CH 2: ELICITED BEHAVIOUR, HABITUATION & SENSITIZATIONS

Event-Alone learning

• Habituation and sensitization

• Long-term change in behaviour from a single stimulus 

Event-Event learning

Classical (pavlovian) conditioning

Behaviour-Event learning

• Operant (instrumental) conditioning

Elicited behaviour

occurs reflexively (automatically) in response to environmental stimuli 

• Ex. pupils construct to brihgt light, withdrawl response from smth hot, sneeze if dust in nose

• Eliciting stimulus → behavioural responses 

• Includes:

  • Reflex arcs

  • Modal action patterns

  • Behavioural sequences 

Effectors

• act on signals (Ex. muscles)

Sensory neuron

• transmits sensory signal from the sensory receptor to the central nervous system (CNS)

  • Aka afferent neuron

Motor neuron

• receives sensory signal from CNS adn relays info to the muscles and organs

  • Aka efferent neurons 

Modal action patterns (MAPS)

• Species-typical response patterns or instincts genetically programmed

• Rather than single actions, it is a sequence of behaviours 

• Often associated with fitness-related tasks/events 

• Rare in humans bc we dont have many instances of it, and even if we do it is in very short segments of our life 

• Ex. egg-rolling behaviour in geese 

Sign stimulus (releasing stimulus) 

• Features necessary to elicit the response 

• Ex. egg shape item for geese

Supernormal stimulus

• Exaggerated sign stimulus that elicits more vigorous response 

• Ex. more round items than eggs that would elicit same response in geese 

MAPs: eliciting stimuli

• Threshold for stimulus to elicit behavior varies according to animal’s state

  • Hunger vs satiated (daily cycle) 

  • Breeding season (seasonal cycle)

  • Reproductive cycle in humans (lunar cycle) 

Adaptive MAPs

• Stickleback fish are aggressive to non-fish stimuli

  • Waste of energy, reduces fitness? 

• Cowbirds place their offspring to other bird parents to take care of their young

  • Exploits MAP for their own benefit

• Extreme stress response parallels (Ex. PTSD)

  • Interferes with day to day activities

Appetitive behaviour

• Early components in the sequence of behaviour 

• Less stereotyped and rigid in our behaviours 

• May be shaped by learning

• Ex. thinking about where to get food before class ends

Consummatory behaviours

• Late in sequence, more fixed 

• Highly stereotyped (have specific eliciting stimuli)

• Ex. when in the actual situation for getting food after class, actions of specific ways of where and how you get your food

Foraging behaviour sequence example

• General search (appetitive)

• Focal search (appetitive) 

• Handling and ingesting (consummatory)

• Ex. bird foraging for food

  • General search mode → non-directive behaviour (general area)

  • Focal search mode → localized behaviour (specific tree for foraging)

Habituation

• Process where we respond less strongly overtime to repeated stimuli 

• Stimulus specific

Not habituation:

• Sensory adaptation: Reduction in sensitivity of the sense organs caused by repeated stimulation 

• Fatigue: Decrease in behaviour due to repeated or excessive use of muscles

• Classical conditioning: associative change

  • Habituation is a non-associative change in reflexive responding

Sensitization

• we respond more strongly to a repeated stimulus over time

  • Not specific to one stimulus

  • Can result from repeated presentation of stimulus or by arousal from extraneous stimuli 

Habituation effect

• decrease in the vigour of the elicited behaviour that results from repeated presentations of eliciting stimulus 

Sensitization Effect

• Increase in the vigor of the elicited behavior that results from repeated presentations of eliciting stimulus or exposure to a strong extraneous stimulus

Adaptive value

• Habituation: 

  • Reduced responding to things constant in your environment 

  • Attention drawn to new things

• Sensitization: 

  • Increased responsiveness to things in distracting environments (e.g., loud, visually busy) 

  • Ready for danger

Functional habituation

• Deecke et al. (2002) examined habituation to predator vocalizations in harbour seals

• Seals need to avoid mammal-eating killer whales in the wild

• Tested harbor seal behavior in response to 3 stimulus classes 

  • 1. Familiar mammal-eating whales

  • 2. Familiar fish-eating whales

  • 3. Unfamiliar fish-eating whales 

Spontaneous recovery

• Loss of learned behaviour change (habituation)  after intervening time 

  • Long-term vs short-term habituation 

  • Less spontaneous recovery if there is longer term, spread out habituation 

Dishabituation

• Responding to old stimulus as if they were new

  • Some external stimulus makes you return to normal of understanding before habituation 

• Rapid decay of habituation after novel stimulus 

Dual processes theory

• Habituation and sensitization effects

• They are changes in outward behaviour 

• What is responsible for these changes? 

  • Looking at underlying neural processes

• These processes are not mutually exclusive

• If one or the other is stronger, we would see the process effect 

  • We can only see the effects, as the underlying processes are not overtly visible and specific (more theoretical)

Habituation process

• neural process that produces decrease in responsiveness

Sensitization process

• neural process that produces increase in responsiveness

Effects vs processes

• Habituation processes does not necessarily lead to habituation (and vice versa for sensitization process) 

  • Effects = observable behaviour 

  • Processes = mechanisms underlying observable behaviour

• What effect is observable depends on the relative strength of the processes at work

S-R System

• habituation

• Shortest neural pathway that connects the sense organ to the muscle to produce an elicited response 

  • Always activated when eliciting stimulus is present 

  • Stimulus specific

State System

• sensitization

• Neural structures that determine organism’s general level of responsiveness 

  • Not always activated 

  • Not stimulus specific if it is activated 

Applied dual-process theory

• Busy checkerboard pattern → initially strong sensitization effect. Habituation not overly powerful

  • As time goes on, sensitization decreases, and habituation increases 

• Rapid decay of sensitization back to habituation levels after one trial 

Emotional responses and after effects

• Intense emotional reactions often biphasic

  • One emotion during the eliciting stimulus

    • Ex, drunk

  • Opposite emotion when eliciting stimulus is terminated

    • Ex. hangover

Emotional response change with experience

• Ex. drug tolerance → decline in teh effectiveness of the drug with repeated exposure

• Primary reaction becomes weaker with repetition

• After-reaction becomes stronger with repetition

Opponent process theory of motivation (OPTM)

• Primary (A process) 

  • Emotional state in the presence of the stimulus

• Opponent (B process) 

  • Opposite emotional reaction, elicited by the response 

• Emotional changes are the net effect of the two processes 

Mechanisms

• Initial stimulus exposure

  • Observed behaviour is more visible

• After extensive exposure

  • Observed behaviour is less visible