Exam 1

Classical Conditioning

Two stimuli paired repeatedly

Operant Conditioning

Behavior occurs naturally, either reward or punishment occurs

Learning

-Long lasting

-Experienced based due to prior interactions

-Potential change to behavior

-Occurs in nervous system

How do you evaluate learning?

-Can they do it again

-Can they do it faster

-Can they do it after time has passed

What are the four mechanisms of behavioral change

1. Endocrine

2. Developmental

3. Genetic

4. Learning

Endocrine change

Change prompted by seasonal surge in testosterone or other hormones

Developmental changes

Grow more adult looking

Genetic changes

New genes active that release proteins and change behavior

Why are experiments necessary?

-Go beyond description

-Evaluate ideas/hypotheses systematically

Observational method

Minimal intrusion/manipulation

Confounding variables

Something else that impacts learning (predation risk, age distribution, etc)

Experimental approach

-Better at determining cause

-Use appropriate control groups

Why do we use nonhuman animals to study human behavior?

-Reduce confounding (control)

-Only need to share trait of interest

What are the 3 R’s of research?

1. Replace

2. Reduce

3. Refine

Replace

Use approach without animals

Reduce

Use fewer animals

Refine

Improve welfare and modify technique

Elicited Behavior

1. Stimulus-response

2. Modal or fixed action patterns (MAP/FAP)

3. Sensitization

Stimulus-response

-Reflex

-CNS

Modal or fixed action patterns

-Species typical

-Triggered by sign stimulus

Sensitization

Repeated exposure to a stimulus amplifies response

Desensitization

Repeated exposure to a stimulus diminishes response

Fatigue

Muscle exhausted after shocks

Sensory adaptation

Physiological adaption (ex. bright lights)

What are 4 ways to deal with fears/phobias

1. Habituation

2. Systematic desensitization

3. Counter conditioning

4. Flooding

Habituation

-Reduce response to a stimulus via exposure over time

-No reinforcement or punishment involved

-ex. socialization

Socialization

Exposure to as many different stimuli as possible

Habituation shortcomings

-May recover fear over time

-Often context specific (work in one environment but not another)

Systematic Desensitization

-Incremental exposure to stimulus

-Must find specifically what to desensitize

Systematic Desensitization shortcoming

Can take a long time

Counter Conditioning

-Reinforce desired behavior or absence of undesirable behavior

-Usually coupled with another method

-Can accelerate desensitization

Counter conditioning shortcoming

Can reduce effectiveness of the primary reinforcer

Flooding

-Stimulus in full strength and inescapable

-Stimulus not removed until reaction stops

Flooding shortcomings

-Can sensitize animal to stimulus

-Traumatizing

-Create negative association to trainer/handler

Sign stimulus

Thing that triggers the behavior

Why do some reinforcers work better than others?

Makes the behavior more likely to occur gain

Why might cues or reinforcers lose their effectiveness?

Too much make it less novel

What did Pavlov discover?

Pairing creates associations

Conditioned Stimuli (CS)

A previous neutral stimulus that has meaning after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus

Unconditioned Stimuli (US)

Stimulus that causes a natural, automatic reaction

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An automatic response after a stimulus

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response to a stimulus that was previously neutral

Types of associative learning

-Stimulus-response learning (S-R)

-Stimulus-stimulus learning (S-S)

Stimulus-Response learning

-During conditioning

-CS → CR always

Stimulus-Stimulus learning

-CS evokes a mental image of US leading to CR

-CS → US → CR

Stimulus factors

-Novelty

-Relevance and natural behavior

-Sensory bias

Novelty (stimulus factors)

-Can be habituated to stimuli causing it to be less effective

-Can turn into latent habituation

Latent habituation

Exposed to stimulus so much that there’s no reaction

Relevance and natural behavior (stimulus factors)

Match CS with US using physiology/normal behaviors

Sensory bias

Using tone and frequency to train

What three reasons cause the response to a conditioning trial?

