PSYCH Exam 2

Is classical conditioning voluntary or involuntary?

Involuntary

What is CS

Conditioned Stimulus

What is CR

Conditioned Response

What is US

Unconditioned Stimulus

What is UR

Unconditioned Response

What is habituation? (CC)

Getting the subject accustomed to the CS so they don’t respond to it

Ex - Repeatedly ring bell (CS) until the dog doesn’t notice it

What’s the difference between the CR and UR?

UR - Natural, just happens

CR - Trained, happens due to association of CS with US

TRUE or FALSE — The CR and UR are always the same

FALSE !!

When a rat is shocked electrically, its heart rate increases. A flashing light is

introduced right before the rat is shocked. Eventually, the rat’s heart rate increases at

just the sight of the flashing light.

Identify US, UR, CS, and CR

US - Shock

UR - Heart rate increase

CS - Light

CR - Heart rate increase

When a rabbit is shocked electrically, its heart rate increases. A beeping noise is

introduced right before the rabbit is shocked. Eventually, the rabbit’s heart rate decreases to counteract the shock at the beep.

Identify US, UR, CS, and CR

US - Shock

UR - Heart rate increase

CS - Beep

CR - Heart rate decrease

What are the three measurements of a conditioned response?

Amplitude, Probability, and Latency

What is Amplitude? (CC)

The strength of the conditioned response (CR)

Ex - Amount of salivation

What is Probability? (CC)

How often the CR occurs when paired with the CS

Ex - Dog only salivates 1/10 of the time

What is Latency? (CC)

Period of time before CR occurs

Ex - Dog salivates after 10 seconds of hearing the bell

What are four terms used to describe how Classical Conditioning works?

Acquisition, Extinction, Spontaneous recovery, and Rapid reacquisition

What is Acquisition? (CC)

The amount of time it takes for the subject to learn the CR

What is presented to the subject during Acquisition? (CC)

US and CS

TRUE or FALSE — Longer the periods of acquisition yields stronger amplitude of the CR

TRUE !

What is Extinction? (CC)

The concept that providing the CS without the US diminished CR strength

What is presented to the subject during Extinction? (CC)

Just CS (no US)

What is a Reinforced Trial? (CC)

A trial during the acquisition period

US is given to the subject alongside the CS

What is the opposite of a reinforced trial? (CC)?

An extinction trial

CS without US

Why does Exctinction occur? (CC) - Buildup of Inhibition (long answer)

Buildup of Inhibition

If CS no longer leads to US, then CR will no longer occur

If bell no longer means food, then bell no longer leads to salivation

What is Spontaneous Recovery? (CC)

24 hours after the last experiment, CR is recovered without any further training!

What is presented to the subject during Spontaneous Recovery? (CC)

24 hours after the last trial, just the CS is presented and the CR is obtained

TRUE or FALSE — During Spontaneous Recovery, the CR has higher amplitude (CC)

FALSE !!

TRUE or FALSE — Repeated Spontaneous Recovery experiments may lead to extinction quicker than reinforced trials (CC)

TRUE !

What is Rapid Reacquisition? (CC)

If the subject undergoes extinction and stops producing the CR, they will learn the CR even faster is the experiment is repeated again!

What is presented to the subject during Rapid Reacquisition? (CC)

US and CS

Why does Exctinction occur? (CC) - What is Learned

Inhibitory associations are learned

Ex - Learns that bell does not equal food

When inhibition is as strong as excitation . . .

Extinction (CC) has occurred

When an excitatory association is permanent . . .

Acquisition (CC) has occurred

:: Excitatory association is permanent, inhibitory association is temporary (CC)

:: Why Spontaneous Recovery occurs after 24h

What are some experimental aspects of Classical Conditioning?

Contiguity and Optimal Time Interval

What is Contiguity ? (CC)

Closeness in time between presenting CS and US

What is the Optimal Time Interval? (CC)

The best time between presenting the CS and US to yield the strongest CR

TRUE or FALSE — The Optimal Time Interval is the same for every experiment? (CC)

FALSE !!

TRUE or FALSE — Stronger CS yields the same CR

FALSE !! — Ex - Louder bell = More salivation

How does Second Order Conditioning work? (CC)

Train subject on US + CS 1 until acquisition is complete

Train subject on CS 1 + CS 2 until acquisition is complete (remove US)

Subject will now yield CR to CS 2 OR CS 1 only (both, independently)

Why can’t we continue onto even higher levels of conditioning? (CC)

Extinction prevents this

If CS 2 no longer leads to US, it won’t be long until inhibition is learned

Why does higher order conditioning work? (CC)

The first CS presented acts as a US if conditioning is thorough enough

CS 1 = Secondary reinforcer

What is generalization? (CC)

Similar stimuli yield similar responses

Ex - Red/Pink flashing both lend to the same response

What is Discrimination? (CC)

Different stimuli yield different responses

Ex - Blue/Yellow flashing lend to different responses

How can Discrimination be achieved? (CC)

Over-training: Repeatedly use the same stimuli to produce a response

Learns inhibition for different stimuli and excitation for correct CS

Example of CR not being the same as UR

Rabbit hears a beep (CS) and is shocked (US)

Rabbit lowers heart rate (CR) when it hears the beep to avoid a spike in heart rate (UR)

What did Pavlov believe about the relationship between the CS and US?

The dog began to think of the CS (bell) as though it were the US (food)

What did Rescorla believe about the relationship between the CS and US?

The dog learned that the US (receiving food) was contingent upon the CS (bell)

What is a Preparatory CS/US association? (CC)

The CS prepares the body for the US, causing the body to compensate for the event (shocked rabbit example)

What is Contingency? (CC)

Receiving the US is contingent upon (dependent) the presence of the CS

Who is Ivan Pavlov?

