are learned and influence behaviour

Focuses on basic learning processes that underlie complex behaviours

Stimulus elicits a behaviour (acquired through experience)

Question 12

Is associative learning always immediate or can there be a delayed response?

Answer 12

The cue may elicit a delayed response for a delayed outcome

Question 13

What are modal action patterns (MAPs)?

Answer 13

A type of associative learning triggered by sign stimulus/releasing stimulus

Dependent on physiological state of the animal and its recent actions or readiness
Dependent on presence of certain environmental cues
Set amongst various species (e.g., defensive MAPs)

Involved in phobias, addictions, feeding, sexual behaviours etc

Question 14

What are the early components of behaviour sequence?

Answer 14

Appetitive behaviour

Question 15

What are the end components of behaviour sequence?

Answer 15

Consummatory behavior

Question 16

What are appetitive responses?

Answer 16

Appetitive responses occur early in a behavior sequence and serve to bring the organism into contact with the stimuli that will release the consummatory behavior

Question 17

What are consummatory responses?

Answer 17

Consummation or completion of a species’ typical response sequence.

Question 18

In obtaining food, what is the appetitive response category subdivided into?

Answer 18

General search
Focal search

Question 19

In obtaining food, what is the consummatory response category subdivided into?

Answer 19

Food handling
Ingestion mode

Question 20

What is the habituation effect?

What does it depend on?

Answer 20

The decline in responding that occurs with repeated presentation of a stimulus

It is stimulus specific
It depends on attention

Question 21

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 21

Recovery of the response after the stimulus had not been presented for a long time

Question 22

Can spontaneous recovery occur in long-term habituation?

Answer 22

Yes, but spontaneous recovery is never complete in situations that involve long-term habituation

Question 23

What is the sensitization effect?

Answer 23

If you are already aroused, the same eliciting stimulus will trigger a much stronger reaction.

Question 24

What are sensory adaptations?

How is sensory adaptation ruled out?

Answer 24

Decreases in sensitivity e.g., A person may be temporarily blinded by a bright light, or suffer a temporary hearing loss because of exposure to loud noise.

Does not represent habituation
Evidence that habituation is response specific
An organism may stop responding to a stimulus in one aspect of its behavior while continuing to respond to the stimulus in other ways.

Question 25

What is response fatigue?

How is response fatigue ruled out?

Answer 25

e.g., if the muscles involved become incapacitated by fatigue

Evidence that habituation is stimulus specific. A habituated response will quickly recover when a new stimulus is introduced.

Question 26

What is the Dual-Process Theory?

Answer 26

Habituation process - produces decreases in responsiveness

Sensitization process - produces increases in responsiveness

All habituation and sensitization effects are the sum, or net, result of both habituation and sensitization processes.

Question 27

What system do habituation processes occur in?

Answer 27

Stimulus-response (S-R) system

Question 28

What system do sensitisation processes occur in?

What does it consist of?

Answer 28

State system. This system consists of parts of the nervous system that determine the organism’s general level of responsiveness or readiness to respond.

Question 29

Habituation and sensitisation processes

Which does spontaneous recovery occur with?

Answer 29

Both habituation and sensitisation processes

Question 30

What are the characteristics of emotional reactions?

Answer 30

(1) Emotional reactions are biphasic; a primary reaction is followed by an opposite after-reaction.

(2) The primary reaction becomes weaker or habituates with repeated stimulations.

(3) The weakening of the primary reaction with repetition is accompanied by a strengthening of the after-reaction.

Question 31

What is the opponent process theory?

Answer 31

The opponent process theory assumes that neurophysiological mechanisms involved in emotional behavior serve to maintain emotional stability. Thus, the opponent process theory is a homeostatic theory.

‘a’ process is responsible for the quality of the emotional state in the presence of the stimulus.

‘b’ process generates an opponent (or reactionary) response to bring the overall emotional response back to homeostasis. This is triggered by activation of the a process.

Question 32

According to the opponent process theory, what happens when the stimulus is withdrawn?

Answer 32

The ‘a’ process quickly returns to baseline, but the ‘b’ process lingers for awhile.
Therefore, emotional responses characteristic of the ‘b’ process become evident for the first time at this point.

Question 33

According to the opponent process theory, what happens after extensive stimulus exposure?

Answer 33

The b process becomes activated sooner after the onset of the stimulus, its maximum intensity becomes greater, and it becomes slower to decay when the stimulus ceases.

The primary emotional responses are more effectively couneracted by the opponent process