Lecture 17: Aversive Control - Avoidance and Punishment Flashcards

1
Q

What are 2 types of aversion learning?

A
  • Negative reinforcement

- Positive punishment

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2
Q

What is negative reinforcement?

A
  • Individual produces response to prevent an aversive stimulus from occurring
  • Negative contingency; active avoidance
  • Increases the occurrence of instrumental behaviour
  • Escape and avoidance
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3
Q

What is positive punishment?

A
  • Response produces the aversive outcome
  • Positive contingency; passive avoidance
  • Suppresses instrumental behaviour
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4
Q

What kind of experiment did Vladmir Bechterev do?

A
  • Tone (CS) followed by shock (US) through metal plate
  • Participants learned to remove finger (CR) when tone presented to avoid getting shocked
  • Tone acted as a warning signal
  • Originally thought to integrate classical conditioning
  • Instrumental avoidance: Subjects controlled whether or not they received US
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5
Q

In avoidance procedures, what are the CS and US also known as?

A

CS - Warning signal

US - Aversive stimulus

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6
Q

What did Brogden, Lipman and Culler find?

A
  • Examined difference b/n classical conditioning and instrumental avoidance procedures
  • Classical = US followed tone
  • Avoidance = US followed tone unless rats ran in wheel
  • Avoidance is learning more efficiently with instrumental conditioning
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7
Q

What are discriminated avoidance procedures?

A
  • Examine relation of warning signal to US and instrumental response
  • Consequence depends on what animal does
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8
Q

What are 2 features of discriminated avoidance procedures?

A
  • Discrete trial initiated by warning stimulus (CS)
  • What happens after CS depends upon what the animal does:
    Successful avoidance = Target response in time (CS is terminated, US not presented)
    Escape trial = Target response not in time (CS persists, US presented until response)
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9
Q

Describe the two forms of shuttle avoidance?

A
One-way
- Trial begins on one side (shock side)
- CS/US are presented
- Animal avoids/escapes to safe side
Two-way
- CS presented on either side
- Opportunity to avoid by jumping to opposite end
- More difficult to learn
- Safety zones are interchangeable
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10
Q

How can the absence of something provide reinforcement?

A
  • Once avoidance is learned, the outcome does not occur

- Looks like extinction (behaviour not reinforced by shock anymore)

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11
Q

What is the Two-Factor Theory?

A
Factor 1 - Pavlovian fear conditioning
Shock (US) -> Fear (UR)
Tone (CS) - Shock (US)
Tone (CS) -> Fear (CR)
- Organism fails to make target avoidance response

Factor 2 - Instrumental reinforcement through fear reduction (negative reinforcement)
Avoidance response -> Termination of tone (CS) = Reduction of fear (CR)

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12
Q

What motivates responding?

A
  • Negative reinforcement

- Escape from conditioned fear

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13
Q

What did Mowrer discover? Why did he look at this?

A
  • Two-Factor Theory

- Not much is known about what individuals experience in avoidance learning to maintain response

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14
Q

What does the Two Process Theory suggest?

A
  • Classical conditioning of fear and instrumental reinforcement through fear reduction are intermixed
  • Can animals learn to escape conditioned fear?
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15
Q

What is the Escape from fear procedure?

A
  • EFF procedures demonstrate classical and instrumental can distinctly make contributions to avoidance learning
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16
Q

Describe the process of the EFF procedure

A
  • Delayed conditioning/Pavlovian group: CS -> US
  • Simultaneous conditioning/Instrumental group: CS + US
  • Test: shuttle box barrier moved; rats placed on shock side and CS was activated; Moving to opposite side terminated US
  • Results: Both groups showed latencies to escape fear stimulus; demonstrate EFF learning
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17
Q

What did Brown and Jacobs Acquired Drive experiment look at?

A
  • Can escape from fear serve as a reinforcer

- EFF confirms that terminating a feared stimulus is reinforcing

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18
Q

What did the Acquired Drive experiment do and what did it discover?

A
Phase 1: Pavlovian
Light/tone (CS) -> Shock (US)
Phase 2: Instrumental
Light/tone (CS) -> No shock (US)
Rat could terminate CS by moving to safety side
- Animals do learn to escape CS
- Supports 2-process theory of avoidance
19
Q

Is fear correlated with avoidance?

A
  • If fear motivates and reinforces avoidance, then conditioning of fear and avoidance behaviour should be highly correlated
  • Fear is not always positively correlated with avoidance
  • Animals are less fearful as they become more proficient in performing avoidance response
20
Q

What did Lovibond and Colleagues find?

A
  • Students received Pavlovian or instrumental conditioning with shock
  • Instrumental group became unafraid of US; learned to prevent shock
  • If avoidance response was bock, fear returned
21
Q

Can we extinguish avoidance behaviour? Who examined this?

