Lecture 5 Flashcards
Explain operant conditioning
- S-R learning
- stimulus that follows response
- biologically significant stimulus which strengthens bond between S and R
Can something be rewarding but not reinforcing?
Yes
What is the biologically significant stimulus associated with smoking?
the nicotine
What are learned/conditioned reinforcers associated with smoking?
smell of smoke, tobacco
- not rewarding at beginning but become nice with time (associated with nicotine)
What are primary reinforcers?
stimuli needed for survival = food, water, sex
- sensory stimulation and novelty (novelty = reinforcing)
- not learned (reinforcing from day 1)
What are secondary reinforcers?
Also referred to conditioned reinforcers - a previously neutral stimulus that acquired the capacity to strengthen S-R association because it was repeatedly paired with food, or with some other primary reinforcer E.g. chimps pressing lever for token token --> banana - learned
What are social reinforcers?
stimuli whose reinforcing properties derive uniquely from the behaviour of other members of the same species - praise, affection, attention
- usually a blend of primary and secondary reinforcers
What type of learning is involved in shaping?
classical conditioning
Explain shaping
- rat looks a lever –> click –> food (repeat)
- rat gets close to lever –> click –> food (repeat)
- rat presses lever –> click –> food
In shaping with rats, what is the conditioned reinforcer?
the click
- happens immediately after the response
- need a powerful stimulus to condition this reinforcer effectively
Who created the law of effect?
Edward Thorndike
Explain the law of effect
gradual modification of non-reflexive behaviour influenced by experience
- satisfaction “stamps in” the connection between S and R
In operant conditioning, a strengthened bond leads to?
increased frequency of behaviour
Explain Law of effect proposed by Mark Bouton
Instrumental learning generally works so that organisms develop responses that maximize benefit (obtain stimuli with positive incentive value) and minimize cost (prevent stimuli with negative incentive value)
–> instrumental behaviour increases or decreases depending on the environment
Obtain incentive stimulus leads to?
reward learning
Obtain aversive stimulus leads to?
punishment learning
Prevent incentive stimuli leads to?
omission learning
Prevent aversive stimuli leads to?
avoidance learning
Law of effect states:
A response will increase if it is followed by a satisfying outcome
- the only way we know whether the outcome is satisfying is if the response increases
Explain the paradoxical reward effect
Removal of reward –> frequency of behaviour increases
Is satisfaction a necessary component to learning?
No
What is the opposite of a positive reinforcement?
punishment
- decreases behaviour when presenting stimuli
What is the most important aspect to learning?
Reinforcement
- makes a behaviour more frequent
Morphine injections - reinforcing vs. rewarding
No self report of pleasure but continue to respond
- therefore it isn’t rewarding but is reinforcing
What is often the cause of frustration?
Expectation of an outcome
What is the contiguity theory (Edwin Guthrie)?
operant conditioning when S, R and S* occur together in time
Explain the stop action principle
any specific bodily position and muscle movements occurring when the S* is delivered will have a higher probability of occurring in the future = superstitious behaviour
What are superstitious behaviours?
- followed by a reinforcer
- become very frequent
- no link between behaviour and reinforcer
What is the cognitive theory - Edward Tolman?
during operant conditioning, animals make S-S* associations
- R’s are highly flexible
- primary role of S* = motivate behaviour
What is the reinforcement theory (B.F. Skinner)?
Involves a reinforcing stimulus
- an event that enhances storage of information about situations in which it is encountered = “stamping in”
- this increased storage increases the probability that the behaviour leading to the reinforcer will be repeated in the future (even in the absence of the reinforcer)
What is the memory effect?
Explains why S is presented in the future and R is more likely to occur (strengthened bonds in brain between S and R)
What is a reinforcer?
an event that follows a response and changes the probability that the response will be emitted in the future
How can an event change behaviour when the new behaviour occurs in the absence of the event?
change in behaviour that outlast the reinforcer
- memory was created
- acting on basis of memory
How in memory consolidation enhanced?
reinforcing events enhance the acquisition and storage of info in the brain
- gives motivational value to surrounding stimuli
- more stimuli in presence of reinforcer –> remember better
What is learning?
the formation of representations of the relationships among objects and events
What effect does a representation of a reinforcer have on behaviour?
it is motivating
What is a memory trace?
a trace of what was just seen/performed in the brain
When is a trace memory consolidated?
When it is still alive and experiences a reinforcers
- acting on memory consolidation
- fragile memory representation –> stable memory representation
What factors inhibit memory consolidation?
- learning other information
- ECT
- traumas
What factors facilitate memory consolidation?
- emotional events
- reinforcing stimuli
Explain the Huston passive avoidance task
Group 1: fed in their home cage immediately after training
Group 2: fed in their home cage hours after training
- -> Group 1 remained on the platform longer in test trial
- food reinforcers influenced the animals behaviour by strengthening the representation of the contingent relationship between stepping down and shock
- the animals learned nothing about the rewarding motivating properties of food
Effect of electrical stimulation on memory consolidation
- post training electrical stimulation of the reticular formation enhances retention of both appetitive/aversive tasks
- stimulation of the MFB –> strong reinforcing properties (animals will self-stimulate these regions)
Explain the effect of providing drugs of abuse following training
- train rats on maze –> bring to a different room and induce intoxication (AFTER training)
- wait a few days and re-test
- post training drug –> better memory
- dose dependent; small window for memory consolidation
What is motivational salience?
importance
Explain attribution of conditioned motivation
One effect of introducing a reinforcer into a learning situation is to confer motivating power (e.g. motivational salience) on previously non-motivating stimuli
- the stimulus acquires secondary reinforcing properties –> conditioned motivator
When nicotine is removed, how long will smoking continue?
Cues maintain responding
- something about the smoking behaviour, taste, smoke int he lungs –> reinforcing for a smoke
- cues associated with nicotine become very strong reinforcers = conditioned reinforcers –> capable to maintain and attract behaviour over time
What is the difference between wanting and liking?
Reward = liking Reinforcement = wanting (motivation - drive/energy that fuels action)
How can liking be measured?
taste reactivity
- sweet –> liking expression
- bitter –> disliking expression
How can wanting be measured?
Animal going toward something
What is the effect of 6-hydroxydopamine lesions to the VTA (producing severe aphagia)
Dopamine depletion - as pathways degenerate, animal stops eating/drinking
- stimulus is there, dopamine missing –> aren’t attracted (want is going, but liking is preserved)
- dopamine involved in reinforcement
Which of the following is false about operant conditioning?
- it involves S-R associations
- the response can be reflexive
- it usually involves a reinforcer
- it always involves reward
It always involves reward
Which is the reinforcing stimulus in smoking?
nicotine
Which of the following is true about operant conditioning?
stimuli are linked to responses
Satisfaction?
has a questionable role in learning
Which of the following is true about operant conditioning?
positive reinforcement increases behaviour
which of the following is true?
- drugs that stimulate dopamine enhance memory
- electrical stimulation of brain dopamine is reinforcing
- food enhances memory consolidation
Salience
importance
Conditioned
learned
Attricution
Acquisition
incentive stimulus
CS or US
