Principles of Classical Conditioning Flashcards
What is the law of contiguity?
states that repeated presentation of two stimuli in close proximity leads to the development of a learned association
What is short-delay conditioning?
occurs when the CS is presented about one second before the US - produces the strongest and most rapid conditioning
What is simultaneous conditioning?
when the CS + US are presented at the same time - CR is much weaker than in short-delay
What is the reason that simultaneous conditioning is not that effective?
Because the CS has no predictive value
What are the two rules that are useful in predicting outcomes of conditioning arrangements?
- to the extent that a CS is a good predictor of the PRESENCE of the US it will be excitatory
- to the extend that a CS is a good predictor of the ABSENCE of the US it will tend to become inhibitory
What is trace conditioning?
occurs when the CS and the US are separated by some time interval in which neither stimulus is present - must rely on memory of the CS if response is going to occur
What is long-delay conditioning?
occurs when the onset of the CS precedes that of the US by several seconds, though continues until the US is present - the strength of the CS as the interval between the US and the CS increases - the effects of this delay aren’t as pronounced as in trace conditioning
What happens after many trials in long-delay conditioning
Early in training a dog will salivate upon presentation of the CS (although the CS-US interval is 10 seconds)
As the trials continue these early CRs will disappear and the go would salivate shortly before the presentation of food
What is backward conditioning?
When the CS is presented after the US… but even if the CS is presented immediately after the US, the level of conditioning is markedly lower than in simultaneous/short-delay conditioning
What shows a weakness in the continuity principle?
backward conditioning - shows that the order of the stimulus is important not just how close they are presented
There is evidence that a backward CS becomes inhibitory or excitatory?
inhibitory
What is spatial contiguity?
conditioning is influenced by contiguity in space as well as time (whereby conditioning is strongest when both stimuli are close together)
Frequency as a principle of association means
frequency of pairings determines the strength of association between two events (strength of the CR seems to increase in early conditioning trials, with the rate of increase gradually declining as training continues)
Intensity as a principle of association means
intensity of the stimuli involved determine the strength of association… intensity of the US roughly determines the upper limit of learning… intensity of CS also important
What are limitations of saliency/intensity of CS
can scare/distract subject from their actual task
What did Rescorla say was a limitation of temporal contiguity
temporal contiguity between a CS and a US is not sufficient to ensure conditioning, but the CS must also be a good predictor of the US
What is contingency ?
A measure of the extent to which the occurrence of one event depends on another
What is positive contingency
A situation where the probability of one event is higher if another event has occurred
What is negative contingency?
A situation where the probability of one event is lower if another event has occurred.
If the CS/US contingency is zero what does this mean?
that the two probabilities are equal and the CS provides no information about whether the US will occur or not
If the contingency of shock/tone = 1.0 and shock/no tone = 0, what type of contingency is this?
perfect positive contingency
If the shock/tone = 0, and the shock/no tone = 1.0, what type of contingency is this?
perfect negative contingency
What is an example of a moderate predictive value?
shock/tone=0.60
shock/no tone = 0.20
contingency value = 0.40
What has proven contingency over contiguity?
That in the experiment with rats, there was stronger conditioning in the group with high contingency and no difference in the other group with just contiguity
Discuss taste & odour aversion as well as visual aversion in rats
Why could rats avert food that tasted & smelled a particular way but still eat food that was in a close proximity to it?
What is preparedness?
refers to the fact that we seem prepared to associate some CS-US combinations more readily than others
Is contiguity sufficient for learning to take place?
no
What are some reasons why the principles of taste-aversion learning are not the same as those of salivary-conditioning?
- it is easy to associate a light with food but very difficult to associate light with illness
- the role of contiguity is very different: salivary = minutes, taste-aversion = can be as long as 24 hrs
- salivary conditioning is very slow process, taste-aversion stronger
What is 0 in regards to suppression
Maximum suppression of behaviour - complete fear
What is 0.5 in regards to suppression
Not maximum amount of suppression
What has a smaller suppression behaviour, those in the blocking group or those in the control group
blocking group
