Chapter 6: Phobias, Habituation, Rats in Maze

Phobias

Persistent irrational fears of specific objects or situations that pose no real danger and impact daily functioning

Biological basis of learning

Because of our evolutionary past (because humans were killed by snakes)

Treating phobias

Reversing the effects of conditioning through extinction

Discriminative stimuli

Cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement) of a response

In the context of operant conditioning, it helps individuals/organisms differentiate when a particular behavior will be reinforced, punished, or have no consequence.

Ex. Once the rat learns that food comes after pushing the lever, it will keep pushing the lever. The presence of a lever is a discriminative stimulus

Ex.2 a child might learn that certain behaviors are acceptable at home but not in school. The presence of the school environment is a discriminative stimulus (indicating the appropriate behavior for that context).

Aversive stimuli

Any stimulus or event that an organism finds unpleasant, discomforting, or painful. It is something an individual or animal would typically avoid or escape from if given the choice, such as electric shock, or food gets taken away. Aversive stimuli can vary widely from person to person, depending on an individual's preferences and experiences.

Escape/avoidance learning: Procedure

Initial Experience: The dog is placed in the shock area initially. When the lightbulb dims, the area on the left is electrified, and the dog receives an electric shock (aversive stimulus).

Operant Conditioning: After the lightbulb dimming, the dog's behavior of staying in the safe area is reinforced negatively by the removal of the aversive stimulus (electric shock)(event removed when the dog moves out). This negative reinforcement strengthens the behavior of staying in a safe area(response)(increased by negative reinforcement).

The dog has learned to avoid the shock by jumping over to a safe area when the lightbulb starts dimming, demonstrating avoidance learning.

Escape/avoidance learning: All stimuli summarized

Lightbulb dimming: a discriminative stimulus (it signals and guides the dog’s behavior) and also a neutral stimulus (NS)

Electric shock: Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Fear and pain after getting shocked: UCR

Fear after seeing the lightbulb dimming: CR

Fleeing to the right(safe) side: Negatively reinforced, because fear is removed to strengthen the response(fleeing?)

Fleeing reduces the chance of extinction

Which one is a response? Fear or fleeing? Conditioned or unconditioned? I have to ask someone.

Habituation

“Learning” not to respond to unimportant and repeated stimuli

So related to sensory adaptation: smell ramen in your room, and after a while, you don’t smell it anymore even though you try to

Habituation: Humphrey (1933)

Made a snail walk on the glass, the researcher knocked on the glass and it shrunk into the shell, but after a few times, it didn’t shrink back anymore, because it learned that whatever the knocking was, it was not a threat to it

Another study: Wicks & Rankin (1997) tapped a plate that had worms. They stopped responding to unharmful stimuli

Tolman & Honzik (1930): 3 sets of rats in maze

1. Reinforced with food at the end (gold box that has food inside at the end of the maze)

2. Never reinforced with food, but they might find the golden box, but no food inside

3. Only reinforced from day 11

Tolman & Honzik (1930): Results

Always Reinforced Group: Rats in this group quickly learned to navigate the maze effectively and consistently found the food reward. Their performance improved steadily over time, reflecting the typical pattern of operant conditioning.

Never Reinforced Group: Rats in this group initially showed random exploration of the maze without apparent improvement.

Starts Reinforced on Day 11 Group (latent learning): Rats in this group, similar to the never-reinforced group, showed little improvement during the initial ten days. However, when rewards were introduced on the 11th day, their performance dramatically improved, indicating that the latent learning during the initial phase became evident once reinforcement was introduced.

Tolman & Honzik (1930): Conclusion

Rats in group 3 learned the maze layout even without food rewards. When rewards were introduced later, they demonstrated knowledge that had not been previously expressed, indicating the presence of latent learning and cognitive maps.

The study highlighted that the timing of reinforcement played a crucial role. Rats in the late-reinforced group, demonstrated their learned knowledge once reinforcement was introduced, supporting the idea that learning can remain latent until a suitable incentive triggers its expression.

Cognitive map

A mental representation of the physical features of the environment. These mental maps allow individuals to navigate, understand, and mentally visualize physical spaces, even when they are not currently present in those spaces.

Cognitive maps are a fundamental aspect of human and animal cognition, aiding in spatial orientation, wayfinding, and decision-making.