A
  • Solomon, Kamin, and Wynne
  • Dog avoided shock 650 straight trials after escaping a few
  • How is this extinguished?
22
Q

What is response blocking and flooding?

A
  • Participants are prevented from making instrumental avoidance response to the CS
  • The US is omitted (extinction)
  • By blocking avoidance response, participants are exposed to CS for a long period of time (FLOODING)
23
Q

What is nondiscriminated/free operant avoidance?

A
  • Can individuals learn an avoidance response if no external warning stimulus in the situation?
  • Procedure does NOT involve a warning stimulus
  • Shock scheduled to occur periodically
  • Avoidance behaviour reinforced by safety period
  • Performance of behaviour before shock-free period is complete restarts safety period
24
Q

What is the S-S interval in nondiscriminated avoidance?

A
  • Shock-shock
  • Interval b/n shocks
  • Failure to respond
25
What is the R-S interval in nondiscriminated avoidance?
- Response-shock - Period of safety created by each performance of target behaviour - Typically longer than S-S
26
What is the main principle for free-operant avoidance?
- By responding before the end of each R-S interval, the individual can always reset the R-S interval and thereby prolong its period of safety indefinitely
27
What are some alternative accounts of avoidance behaviour?
- Positive reinforcement through conditioned inhibition of fear or conditioned safety signals - Reinforcement of avoidance through reduction of aversive US frequency - Avoidance and species-specific defence reactions (SSDRs)
28
How does positive reinforcement impact avoidance behaviour?
- Avoidance response -> safety period + feedback stimulus | - Feedback stimulus = safety signal; reinforces avoidance behaviour
29
Describe reinforcement of avoidance through reduction of aversive US frequency?
- Rats will press lever to reduce the frequency of shock from 6/min to 3/min
30
What are species-specific defence reactions?
- Focuses on what controls organism's behaviour (natural behaviours) during early stages of avoidance training - Innate responses; adaptive behaviours that promote survival and wellbeing (ex. flight, freezing, burying, etc) - Environment creates context for innate responses
31
What did Skinner/Thorndike find about the effectiveness of punishment?
- Punishment was not very effective; temporary impact - Punishment is effective if the correct conditions are met (ex. speeding ticket vs. child sticks fork in electric socket)
32
Describe the experimental analysis of punishment
- Aversive stimulus (US) presented after a target instrumental response - Target response should decrease - Preliminary phase: target response is reinforced - Punishment is introduced once target response is conditioned - Positive reinforcement vs. punishment
33
What are 3 characteristics of the method of introduction of aversive stimuli?
- Types of stimuli (positive vs. negative) - Intensity of stimuli (More intense, longer shock vs. less intense, short shock) - Introduction of stimuli (abrupt vs. escalation of punishment)
34
What is delay of aversive stimuli?
- Interval b/n target response and aversive stimulus | - Increased delay = decreased suppression of behaviour
35
What effect does the schedule have on aversive conditioning?
- Intermittent delivery of punishment - Degree of response suppression produced by punishment depends on proportion of responses punished - Short delay is more effective
36
What do the effects of punishment depend on?
- Reinforcer that maintains target response - drug addiction; drug seeking persists despite adverse effects - Individual differences - Only a subset who try drugs of abuse develop SUD (may be resistant to punishment)
37
What is compulsivity in relation to punishment?
- Compulsive cocaine seeking emerges in a vulnerable subpopulation of animals - Vulnerable subgroup had marked reduction in forebrain serotonin; related to inability to abstain from responding for cocaine despite punishment - Treatment with Citalopram (SSRI) ameliorated compulsive drug seeking
38
What helps punishment be more effective?
- Availability of alternative sources of positive reinforcement - Discriminative punishment - Punishment as a signal for the availability of positive reinforcement
39
Describe how positive reinforcement helps punishment be more effective? Who discovered this?
- Punishment is more effective if subject is offered an alternative response to punished response - Herman and Azrin
40
What is the significance of discriminative punishment?
- Responding is punished in presence of discriminative stimulus, not punished in its absence - Suppressive effects of punishment limited to presence of discriminative stimulus
41
What is the significance of punishment being a signal for the availability of positive reinforcement?
- Positive reinforcement is available only when instrumental response is also punished - Punishment = discriminative stimulus for positive reinforcement
42
What is the conditioned emotional response theory?
CS - Shock (US) -> Suppression of CR
43
What is avoidance theory?
- Punishment as a form of avoidance behaviour - Explains acquisition of incompatible avoidance responses - Stimuli acquire aversive properties with punishment
44
What is the Negative Law of Effect?
- Thorndike - If a behaviour is followed by punishment, the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again decreases - 'Losing a penny is 3x more punishing than earning that same penny is reinforcing'