test 1 Flashcards
How does taste aversion violate typical classical conditioning?
In typical classical conditioning, acquiring a CR requires dozens of trials associating the CS and US vs can acquire taste aversion after one single occasion.
Typically, long-delay conditioning is less effective vs the time eating and getting sick can be as long as 24hrs.
What is Learning?
- An adaptive process where the tendency to perform a specific behaviour, emotion, and/or thought is changed by experience
- A more or less permanent change in behaviour potentiality which occurs as a result of repeated practice
- Change in a subject’s behaviour or behaviour potential to a given situation brought about by the subject’s repeated experience in that situation
What is “experience?”
Any effects of the environment mediated by a sensory system
Common features of Learning?
- There is a change (may be invisible - thus the “behaviour potential”)
- Change is lasting
- Experience and practice
- Learning situation is important
Two Major Ways of Learning?
- Non-associative (Habituation)
- - Associative
Habituation?
– a “getting used to it” response
– the organism has “learned” that this stimulus has no special significance
– does not require linking stimuli together
– considered the simplest type of learning
– decline/disappearance of a reflexive response when the same stimulus is repeatedly presented
– ignore unimportant, repetitive events
Why is habituation adaptive?
Allows us to learn that a stimulus is not significant, and therefore you don’t have to be distracted by petty events
3 Key Figures in The History of Associative Learning?
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) John Watson (1878-1958) B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Cognitive Psychology?
- The study of MENTAL processes such as perceiving, attending, remembering and reasoning
- Psychology as the science of the mind
i. e. The scientific approach (Herschel 1830):
1) gathering of data through experimentation and observation;
2) generation of hypotheses from these data;
3) testing of the hypotheses to see if they can be disproved
- Psychology as the science of the mind
history of cognition
- Wilhelm Wundt (1879) and the method of introspection
- Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) and the empirical study of memory
- William James (1890) principles of psychology
Behaviorism - who, when, what?
- Watson (1913): psychology as objective study of behavior not mind
- Introspection cannot be measured objectively
- Theories should be as simple as possible
- Metaphor of the ‘black box’- inner workings cannot be understood
- belief in tabula rasa rather than nativism
- belief in equipotentiality
According to Ethology in the 1950s, why is tabula rasa untrue?
- Different species have different genetic predispositions that determine behaviour.
- Fixed-action patterns such as stereotyped mating behaviour, nest building, territory marking etc. (e.g., Niko Tinbergen)
- Critical periods for specific learning such as chicks learning who mother is (ie., imprinting, Konrad Lorenz)
Reemergence of Cognition
- Chomsky: The generativity of human language cannot be explained in behaviorist terms; Psychology as science of behaviour is like defining physics as science of meter reading; Theories of the mind are needed to explain behaviour
- The 1956 MIT conference (Chomsky, Miller, Bruner, Newell & Simon)
- The computer metaphor: Information processing in the ‘black box’ became a legitimate topic of discussion as such processes are, after all, instantiated in a machine
The information-processing model
- A computer uses symbols (series of 0 and 1) to represent something; Neurons can fire (1) or not fire (0)
- Programs specify the rules for the manipulation of these symbols: Software is to hardware, as mind is to brain?
- -The computational theory of mind; From box and arrow models to parallel distributed processing
- The rise of cognitive neuroscience and the rise of evolutionary approaches
Approaches to studying the mind
- Experiments —Classic (a la Ebbinghaus) —Since cognitive revolution: e.g., reaction time as a measure of mental processing load – combining objective measures with introspection
- Neuroscientific investigations —Brain imaging and recording (with introspection or task performance) —Lesion studies: Malfunctioning of the brain/mind
- Modeling —Computer simulations of human performance
- Comparative —Performance comparison across age groups, clinical groups and species
The Domain of Cognitive Psychology
§ Cognitive Neuroscience § Perception § Pattern recognition § Attention § Consciousness § Memory § Imagery § Representation of knowledge § Language § Cognitive Development § Thinking § Intelligence § Comparative Psychology § Evolutionary Psychology*
Basic and higher level cognition
- Low = close to the input from our senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell); Mental representations correspond to objects and events in the environment
- High = abstract, conceptual, relational; Abstract mental representations; Derived from many individual experiences
Cognitivists complained that behaviourism…
- ignored basic mental processes like memory, attention, imagery etc.
