Lecture 2 - Classical Conditioning Basics

Question 1

The first time that sand was placed in a dog’s mouth, only the feeling of the sand in the mouth elicited salivation. However, after sand had been placed in the mouth several times, the sight of sand (its visual features) also came to elicit salivation.

What is this an example of?

Answer 1

Object learning

Question 2

What is object learning?

Answer 2

The association of one feature of an object with another

Question 3

What is US?

Answer 3

Unconditioned stimulus

Effectiveness in eliciting response does not depend on any prior training

Question 4

What is CS?

Answer 4

Conditioned stimulus

Effectiveness in eliciting response does depends on prior training

Question 5

What is CR?

Answer 5

Conditioned response

Elicited by CS

Question 6

What is UR?

Answer 6

Unconditioned response

Elicited by US

Question 7

What are some paradigms to study classical conditioning?

Answer 7

Aversive conditioning
Eyeblink conditioning
Appetitive conditioning
- sign tracking
- goal tracking
Human contingency learning
Conditioned taste preference/avoidance

Question 8

What are some fear responses?

Answer 8

Whimpering and crying

Freezing - conditioned suppression
e.g., lick-suppression procedure, lever pressing suppression

Question 9

What brain structures are necessary for eyeblink conditioning?

Answer 9

Lower neural structures of brainstem and cerebellum

Question 10

What is sign tracking?

Answer 10

Tracking of the stimulus, rather than the goal after classical conditioning

Even though it is unnecessary in order to obtain the US

Also known as autoshaping

Question 11

What is autoshaping?

Answer 11

Sign tracking

Question 12

What are the common features of CS in sign tracking?

Answer 12

Discrete
Localised
Visual

Question 13

What is goal tracking?

Answer 13

Opposite of sign tracking, ignoring the stimulus and tracking the goal object

Question 14

How are taste preferences learned?

Answer 14

A taste preference is learned if a flavor is paired with nutritional repletion or other positive consequences

In contrast, a conditioned taste aversion is learned if ingestion of a novel flavor is followed by an aversive consequence such as indigestion or food poisoning

Question 15

What is human contingency learning?

Answer 15

Gathering associations between a certain behaviour and a specific consequence

Often uses a neutral or non-biologically relevant outcome instead of a US

Question 16

What are the features of conditioned food aversions?

Answer 16

Very robust.
Often learned after only a single pairing (one-trial learning).
Long-delay learning.
Highly resistant to extinction.
Highly resistant to decay.
Occurs independent of rational thought processes and knowledge.

Question 17

How can chemotherapy cause food aversions?

Answer 17

Eating foods before chemotherapy session causes associations between the food and the anticipated nausea and vomiting

Question 18

What is evaluative conditioning?

Answer 18

Our evaluation or liking of a stimulus is changed by having that stimulus associated with something we already like or dislike

e.g., advertisements