Lecture 7 - The Conditions of Conditioning

Question 1

Temporal Contiguity

Answer 1

Amount and speed of conditioning decreases as temporal separation of CS and US increases

Question 2

Pigeons and relative contiguity

Answer 2

Pigeons had a CS duration of 4, 8, 16 or 32 seconds before the food would be delivered to the pigeon.
The group that had the light come on for 4 seconds learned the fastest, to associate the light with food.
Whereas the 32 second group took over 100 trials to make the association between the light and food.

However the groups that had the longer time intervals between trials learnt quicker than those that had shorter time intervals between trials

Question 3

Overshadowing

Answer 3

When two or more stimuli are present and one stimulus produces a stronger response than the other because it is more relevant or salient.

Question 4

Blocking

Answer 4

Conditioning to a CS could be ‘blocked’ by the presence of a 2nd CS that already signalled the US.

Blocked groups are pre-conditioned

Question 5

Name the 4 things that affect the strength of conditioning (all time related)

Answer 5

1. Delay conditioning - the CS comes on and then ends with presentation of the US; this is an excellent way to produce conditioning.
2. Trace conditioning - where the CS and US are separated by a gap; can produce ok learning, but conditioning gets worse as the trace interval increases.
3. Simultaneous conditioning - arrange the CS and US in time to present them both simultaneously; weak conditioning because the CS doesn’t signal the US.
4. Backward conditioning - when the CS comes after the US in time; produces weak conditioning