Learning and Conditioning

Determinism

Determinism

Determinism is the idea that mental (psychic) events do not occur by chance but always have an underlying cause that analysis can uncover. [Freudian concept]

Confound

Confounding variables are factors other than the independent variable that may cause a result.

Darwin's Theory

Natural Selection: Organisms with the best adaptations survive and pass their traits to offspring. Organisms without these adaptations die and do not reproduce. Over time, the population changes as more organisms inherit the adaptation.

Learning

the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

General Process Approach

basic processes that operate in the same way in different learning situations

habituation

Repeated stimulation without consequence decreases responsiveness.

Example of habituation

The Labrador retriever puppies were introduced to loud sudden noises early on so that later they wouldn't be afraid of gun fire.

Dishabituation

The reappearance or enhancement of a response due to the presentation of a new stimulus.

example of dishabituation

You habituate to the sound of a ticking clock but then hear a car honking outside. Suddenly you hear the ticking sound once again.

Sensitization

Repeated administration of a stimulus results in heightened sensitivity or responsiveness to the same stimulus over time.

example of sensitization

School children are frequently sensitized to the sound of a ringing bell when they are waiting for the end of the school day.

What is the difference between habituation and Sensitization?

Habituation results in a decreased response to a repeated stimulus. Sensitization results in an increased response to a repeated stimulus.

Pavlovian Conditioning (Classical Conditioning)

A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.

Example of Pavlovian conditioning (Classical Conditioning)

A dog salivates [unconditioned response] to the presentation of food [unconditioned stimulus]. A tone [neutral stimulus] is paired with the food [unconditioned stimulus]. After repeated pairings, the tone [conditioned stimulus] is presented by itself and leads to the dog salivating [conditioned response].

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response; Form of learning where no outcome is what's learned NOT erasure

What is the difference between habituation and extinction?

Extinction means the conditioned response gradually ceases when the conditioned stimulus is presented by itself. With habituation, the reaction to a natural response is no longer observed. Thus, the main difference is whether the response was conditioned or natural.

spontaneous recovery

the tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period

renewal effect

if a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place; thus it is best to perform extinction training in multiple contexts

Reactivation

Following extinction exposure to UCS by itself can reinstate/reactivate the original response; get a random shock then they hear a tone again the fear comes back even though it was unrelated to training

How do you enhance extinction effects?

Extend extinction treatments beyond when the subject stops responding. The short extinction treatment group showed some recovery, but the group with a longer extinction treatment showed almost no response recovery.

masked extinction training

treatment is close together in time,and makes extinction occur more quickly, but it doesn't last as long

spaced extinction trials

treatment occurs far apart in time so takes longer to achieve extinction but there is a longer interval between extinction and recovery

Condition Emotional Response (CER)

Emotional responses that become classically conditioned. Pairing a shock with a tone at the presentation of food, leads to fear of the tone.

Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA)

Learning is characterized by a developed aversion to food if someone gets sick or throws up after eating it. This aversion is extremely strong and is very resistant to extinction. It is basically classical conditioning in that the CS (food) paired with the US (throwing up) evokes the CR (not eating the food ever again), even if the food wasn't the cause.

Why is taste aversion developed early on?

Most foods are novel to kids, so negative experiences can be paired with the food, leading them to dislike the food.

introceptive conditioning

a person experiences somatic signs (e.x. sweating, heart racing etc.) of anxiety, which are followed by the person's first panic attack; panic attacks then become a conditioned response to the somatic changes

What are some classical conditioning procedures that do not effectively produce the conditioned response?

Simultaneous conditioning, because the CS and US are presented at the same time makes it difficult to determine which is responsible for the response. Backward conditioning presents the US before the CS which weakens contingency between the pairing.

delayed conditioning

the presentation of the conditioned stimulus is before the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus.

trace conditioning

the presentation of the CS, followed by a short break, followed by the presentation of the US

explicitly unpaired conditioning

CS and US are produced without pairing and learning occurs if these 2 things occur often enough.

inhibitory conditioning [safety signal]

conditioning procedure in which the CS is associated with the absence or removal of a US

stimulus generalization

the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus

The opposite of stimulus generalization is

discrimination; learn to respond to one stimulus only

important parts of generalization

· Role of prior experience

· discrimination training will reduce generalization effects

Discrimination training...