- assumed equipotentiality and could not properly explain different learning within individuals and across species
Behaviourists complained that cognitivism…
- made merely inferences about mental constructs
- made no reference to physiology
- ignored emotion and motivational valence
4 elements of classical conditioning
- unconditioned stimulus US: a stimulus that elicits an unlearned response
- unconditioned response UR: the unlearned response to a US
- conditioned stimulus CS: a stimulus to which an organism must learn to respond
- conditioned response CR: the response to a CS (which is learned)
Unconditioned…
connection between stimulus and response is INNATE
Conditioned…
connection between stimulus and response is LEARNED
Conditioned fear
Little Albert
tone + white fluffy rat
generalised to all white fluffy objects
The three stages of classical conditioning
- Stage 1: Habituation – CS presented alone
- Stage 2: Acquisition – CS presented along with US
- Stage 3: Extinction – CS presented alone again
What two factors influence the acquisition curve?
– Intensity of the US (more intense, more rapid learning)
– Order and timing (the CS coming before the US is better)
Different types of timing in Conditoning
- Delay Conditioning-Short
- Delay Conditioning-Long
- Trace Conditioning
- Simultaneous Conditioning
- Backward Conditioning
What is it called when the stimulus that the animal is learning about (CS) is presented before the stimulus that already holds some meaning (US) but there is a delay between the end on the first stimulus and the beginning of the second?
Trace conditioning
In a typical conditioning experiment a neutral stimulus (CS) is presented along with a stimulus that we already know something about (US). What is this phase called?
Acquisition
Two Types of Pavlovian Conditioning
- Excitatory conditioning – CS predicts the occurrence of US
* Inhibitory conditioning – CS predicts absence of US
Tests used to determine if Inhibitory Conditioning has taken place
summation test and retardation test
Retardation test
• First inhibitory conditioning takes place
• To test it - train an inhibitor and a neutral stimulus to become excitatory
– Slower learning to inhibitor
Summation test
- First inhibitory conditioning takes place
- To test it - present a new excitatory CS alone, and then the new excitatory CS + the inhibitor
- The combo should evoke a WEAKER CR.
I think that people who provide us with social support are a natural example of a conditioned inhibitor. To test this I present participants with pictures that they have previously learnt predict a shock alone or along with a picture of their mother. What test am I doing?
Summation test
Name the three types of exctinction
§ spontaneous recovery
§ the renewal effect
§ reinstatement
Spontaneous recovery after extinction
- Reintroduce the CS after a “break”
- - The CR reappears
Renewal effect in extinction
When extinction is context specific
§ Acquisition in context X
§ Extinction in context Y
§ Present CS in context X: CR
Reinstatement in extinction
Reminder Effect
§ present US alone after extinction
§ Then Present CS = CR
The Hidden (and incorrect) Assumptions of Classical Conditioning
- Any two stimuli can be paired together (equipotentiality)
- The more two stimuli are paired, the stronger the individual will associate them (continguity)
- Conditioning changes trial to trial in a regular way (contingency)
The Hidden (and incorrect) Assumptions of Classical Conditioning - equipotentiality
Any two stimuli can be paired together
The Hidden (and incorrect) Assumptions of Classical Conditioning - continguity
The more two stimuli are paired, the stronger the individual will associate them
The Hidden (and incorrect) Assumptions of Classical Conditioning - contingency
Conditioning changes trial to trial in a regular way
Blocking
When a neutral stimulus and an excitatory stimulus together are paired with the US – the learner does not form an association between the neutral stimulus and the US
Superconditioning
When a neutral stimulus and an inhibitory stimulus together are paired with the US – the learner forms a stronger association between the neutral stimulus and the US
You think you have a conditioned inhibitor. You decide to do the retardation test first so you …
(a) Pair the inhibitor with a US and a neutral stimulus with the US over and over and compare CRs
(b) Present an excitatory stimulus with a US and the inhibitor without a US
(c) Present an excitatory stimulus alone and an excitatory stimulus together with the inhibitor and compare CRs
(d) Present a neutral stimulus and a neutral stimulus together with an inhibitor and compare CRs
(a) Pair the inhibitor with a US and a neutral stimulus with the US over and over and compare CRs
According to Kamin, what is necessary for learning?
Surprise
You are Pavlov’s dog. One particular guy always brings you food. You always salivate when you hear his footsteps or see him coming towards you. He starts bringing a friend along with him when he brings the food. One day that friend comes alone and your mouth is dry. What is this an example of
(a) Reinstatement
(b) Superconditioning
(c) Blocking
(d) Acquisition
(c) Blocking
