LPI T6

Question 1

Stimulus generalisation

Answer 1

occurs when words that sound like can (e.g., cam, ban, ran, cap) lead to a CR.

Question 2

Stimulus discrimination

Answer 2

occurs when different stimulus words produce differences in the CRs. In the demonstration, CRs are strongest and most likely to occur after the word can. They are weakest and least likely to occur after stimulus words that do not sound at all like can (e.g., dish, board, smoke).

Question 3

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 3

has occurred after extinction when a long string of words in which can is not included is followed by the word can, and the word can again causes a CR. Such a string occurs near the end of the demonstration.

Question 4

Reconditioning savings

Answer 4

is demonstrated at the end of the list, where the word can and a squirt are again paired. At this point, fewer trials are needed to achieve strong, reliable CRs compared with the original acquisition at the beginning of the list.

Question 5

According to the dopamine hypothesis when should a spike in dopamine occur in the blocking paradigm

Answer 5

Immediately after the light and not after the reward to proof that there’s not learning

Question 6

Feature-positive discrimination

Answer 6

A discrimination inwhich an outcome isdelivered during acompound of twostimuli, but not duringone of the stimuliby itself.

Question 7

Negative patterning

Answer 7

A discrimination inwhich an outcome isdelivered during acompound of twostimuli, but not duringeither stimulusby itself.

Question 8

Configural cue

Answer 8

A hypothetical stimulus that is assumed to be created by presenting two stimuli together. Different pairs of stimuli are assumed to create different configural cues.

Question 9

Difference between configural and elemental models of discrimination learning?

Answer 9

Configural models claim that that learning occurs only for a compound AB while elemental models assume that for a compound AB learning occurs for both elements A & B so the association is summed up.

Question 10

Shaping means

Answer 10

reinforcing any behaviour that successively approximates the desired response ⇒ rewards only if it gradually aligns with the wished response i.e. the gradual association process.

Question 11

What is the Orienting Response?

Answer 11

The orienting response is usually prompted by novel stimuli and results in a subject investing their attention -> implication: vigour of response = attention

Question 12

How do OR and the R-W model relate?

Answer 12

Or show that CS conditionability does not only depend on the intensity of US but also or so the attention given to the stimuli

Question 13

Kaye and Pearce (1987)?

Answer 13

• Two groups of rats were placed into a conditioning chamber containing a light bulb and a food dispenser.
• For the first 12 sessions, nothing happened for Group Novel
• For Group Familiar the bulb was illuminated for 10 seconds at a time at intervals in each session.
• Both groups were then given a single pretest session in which the light was occasionally illuminated for 10 seconds.
• Group novel was habituated, also had more intense ORs
• Repeated exposure reduced attention paid to it, so group novel should learn more quickly than group familiar → latent inhibition (Lubow, 1973)

Question 14

What does latent inhibition not describe for three reasons?

Answer 14

• Does not describe an interrupting in conditioning like conditioned inhibition
• Conditioned inhibition = You need to condition the absence of the expected US
• Latent inhibition can develop in the absence of an expected US
  latent inhibition disrupts conditioned inhibition

Question 15

What does latent inhibition describe?

Answer 15

When preexposure to a CS leads to reduced attention paid to the reduced effectiveness of paring the CS with the US

Question 16

What does SOP generally propose about latent inhibition and habituation in the case of retrieval-generated representations?

Answer 16

Depend on the context in which the stimulus was exposed
Exposure to the same stimuli in the same conditioning chamber is more disruptive there than in a different one

Question 17

Bond 1983 on stimuli significance

Answer 17

identification of food is difficult; pigeons attend selectively to the features of a single food type to facilitate its discovery (see also Dawkins, 1971a,b).

Question 18

How do IDS and EDS factor into discrimination?

Answer 18

claim that, during discrimination, animals learn to pay more attention to relevant than irrelevant stimuli

Question 19

What are IDS and EDS

Answer 19

• IDS: (Intradimensional Shift) The selection of two stimuli for discrimination from a dimension that provided two stimuli for earlier discrimination.
• EDS: Extradimensional Shift is the selection of two stimuli for a discrimination from a different dimension to one that provides two stimuli for an earlier discrimination.

Question 20

What does the SOP predict about habituation?

Answer 20

more likely to occur on the second presentation of a stimulus when the interval between the two presentations is short rather than long

Question 21

How do retrieval-generated representations matter in Best & Gemberling 1977?

Answer 21

• Best & Gemberling 1977: preexposure trial may well have fostered the growth of a context-flavour association. This would then disrupt conditioning somewhat by ensuring that at least a component of the representation of the flavour was in the A2 state at the time of conditioning

Question 22

Peak Shift

Answer 22

Describes the shift of the peak at which generalisation occurs the most, usually away from inhibitory or other Stimuli and more into the direction of the presented Stimuli

Question 23

What is the role of attention in the Pearce–Hall (1980) model?

Answer 23

Two modes of attention (simultaneously)

• Controlled: limited capacity + directed towards tasks that are novel or require conscious control. This type of attention is referred to as controlled or deliberate
• Habitual: more automatic and directed towards tasks that are very well practiced and the performance of which is more or less habitual

Question 24

What are the challenges in Mackintosh’s account of blocking?

Answer 24

the surprising omission of one of a pair of shocks after each compound-conditioning trial was sufficient to disrupt blocking

Question 25

How do retrieval-generated representations matter in Whitlow 1975?

