EXAM ONE PSYC 2500 (Learning W/ Eric Lundquist, UConn)

excitatory CS-US Connection

builds up to its maximum strength during the ACQUISITION phase pf classical conditioning, so that the CS alone will produce the CR

extinction phase

(when the CS is presented with no US), an INHIBITORY CS-US connection builds up, tending to prevent the CR (as if the animal learns that the CS does not lead to the US after all)

When the strength of the inhibitory CS-US connection becomes equal to the strength of the excitatory connection (finish the sentence)

the CS-US connection weakens and disappears, but the excitatory connection does NOT

What happens when the CS is presented after the rest period?

inhibition has almost completely dissipated, so the excitatory connection can again produce the CR: this is spontaneous recovery of the CR, at a slightly lower strength than it was initially

With each succeeding extinction, the inhibitory CS-US connection becomes... (finish the sentence)

more permanent (it weakens less each time), so it eventually loses NO strength during the rest period, and no spontaneous recovery happens

opponent processes in HABITUATION:
A-process

- innate
- response to a stimulus
- always occurs at full strength

opponent processes in HABITUATION:
B-process

-innate
-response to a-process, working in the opposite direction
- starts weak and lags behind a-process, but over repeated presentations of a stimulus, automatically increases in strength and decreases in lag-time after the a-process
- weakens over rest period, so habituation is not permanent
-requires a-process to occur first

opponent processes in EXTINCTION:
Excitatory association

- learned during acquisition phase
- response to CS when it predicts appearance of the US, leading to tendency to produce the CR
- starts from nothing, reaches full strength and is thereafter permanent (consider evidence of spontaneous recovery, disinhibition, and rapid reacquisition)

opponent processes in EXTINCTION:
Inhibitory association

- learned during extinction phase
- response to CS when it predicts absence of the US, leading to tendency not to produce CR
- starts from nothing, reaches full strength over the course of extinction to cancel out excitatory association
- dissipates during rest period leaving only a slight "residue" of inhibition behind (accounting for spontaneous recovery and eventual permanent inhibitory association)
- requires prior excitation as a context, since without prior expectation of something occurring is not specifiable

Habituation:

learning to ignore; biases of attention in favor of novel stimuli (which might be more worth paying attention to)

Latent inhibition/ CS Pre-exposure effect:

learning what not to learn; biases learning or attributions in favor of novel stimuli (which might be better predictors of some significant even, when it occurs)

US pre-exposure effect:

familiarity with US makes a subsequent conditioning procedure less effective; as if animal has no need of predictor for commonly occurring event

Sensitization:

isolated strong US leads to increased vigilance, alertness, attentiveness; as if animal is in search of a potential predictor for a significant event; tied with habituation for title of "simplest form of learning"

drug tolerance:

CR opposes UR; increased strength of learned compensatory CR to the contextual CSs accompanying drug administration (thus requiring larger amounts of drug US to produce a stronger UR to counter CR)

withdrawl:

CR without UR; effect of compensatory CR to contextual CSs when drug US is not provided (and thus no UR occurs)

paradoxical overdose:

UR without CR; effect of previously tolerated large drug dose's UR when context changed and CSs are not present (thus providing no compensatory CR to counter the strong UR)

phobias as classically conditioned fear

fear-inducing US causes fear UR, non- frightening CS is associated with US and the produces fear CR
e.g., little albert

How to treat phobias?

systematic desensitization
1) teach relaxation response, incompatible with fear or anxiety response
2) create hierarchy of phobic stimuli
3) pair increasingly fearful stimuli with relaxation until the fear is gone, even for most frightening stimulus

Phobias as learned conditioned responses:
Why doesn't extinction happen?

1) phobic person avoids the thing
2) exposure to it may cause intense fear response, strengthening phobia

Classical conditioning terms for drug example, identify:
US:
UR:
CS:
CR:

US: drug administration (e.g., heroin)
UR: effect of the drug (e.g., pleasure, euphoria, constipation, etc.)
CS: the stimuli in context and environment at time of drug administration, which always precede the drug US (e.g., consistent with particular room, furniture, people, time of day, etc.)
CR: result of body's attempt to compensate for UR with responses opposed to the UR (e.g., pain, aches, cramps, anxiety, depression, paranoia, etc.)

taste aversion:
rats can associate what as an illness US

taste,
NOT light and sound predicting illness

taste aversion:
rats can associate what as a shock US

light and sound,
NOT taste predicting shock

what do the quails avoide?

the blue water
it's vision is more helpful in evolution, unlike the rat whose taste is stronger than their vision (they're taste-based easters)

Contiguity (association)

close in time

the longer you wait

the less conditioning works

taste aversion learning

A biological tendency in which an organism learns, after a single experience, to avoid a food with a certain taste, if eating it is followed by illness.

Tropism

Kinesis (undirected, think of rolley polley or maggot example)
taxis (ant example)

four definitions of psychology

- the science of mind and behavior
- the science of experimental epistemology
- the science of knowing and experiencing
- the science of things that move around on their own

1879

Wundt found the first lab of psychology in Germany, separating psych from philosophy

1913

Watson says that to be a science, psychology must only study the observable and so it must be a science of behavior

1967

the beginning of cognitivism. Neisser published a book called cog psyc that outlines the areas of study

extensive definition of learning

a relatively permanent change in behavioral potentiality that results from experience

fixed action pattern

A species-specific behavior that is built into an animal's nervous system and triggered by a specific stimulus
UNLEARNED
GOES TO COMPLETION

spontaneous recovery

after a rest interval, the extinguished CR reappears at almost previous strength and extinguishes faster next time due to dissipation of inhibition

optimal time interval

between CS and US differs depending on particular response being conditioned
5-30 seconds for dog's salivation response
.5 seconds for human eyeblink response

the more intense a CS

the greater the CR

backward conditioning

US before CS (fails)

higher-order conditioning

occurs when a strong conditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to become a second conditioned stimulus
- the new CS is paired with the old CS without the US

in higher-order conditioning...

a CS acts like a US

Generalization

Similar stimuli elicits similar response
e.g., pet means both cat and dog

Discrimination

different stimuli produce different responses
e.g., saying dog and cat

belongingness

biological preparedness to make certain associations

pavlov assumed

all associations are arbitrary
contiguity causes conditioning

what matters in classical conditioning?

contingency not contiguity
how the US depends on the CS
its the probability of the US in the presence of the CS

acquisition

period of initial learning in classical conditioning