The importance of cognitive health in preventative behavioural medicine Flashcards
What are the two main features of Classical/pavlovian learning?
- It involves involuntary or reflex responses
- There is no involvement of reward
What are the two main types of learning?
Classical
Operant
Give a common example of classical learning
House training
What are the 4 features that make up a classical learned response?
o Unconditioned stimulus = full bladder or full bowel
o Conditioned stimulus = substrate and location
o Unconditioned response = urination or defaecation
o Conditioned response = urination or defaecation
Briefly describe classical conditioning
Classical conditioning: a learning process by which an innate/reflex response becomes associated with a new stimulus through repetition of unconditioned and conditioned stimuli occurring at the same time.
Give an example of a common behaviour issue related to classical conditioning, explain your answer
House soiling
- urination in the house
- urination is more frequent and the ability for caregivers to pair the unconditional and the conditional stimuli consistently is therefore poor
Give 2 factors that could limit the success of house training
- caregiver availability
- lack of easy access to outdoors
- use of punishment which creates negative associations
Why is a reward unnecessary during house training?
The reward is the physiological pleasure associated with emptying of the full bladder or bowel
Explain the phenomenon of blocking, using house training as an example.
Blocking is the learning phenomenon whereby the association between an unconditional and conditional stimulus is blocked by the pre-existence of an association with an alternative conditional stimulus
e.g. the puppy pad / newspaper used as an interim conditional stimulus when house training may block the formation of an association with an outdoor stimulus such as grass
As a result the puppy may wait until it runs back into the house and then eliminate on the puppy pad / newspaper
What is the role of classical conditioning in preventative emotional healthcare?
- Stimuli that are associated with a domestic environment need to be incorporated in the “normal” set of stimuli for the individual
- socialisation and habituation
What are the three aims of socialisation/habituation?
- Decreases salience (emotional flow rate)
- Encourage positive (desire- seeking) or neutral emotional responses
- Reduce negative (fear-anxiety) emotional responses
What is the difference between socialisation, habituation and sensitisation?
- Socialisation - neutral/positive response to social contact
- Habituation - neutral/positive response to environmental stimulus
- Sensitisation - negative emotional association with a stimulus
Why is socialisation and habituation so important for dogs?
- They are socially obligate
- They are expected to engage in social contact with other dogs and people
How does socialisation in cats differ to dogs?
- They are social but not obligate
- Socialisation with humans is a priority
- Socialisation with other cats is a passive process
How is socialisation characterised in the feline world?
Low intensity, high frequency
Give some examples of specific factors that influence a cats ability to live comfortably with human beings
- Style of handling
- Number of handlers
- Amount and frequency of handling
- Genetic influences
How should you prepare a cat for physical interactions expected in its life (O and vets)?
- kittens are touched all over, lifted frequently and gently restrained
- Kittens must in a positive emotional state for the socialisation to be successful
What are the the three components of operant conditioning?
- Stimulus
- Response
- Consequence
Briefly explain the concept of operant conditioning.
Operant conditioning: the addition of a consequence influences the probability of that response/behaviour happening again => animal makes an association between a particular behaviour and a consequence.
The addition of an appetitive consequence which increases probability of that behavioural response being selected again in the context of that cue = positive reinforcement
What are the most commonly reported operant conditioning related problems in emotionally healthy pets?
- Lack of recall
- Pulling on the lead
- Not getting down from furniture
- Not releasing objects such as toys or food
Give some reasons why operant conditioning is unsuccessful
- lack of consistency
- lack of patience
- poor training environment
- poor cue selection
- poor timing of cue
- poor selection of consequence
- inappropriate use of punishment
What are some factors that help make operant conditioning sucessful?
- Calm
- Simple
- Short
- Fun
What steps can be taken when caregivers report that dogs are not responding to learned cues?
- Determine if the behaviour is reasonable for the dog
- Assess the emotional state of the dog
- Consider the level of emotion arousal
- Advise caregivers regarding the concept of emotional management
- assess the physical health of the animal