Answer 25

• Whitlow 1975: response to a repeatedly presented tone was greater on the first than on subsequent sessions of testing. This relatively long-term effect was attributed to the growth of a context-tone association during the first session. Subsequent placement of the rabbits into the apparatus should then partially retrieve an A2 representation of the tone and make them less responsive to it whenever it occurred. Thus, the SOP model predicts that habituation is the result of the interaction of both short-term (self-generated) and long-term (retrieval-generated) processes.

Question 26

What are acquired equivalence and distinctiveness?

Answer 26

Reinforcement of stimuli that results in them either appearing more similar or distinct from each other because they have similar or different outcomes

Question 27

Blocking in Mackintosh’s terms?

Answer 27

• conditioning with the added CS should be normal on the first compound trial.
• only on later trials when the added CS is ignored that the effects of blocking become evident — need more trials to show an effect
• Experiment showed little change in added cs after second compound conditioning

Question 28

What is learned irrelevance?

Answer 28

slower learning that takes place when a CS and US are paired if they have previously been presented randomly with respect to each other (Mackintosh, 1973)

Question 29

How is excitatory conditioning possible in the SOP?

Answer 29

simultaneous rehearsal of representations of the CS and the US while they are both in the Al state

Question 30

What was discrimination influenced by?

Answer 30

→ the similarity of the outcomes signalled by the stimuli
An improvement in the ease with which discrimination between two stimuli can be acquired as a result of prior exposure to the stimuli.

Question 31

What are the differences between Mackintosh and Pearce-Hall in experiment?

Answer 31

• Latent inhibition should be possible in Pearce-Hall as long as the outcome is changed in intensity or its presentation increments = unreliable p.90 reread
• Pearce-Hall’s (1980) theory predicts that it should be possible to obtain latent inhibition by repeatedly pairing the CS with the US, as well as repeatedly presenting it by itself.
• Mackintosh: tone becomes the best predictor for us

Question 32

What are retrieval-generated representations?

Answer 32

A1 is excited by presenting a memory in correspondence with stimuli → When CS and US are both presented in A1 state and conditioning is complete, the CS will excite the memory of the US in the A2 state
So, it describes how CS indirectly cause the activation of an associated representation of a US in A2 state

Question 33

Explain feature-positive discrimination.

Answer 33

outcome is delivered during a compound of two stimuli but not during one of the stimuli by itself. (reversal of negative patterning)

Question 34

What is the role of surprise in learning, according to the Pearce–Hall (1980) model?

Answer 34

Animals need to attend to stimuli only when learning about them; controlled attention -> more automatic attention
Surprise determines to what degree attention will be paid and learning consequently occurs (pp. 86-87)

Question 35

What are the differences between elemental and configural theories of discrimination learning?

Answer 35

• Elemental: Theories based on the assumption that during conditioning with a compound stimulus, each component of the compound can enter individually into an association with the US.
• Configural: when two or more stimuli are presented together for conditioning, only a single association will develop (pp.152–6)

Question 36

What counterintuitive prediction does the RW make about discrimination?

Answer 36

That discrimination will be easier if two sets of stimuli are similar to each other (BC & ABC) than when they’re different (A & ABC)

Question 37

What is a configural cue?

Answer 37

Hypothetical stimulus X or QX that is part of the compound stimuli that takes on inhibitory properties compared to the CT properties exciting the prior response (p.153)

Question 38

Hanson, 1959

Answer 38

Peak response to the association between stimuli and outcome occurs not at the stimulus (S+) but further along a gradient away from the other stimulus (S-) that hasn’t been paired with the outcome
Yellow gradient, pigeons S+ 550 nanometers and S- 560 nanometers
→ peak shift at 540 nanometers and responses below

Question 39

What are two factors influencing discrimination?

Answer 39

Similarity between reward and nonreward.
whether subjects receive preexposure to the stimuli before the discrimination commences

Question 40

Honey and Bateson 1996

Answer 40

Two groups of chicks in a cool chamber were taught to approach a picture in whose direction was w arm stream of air
Group control only received that training G. experimental was preexposed to both images
Control group required more training to discriminate between the pictures

Question 41

What would happen if two similar stimuli were paired?

Answer 41

• pairing two stimuli with the same outcome should make it difficult subsequently to solve discrimination between them.

*pairing two stimuli with different outcomes should have the opposite effect and facilitate discrimination

• Perceptual Learning (Delamater 1998)

Question 42

What is ABC renewal?

Answer 42

conditioning, extinction, and testing respectively occur in Contexts A, B, and C (ABC renewal) and A, A, and B (AAB renewal)

Question 43

Mackintosh, Kaye, and Bennett (1991)

Answer 43

Both groups drink a solution containing saline and lemon before being injected with lithium chloride to induce an aversion to the compound.
Preexposure to the two compounds resulted in perceptual learning and allowed discrimination

Question 44

How does categorisation work in the classical view?

Answer 44

• things belong to categories because they possess certain properties in common.
• Possession of the common aspect is important for category membership
• Possession of the common properties is sufficient for category membership
• e.g. Bachelors (unmarried, adult, male) has multiple categories

Question 45

What is the consequence of the weak influence of ABC and AAB renewal?

Answer 45

• Shows that conditioned responses can transfer onto new

Question 46

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 46

allowing time to elapse after extinction has occurred can allow the behaviour to at least partially return

Question 47

What is resurgence?

Answer 47

an organism first learns one operant response (e.g., pressing a lever in a Skinner box) and then, while that behaviour is being extinguished, a second “replacement” behaviour is reinforced (e.g., pressing a second lever in the box)

Question 48

What are the key findings of AAB and ABC renewal research?

Answer 48

You do not need to return to an original context for a conditioned behaviour to occur