Task 6 - instrumental conditioning

Question 1

Instrumental conditioning

Answer 1

-form of associative learning where a response is learned to obtain/avoid certain consequences

Question 2

Thorndike’s puzzle box

Answer 2

• hungry animal is trapped in a box and can escape by performing a sequence of actions
• animal learns over trials and escapes in less time
• discrete trials

Question 3

Skinner box

Answer 3

• animal is put in an apparatus and can respond as often as it chooses
• reinforcement/punishment is delivered automatically
• > example: press lever to obtain food
• free - operant paradigm

Question 4

Free - operant paradigm

Answer 4

• operant conditioning
• animal can operate the experimental apparatus freely
• responding to obtain reinforcement/ avoid punishment when it chooses

Question 5

discrete trials

Answer 5

-experimenter defines beginning and end points

Question 6

Primary reinforcers

Answer 6

• food
• sleep
• sex

Question 7

Drive reduction theory

Answer 7

-all organisms have a need to reduce drive to obtain primary reinforcers

Question 8

Secondary reinforcers

Answer 8

• no value on its own put paired with primary reinforcers or make them available
• example: money

Question 9

Fixe ratio schedule

Answer 9

• fixes number of response must be made to deliver a reinforcer
• > leads to steady rate of responses with postreinforcement pauses
• > higher nr of fixed responses, longer pause

Question 10

Fixed - interval schedule

Answer 10

• the next reinforcer only becomes available after a fixed interval
• > leads to increased responses around the time before a new reinforcer becomes available

Question 11

Variable - ratio schedule

Answer 11

• reinforcer follows on average a nr of responses

- > steady, high rate of responses without pauses

Question 12

Variable - interval schedule

Answer 12

• next reinforcer becomes available after a average time intervals
• leads to steady moderate response rate

Question 13

Habit slip , Protestant ethic effect

Answer 13

-sometimes Sd-> R association is so strong that Sd evokes R automatically, no matter what other options are available

Question 14

Shaping

Answer 14

• instead of waiting with reward until an animal is showing desired behavior
• > successive approximations will be rewarded

Question 15

Chaning

Answer 15

• organisms are gradually trained to execute complicated sequences of discrete responses
• also backward chaning

Question 16

Negative contrast effect

Answer 16

-acceptable reinforcer elicits less responding if preferred reinforcer is expected

Example:

• sweetened water will elicit slightly stronger response from babies than plain water
• but if baby first gets sweetened water and then is switched to plain the difference increases greatly

Question 17

Factors that determine how effective punishment will be (4)

Answer 17

1) punishment leads to more variable behavior
2) discriminative stimuli for punishment can encourage cheating
3) concurrent reinforcement cab undermine punishment
4) initial intensity matters

Question 18

Concurrent reinforcement schedule

Answer 18

-organism can make any of several possible responses

Question 19

Matching law of choice behavior

Answer 19

• rate of responding to alternatives equals rate of reinforcements available for each alternative
• > If an option gives more reinforcers, it will be chosen more frequently

Question 20

Premack principle

Answer 20

if high-probability behaviors (more desirable behaviors) are made contingent upon lower-probability behaviors (less desirable behaviors), then the lower-probability behaviors are more likely to occur

-response deprivation theory: making something reinforcing just be simply restricting it

Question 21

Basal ganglia

Answer 21

• nucleus accumbens

- dorsal striatum (caudate nucleus, putamen)

Question 22

Dorsal striatum

Answer 22

• necessary for learning Sd -> R associations

- links between sensory cortex and motor cortex -> so that stimulus can evoke appropriate motor responses

Question 23

Lesions basal ganglia

Answer 23

-deficits in ability to associate a discriminative stimulus with a correct response

Question 24

Orbitofrontal cortex

Answer 24

• underside of front of brain
• represents predicted outcomes -> contributes to goal-directed behavior
• input: form sensory modalities
• output: to striatum -> helps determine which motor responses are executed

Question 25

hedonic value

Answer 25

-subjective ‘goodness’ or value of a reinforcer -> linking, endogenous opioids

Question 26

Motivational value

Answer 26

• degree to which one is willing to work to obtain access to that stimulus
• wanting
• dopamine

Question 27

Ventral tegmental area (VTA)

Answer 27

• in midbrain
• contains dopamine-producing neurons which project to frontal cortex and other brain areas
• > WANTING

Question 28

How the brain signals wanting - vta

Answer 28

-dopamine is produced in VTA -> projects to PFC and substantia Nigeria pars compacta (SNC) (part of basal ganglia)

Question 29

Incentive salience hypothesis

Answer 29

• dopamine helps provide organism with motivation to work for reinforcement
• enhances wanting

Evidence: dopamine levels are highest just before reinforcements are delivered, not when they are actually delivered

Question 30

How the brains signals liking - endogenous opioid

Answer 30

• any of a Group of naturally occurring neurotransmitter like substances
• help signal hedonic value of reinforcers in the brain
• > lessening normal perception of pain
• > feelings of euphoria

Question 31

Punishment signaling in the brain - insular cortex

Answer 31

• locate ding old between pariatal and temporal lobe
• important for conscious awareness of own bodies and emotional states
• plays role in signaling the aversive value of stimuli
• > degree of activation appears proportional to magnitude of punisher

Question 32

Drug addiction

Answer 32

-

Question 33

dopamine pathway

Answer 33

• VTA (brain stem) -> nucleus accumbens (basal ganglia) -> dorsal striatum (basal ganglia)