Pavlovian Conditioning Flashcards
PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING
WORKS FOR…
- all tested vertebrate species/at least some invertebrates
- any CS an animal can detect (ie. bell)
- w/spinal reflexes (ie. in brain-damaged pps)
- w/humans (ie. blinking/GSR/knee-jerk)
PROCEDURES
CS = > AIR-PUFF
- eye-blink -> air-puff (humans)
CS = > SHOCK
- electrodermal conditioning (humans)
AUTOSHAPING
- key pecking (pigeons)
FLAVOUR + ILLNESS
- taste aversion (rats)
LEVER PUSHING
- conditioned suppression (rats)
BASIC PARAMETERS/EFFECTS
STIMULUS GENERALISATION
EXTINCTION
TIMING
RESPONDING
STIMUUS GENERALISATION
- condition CS then test during gradual change
- the more unlike og CS it is => less responding
- graph curve = generalisation gradient
- the further away from initial CS -> weaker CR
- ie. touch/pitch/colour
EXTINCTION
- starting w/well trained CS then repeatedly present alone (ie. w/o reinforcer used in conditioning)
- CR gets weaker over presentations aka. undoing conditioning BUT NOT elimination of association
- animal learns opposing inhibitory association between CS/US negating og excitatory association effect
STIMULUS SUBSTITUTION
BEFORE CONDITIONING
- US (food) => UR (salivation)
- NS (tone) => NO UR
AFTER CONDITIONING
- conditioning aka. US (food) + NS (tone)
- CS (tone) tested; tone associated w/food so tone alone => CR (salivation)
- CS acts as US BUT weaker
CONDITIONED SUPPRESSION
- rat trained to press lever for food pellets
- lever withdrawn post response; CS (light/tone) + US (shock) paired
- testing performed w/lever back
- response rate w/CS (=RCS)/before CS (=Rpre-CS) recorded; suppression ration calculated (RCS/RCS + Rpre-CS)
- good conditioning = 0; weak/no conditioning = 0.5
TIMING
- schedule used has powerful effect on how well it works
- delay conditioning works well w/stimulus + shock/stimulus + food
- trace conditioning = temporal gap between CS/US; less effective is gap = long
- simultaneous conditioning doesn’t work well; oft no results
- optimal gap between CS/US onset varies according to stimuli/reinforcers
TIMING: TRACE CONDITIONING
- tone => shock conditioning procedure
- 8s interval = optimal
- too much (ie. 150) = no conditioning
- too little (ie. 0) = not as affective
- negative intervals = backwards pairing egs; also not as effective
TIME: RESPONDING
- associative strength doesn’t necessarily translate directly to responding BUT usually assume relation between them is monotonic
- can lead to “all or nothing” learning
- aka. learning = smooth BUT behavioural transition = abrupt; associative strength must pass threshold before responding occurs naturally
PHENOMENA
OVERSHADOWING
BLOCKING
RESCORLA-WAGNER
CONTINGENCY
HUMAN PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING
OVERSHADOWING
STAGE 1
- train compound of light/noise or separately light/noise
- for dif groups use dif noise intensities (n = weak noise; N = intense noise)
STAGE 2
- test light/noise
OVERSHADOWING EXAMPLE
MACKINTOSH (1976)
- low suppression ratio = good conditioning
- light trained alone = good; light + weak noise = good as no overshadowing
- BUT loud noise (LN) => reduced conditioning (light ONLY) aka. loud noise = overshadowing
- weak noise trained alone = good conditioning BUT w/light = weaker (Ln) aka. light overshadowed noise
- loud noise + LN training = complex; high suppression/weak conditioning > n as loud noise energises beh counteracting freezing
BLOCKING
KAMIN (1969)
Stage 1
- CS (case noise) conditioned w/shock so presentation followed by shock administration; continues until good learning aka. rat hears noise => freezes
Stage 2
- conditioning continues BUT light added w/noise; conditioned in compound
- test light + noise; noise = good conditioning BUT light = hardly any
- conditioning to light blocked by earlier noise training
- if you condition both light/noise together from outset -> light = good conditioning/freezing when tested alone
BLOCKING: HUMANS
CAMBRIGE EXP
- blocking/overshadowing in getting ill after eating food
- overshadowing group = blocking control too
- lots of other foods/outcomes mixed (filters) to make sure overall chance of outcome = 50/50
MCLAREN ET AL (2014)
- common objections = people know what you’re doing so testing memory > learning BUT recent incidental paradigm exp still shows overshadowing