Midterm 2 Flashcards
Habituation
A decrease in the strength or occurrence of a behaviour after repeated exposure to the stimulus that produces that behaviour
Acoustic startle reflex
A defensive response to a startling stimulus
Orienting response
An organism’s innate reaction to a novel stimulus
Dishabituation
A renewal of a response, previously habituated, that occurs when the organism is presented with a novel stimulus
Spontaneous recovery
Reappearance (or increase in strength) of a previously habituated response after a short period of no stimulus presentation
Sensitization
An increase in the strength or occurrence of a behavior due to exposure to an arousing or noxious stimulus
Dual process theory
The theory that habituation and sensitization are independent of each other but operate in parallel; For any type of stimulus you’re exposed to, it can be processed along two processing paths - reflex pathway and state system
Reflex pathway
- Low threshold pathway
- Responds to just about anything
- Weakens with use
- Accounts for habituation
State system
- High threshold system
- Very difficult to trigger activity
- Globally boosts responding throughout reflex pathway when activated (sensitizes the reflex pathway)
Skin conductance response (SCR)
A change in the skin’s electrical conductivity associated with emotions such as anxiety, fear, or surprise
Novel object recognition
An organism’s detection of and response to unfamiliar objects during exploratory behaviour
Synaptic depression
A reduction in synaptic transmission; a possible neural mechanism underlying habituation
Homosynaptic
Occurring in one synapse without affecting nearby synapses
Heterosynaptic
Occurring in several nearby synapses simultaneously
What happens during gill-withdrawal reflex in sea slugs?
Touching the siphon excites sensory neuron S, which releases glutamate, which excites motor neuron M, which drives the withdrawal response. With repeated stimulation, neuron S releases less glutamate, decreasing the chance that neuron M will be excited enough to fire
What are the properties that make the sea slug interesting to study?
- Only about 20,000 neurons
- Some neurons are visible to the naked eye
- Consistent layout
Fun facts about sea slugs
- Can grow to be 2.5 feet long (75cm)
- Can grow to be as heavy as 15lbs
- Get their red colouring from eating red algae
- Accumulate toxins from algae which makes them toxic to predators
- Can release ink when approached by predators
- When mating, they form chain of many sea slugs
Stroke
When blood flow to some region of the brain stops or when an artery ruptures, causing neurons in the affected region to die
Constraint-induced movement therapy
A motor rehabilitation technique in which unaffected limbs are restrained to increase usage of dysfunctional limbs
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
A cue that has some biological significance and in the absence of prior training naturally evokes a response
Unconditioned response (UR)
The naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (US)
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
A cue that is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) and comes to elicit a conditioned response (CR)
Conditioned response (CR)
The trained response to a conditioned stimulus (CS) in anticipation of the unconditioned stimulus (US) that it predicts
Appetitive conditioning
Conditioning in which the US is a positive event (such as food delivery)
Aversive conditioning
Conditioning in which the US is a negative event (such as a shock or an air puff to the eye)
Eyeblink conditioning
A classical conditioning procedure in which the US is an air puff to the eye and the conditioned and unconditioned responses are eyeblinks
Tolerance
A decrease in reaction to a drug so that larger doses are required to achieve the same effect
Homeostasis
The tendency of the body to gravitate toward a state of equilibrium or balance
Extinction
The process of reducing a learned response to a stimulus by ceasing to pair that stimulus with a reward or punishment
Compound conditioning
The simultaneous conditioning of two cues, usually presented at the same time
Overshadowing
An effect seen in compound conditioning when a more salient cue within a compound acquires more association strength, and is thus more strongly conditioned, than does the less salient cue
Blocking
A two-phase training paradigm in which prior training to one cue blocks later learning of a second cue when the two are paired together in the second phase of the training
Prediction error
The difference between what was predicted and what actually occurred
Error-correction learning
A mathematical specification of the conditions for learning that holds that the degree to which an outcome is surprising modulates the amount of learning that takes place
Associative weight
In the Rescorla-Wagner model of conditioning, a value representing the strength of association between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US)
Latent inhibition
A conditioning paradigm in which prior exposure to a CS retards later learning of the CS-US association during acquisition training
US modulation theory
Any of the theories of conditioning that say the stimulus that enters into an association that is determined by a change in how the US is processed
CS modulation theory
Any of the theories of conditioning holding that the stimulus that enters into an association is determined by a change in how the CS is processed
Trial-level model
A theory of learning in which all of the cues that occur during a trial and all of the changes that result are considered a single event
