PSY 3320 Ch. 4 - Classical Conditioning: Basic Phenomena and Various Complexities

Acquisition

- The process of developing and strengthening a conditioned response through repeated pairings of a neutral stimulus (NS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US).

- Proceeds rapidly during early conditioning trials then gradually levels off.

Asymptote of conditioning

- The maximum amount of conditioning that can take place.

- More intense USs and NSs produce stronger and more rapid conditioning

Extinction

- A conditioned response is weakened or eliminated when the conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly presented in the absence of the US

- Learning something new to inhibit the occurrence of the CR in the presence of the CS

- Decrease in the strength of the CR (not completely eliminated)

- CR can be reacquired quite rapidly when the CS is once again paired with the US (can also reappear even in the absence of further pairings btwn CS and US)

Spontaneous recovery

- The reappearance of a conditioned response to a CS following a rest period after extinction

- Does not last forever

- Each time response recovers, it is usually weaker and extinguishes more quickly than before

Disinhibition

- The sudden recovery of a conditioned response during an extinction procedure when an unfamiliar stimulus is introduced

- The recovery of a response that has become partially inhibited due to extinction

Stimulus Generalization

- The tendency for a CR to occur in the presence of a stimulus that is similar to the CS

- The more similar the stimulus is to the original CS, the stronger the response

Most apparent when the stimuli involved are physically similar and vary along a continuum

Semantic generalization

The generalization of a conditioned response to verbal stimuli that are similar in meaning to the CS

Stimulus discrimination

- The tendency for a response to be elicited more by one stimulus than another

- Can be trained through discrimination training

- Useful for determining the sensory capacities of animals

Experimental neurosis

- An experimentally produced disorder in which animals exposed to unpredictable events develop neurotic-like symptoms

- Prolonged exposure to uncertainty/stress

Pavlov's theory of personality

Inherited differences in temperament interact with classical conditioning to produce general patterns of behavior

Eysenck's theory of personality

Distinction between introversion (condition easily -> anxiety-type symptoms to stress) and extroversion (less reactive, condition less easily, physical-type symptoms to stress); psychopaths are extreme extroverts who condition poorly

Higher-order conditioning

- A stimulus that is associated with a CS can also become a CS

- CS2 generally elicits a weaker response than CS1

Sensory preconditioning

- When one stimulus is conditioned as a CS, another stimulus with which it was previously paired can also become a CS

- Response elicited by CS2 is generally weaker than the response elicited by CS1

- Works best if the stimuli are paired relatively few times

- More effective when the two stimuli in the preconditioning phase are presented simultaneously instead of sequentially

- Demonstrates that stimuli can become associated with each other in the absence of any identifiable response

- Form of latent learning

US Revaluation

- The postconditioning presentation of the US at a different level of intensity, thereby altering the strength of response to the previously conditioned CS

- Value of US is being changed

- US inflation (increased) vs. US deflation (decreased)

- Animal has learned to expect the US whenever it sees the CS, so the intensity of its response is dependent on the animal's most recent experience with the US

Compound stimulus

The simultaneous presentation of two or more individual stimuli

Overshadowing

- The more salient member of a compound stimulus is more readily conditioned as a CS, interfering with conditioning of the less salient member

- Only in the presence of a more salient stimulus does the less salient come to elicit little or no response

Blocking

- The presence of an established CS during conditioning interferes with conditioning of a new CS

- The compound consists of a neutral stimulus and a CS rather than two neutral stimuli that differ in salience (overshadowing)

- A mere contiguity between an NS and a US is insufficient to produce conditioning

- A more crucial factor in conditioning is the extent to which the NS comes to act as a signal or predictor of the US

Occasion Setting

- A procedure in which a stimulus signals whether a stimulus is likely to be followed by a US, determining whether that stimulus will act as a CS that elicits a CR

- Can signal either the presentation of a US or its absence, or even a change in the intensity of the US

- Context often comes to serve as an overall predictor of the relationship between two events

- An important factor in may instances of classical conditioning

Latent Inhibition

- A familiar stimulus is more difficult to condition as a CS than an unfamiliar stimulus

- Prevents the development of a conditioned response to redundant stimuli that are coincidentally paired with a US