Dog experiment psychologist studying classical conditioning

Who is B.F. Skinner?

Behaviorist, developed the Skinner Box, operant conditioning

Who is Edward Thorndike

Psychologist, Cats in a puzzle box, Operant conditioning

Is operant conditioning voluntary or involuntary?

Voluntary - Under the subject’s control

What can we learn from operant conditioning?

Learning is gradual, happens bit by bit

Trial/Error

There’s no sudden insight happening that happens

What Operant Conditioning experiments did Edward Thorndike do?

He put hungry cats in puzzle boxes

What is Reinforcement? (OC)

Positive reward for completing an action

What is Behavior? (OC)

The action we want the subject to produce

What is the mechanism of Operant Conditioning?

The Law of Effect

What is the Law of Effect? (OC)

Responses are strengthened when followed by reinforcement and diminished when followed by punishment

TRUE or FALSE — Reinforcement is contingent on a response

TRUE !

What is Delay (of Reinforcement)? (OC) (long answer)

The longer the time between the behavior and the reward, the weaker the association

Have to present reinforcement close after the behavior

What is reinforcement? (OC)

Anything that increases the rate of response, even if it’s not necessarily positive

What is Positive Reinforcement? (OC)

Adding something to the experiment to increase the rate of response

What is Negative Reinforcement? (OC)

Removing something from the experiment to increase the rate of response

What is Punishment? (OC)

Anything that decreases the rate of response

What is Positive Punishment? (OC)

Adding something to the experiment to reduce the rate of response

What is Negative Punishment?

Removing something from the experiment to reduce the rate of response

What is a Discriminative Stimulus? (OC)

A certain stimuli tells an individual what to do in a particular situation

What is a Skinner box?

Operant conditioning box that basically runs its own experiment. The box can be used to collect its own data/see how many responses were made in a specific time

What did B.F. Skinner do?

Invent a way to record many responses with little time/effort

Ex: A rat presses a bar and only when the light is on, the rat receives reinforcement of food. When the light is off, and the bar is pressed, the rat DOES NOT receive reinforcement

Label Reinforcement (+type), what the light and pushing the bar are?

Positive Reinforcement = Food

Light = Discriminative Stimulus

Pushing the Bar = Behavior (operant response)

Classical : Operant, CR :

Operant response

Classical : Operant, US :

Reinforcement

Classical : Operant, CS :

Discriminative stimulus

Ordering of a classical conditioning experiment:

CS, US, CR

Ordering of an operant conditioning experiment:

(discriminative) Stimulus, Response, Reinforcement

What are the four timings of reinforcement in Operant Conditioning?

Fixed interval, and Variable interval

Fixed rate, and Variable rate

What is Continuous reinforcement? (OC)

Reinforcing the subject after every operant response

What is Partial reinforcement? (OC)

Reinforcing the rat sometimes

Benefits of partial reinforcement (OC)

Extinction takes longer to happen

What is an Interval? (OC)

The period of time after which a response is reinforced

What is a Fixed Interval? (OC)

The same duration of time passes before the reward

scalloped shape - rat knows reward is coming, presses only once

What is a Variable Interval? (OC)

Average duration of time prior to reward (uncertain wait time)

PURPLE LINE - rat doesn’t know when reward is coming

What is a Ratio? (OC)

Reinforcement after a certain number of responses

What is a Fixed Ratio? (OC)

Ratio of responses and rewards will always be the same

Ex - 10 button presses = 1 reward

BLUE LINE

What is a Variable Ratio? (OC)

Average ratio of responses prior to reward

GREEN LINE - Rat doesn’t know if reward is coming, continually presses

What is Shaping? (OC)

Trying to get the subject to do one behavior

What are the benefits of shaping? (OC)

Gets the animal to produce a response that it may not naturally do

How does shaping work? (OC)

Reward the animal for every little step it takes in direction of the operant behavior

What is Chaining? (OC)

Trying to get the subject to do a sequence of behaviors

What are the benefits of Chaining? (OC)

Links together responses that the animal would typically give into a chain of actions

How does Chaining work? (OC)

Start backwards in the chain, getting the subject to do response 10, proceeded by response 9, proceeded by response 8, . . .

Which matters more in classical conditioning? Contingency or Contiguity?

Contingency

What did Robert Rescorla do?

Rat fear experiment, Contingency > Contiguity, Classical Conditioning

Rescorla’s experiment to test Contiguity (overview)

3 groups of rats are shocked for the same amount of time (contiguity) after hearing a beeping noise
All rats have the same amount of fear of the beeping noise

Rescorla’s experiment to test Contingency

Group 1 is shocked 40% of the time, shock is not contingent on the beeping, so they’re not scared of the beeping

Group 2 is shocked 20% of the time, minor fear response

Group 3 is shocked 10% of the time, usually accompanied by beeping. They have the strongest fear response to the beeping

What is Belongingness? (CC)

A US and CS may belong together (in nature)

Example - Buzzing noise = Wasp, both generate fear

What did John Garcia do?

Rat and Quail, taste experiments, Classical Conditioning, Belongingness

Garcia’s rat experiment

(Rats associate taste with sickness) - Same rats used

Blue water = Sour/Sick ; Clear water = Normal → Avoid blue

Blue water = Normal ; Clear water = Sour/Sick → Avoid clear

Garcia’s Quail Experiment

(Quail associate color with sickness)

Blue Water = Sour/Sick ; Clear water = Normal → Avoid blue

Blue water = Normal ; Clear water = Sour/Sick → Avoid blue