1. True association (classical conditioning)

2. Increased sensitivity to CS

3. Sensitization from US present

Types of controls in an experimental design

-Random control

-Discriminative control

Random control

-Present both CS and US at random times

-Can lead to an association that doesn’t always exist (superstition)

Discriminative control

Train behavior using two different CS

Temporal relations

Timing, reliability, and redundancy of the stimulus

Timing of the stimulus

-Affects classical and operant

-Key to establishing association

-CS → US

CS-US interval

-Time between the CS and the US

-Want to minimize CS-US interval (keep CS brief)

Primary reinforcers

-Increase probability of behavior

-Differs with each animal

Secondary reinforcers/Bridges

-Has to be learned (classical conditioning)

-Closes gap between the behavior and the US

-ex. clicker

Blocking effect

A stimulus becomes irrelevant if paired with an already known stimulus

Conditioned inhibition

2 CS’s are present where the second one suppresses the US

Conditioned facilitation

Multiple CS’s present that change the US outcome

How do we know if a conditioned inhibitor is working?

-Establish baseline

-Establish CS 1 and measure increase

-Establish CS 2 and measure decrease

-Summation testing

In classical conditioning, who is in control?

Handler/trainer

In operant conditioning, who is in control?

The animal

Scanning and capturing

-No goal - wait until behavior then reinforce

-Great way to start a new animal

-Can develop cues

Shaping

Smaller steps to reach the final behavior

Problems with primary reinforcement

-Timing - might reinforce the wrong behavior

-Distance to the animal

Conditioning constraints

-Natural preferences take charge

-Training plans should include natural behaviors

-UR is associated with either the CS or CR

10 rules of shaping

1. Raise criteria slowly

2. Shape one criteria at a time

3. Put current response on variable schedule before moving on

4. When introducing new criteria relax the old ones

5. Create training plans

6. Trainer consistency

7. Find a different approach if stuck

8. Don’t interrupt a training session without a good reason

9. If going backwards, back up and move forward

10. Quit while you’re ahead

What do schedule of reinforcement determine?

-Rate and pattern of response

-Persistence of response

Continuous reinforcement

Behavior exhibited and rewarded every time

Scheduled reinforcement

-Not reinforced every time

-Variability, ratio, or interval

Ratio reinforcement

Reinforce after a certain number of behaviors

Interval reinforcement

Reinforce after a certain time

Fixed reinforcement

Reinforcement is always the same

Variable reinforcement

Reinforcement is not always the same

Fixed ratio (FR)

Reinforce every x amount of times

Fixed interval (FI)

Reinforce every x number of seconds

Variable ratio (VR)

Reinforce a random number of times

Variable interval (VI)

Reinforce after a random amount of time has passed

Which schedule gives the best training response? Why?

-Variable ratio

-Occasional and unpredictable (engaging)

Chaining

-Linking behaviors together so one builds off of another

-Never occurs by chance

-Requires multiple steps

Advantage of chaining

-Can chain backwards

-Each step becomes the cue for the next response

-Steps can be split

Drive reduction

Reduce biological drive

Premack principle

-AKA Grandma’s Law

-More likely to perform a non-preferred task if its followed with a preferred task

Response deprivation

Restricting an activity makes it more valuable

Behavioral homeostasis

-An ideal distribution of behaviors

-Restricting behavior interrupts homeostasis so animal works to increase restricted behaviors

Four bad fairies (aversive behaviors)

1. Shoot the dog

2. Punishment

3. Negative reinforcement

4. Extinction

Four good fairies (not aversive)

1. Train an incompatible behavior

2. Put the behavior on a cue

3. Shape the absence

4. Change the motivation

Shoot the dog

-Removing from a situation

-Advantage - always works

-Disadvantage - teaches nothing

Punishment

-Extremely reinforcing for punisher

-Usually escalates (BAD)

-No opportunity to learn

-Creates a poor relationship

Disadvantages of punishment

-Usually a gap between behavior and punishment

-No mitigation (can’t change punishment)

-Teaches them they only get in trouble when they’re caught

Negative reinforcement

-Taking something away to encourage a behavior

-Will be something aversive

-Timing is essential

-Very successful

-Operator controls the situation (animal)

Extinction

-Behavior goes away on its own

-Identify and remove reinforcer

-Takes a while to learn

-Doesn’t work with self-reinforcing behavior

LIMA

-Least Intrusive Minimally Aversive

-Sometimes translates as positive reinforcement only

Train an incompatible behavior

Train an alternate behavior that they can’t do at the same time

Behavior on cue

-Stimulus control

-Identify reinforcer and only reinforce behavior when it occurs after the cue is given

-May take time to shape behavior

Shape absence

Reward everything but behavior you don’t like

Change the motivation

-Guess the motivation and direct them elsewhere

-May accidentally reinforce behavior so identify before the behavior occurs