Will sharpen or steepen stimulus control, making generalization more narrow and restricting responding to a more limited form of cues

Simultaneous discrimination training

The discriminative stimuli are presented at the same time, and only one is correct and reinforced.

Successive discrimination training

A discrimination training procedure in which the S+ and S- are presented one after the other and only one is correct and reinforced.

peak shift effect

The peak of the response gradient is moved slightly in a direction veering away from the lesser desired stimulant to a place past the value of the stimulant correlated with reinforcement

easy to hard facilitation effect

if you train a difficult discrimination, it is beneficial to start with an easier version

easy to hard facilitation effect example

If you want rats to learn discrimination between 2 shades of gray, you can facilitate the acquisition of that knowledge if you train them initially with black vs white. They learn black is good white is not, then dark grey is better than light gray.

learning to learn (rhesus monkeys)

- Harry Harlow

- Monkeys are 100% correct on the second trial, half the time they're guessing on the first trial, when they're right they stay with it and when they're wrong, they shift. They developed a set of learning; whatever outcome from the 1st trial determines what they'll do on the 2nd trial.

partial reinforcement effect

the tendency for a response to be very resistant to extinction if it is reinforced after some, but not all, correct responses

latent inhibition

The phenomenon whereby a familiar stimulus is more difficult to condition as a CS than an unfamiliar (novel) stimulus.

latent inhibition example

Baby Bobby stares at a pacifier (familiar stimulus) dangling from his mobile over the crib. Later, his parents try, unsuccessfully, to get him to dislike the pacifier by pairing it with a harsh sound. If the stimulus had been novel, learning would have occurred.

latent inhibition and chemotherapy

Latent inhibition makes it harder to learn when the hospital is already a familiar stimulus. However, if you expose a person repeatedly to a hospital setting (US) before they start treatment, and pair it with a funny podcast (CS) that plays each time they visit so that happiness is the response when going to the hospital rather than feeling sick.

Higher order conditioning (Also called second-order conditioning.)

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus leading to the same conditioned response.

sensory preconditioning

In this phenomenon, when one stimulus is conditioned as a CS, another stimulus with which it was previously associated can also become a CS.

counter conditioning

changing the emotional value of either a CS or a US to create a wanted response.

counter conditioning example

Peter is afraid of rabbits. To reduce his fear, we introduce him to a rabbit from afar [CS] and pair this meeting with his favorite ice cream [US]. As the rabbit is moved closer to Peter while he eats the ice cream, eventually Peter is fine with the rabbit.

compensatory conditioned response

automatic response that the body and mind experience

compensatory conditioned response example

Some people grab a beer or pour a drink immediately after getting home from work. When the body is accustomed to this pattern it will start to prepare itself for an influx of alcohol and start producing a chemical response that keeps the individual from feeling drunk immediately

Conditioned taste aversion in Garcia study

A wolf was given sheep meat laced with poison; then they were placed in a pan with a sheep. The wolf does not approach the sheep and eventually backs away. The sheep gets braver and follows the wolf, then the wolf is scared and runs away—taste aversion from the poisoned meat transferred to the live sheep. Wolf killings substantially decreased. Mother wolf does not eat the sheep, and she teaches offspring to do the same.

Eyelid conditioning

Tone, conditioned stimulus, is followed by puff of air (unconditioned stimulus) to infants eye. After 7 trials they have eyelid response

overshadowing

When two or more stimuli are present, and one stimulus produces a stronger response than the other because it is more relevant or salient

overshadowing example

Margaret reads an intense mystery book and listens to soft music while she anxiously waits in the dentist's office to have a root canal. She now hates mystery novels but does not mind soft music.

Implication of overshadowing

Contiguity is necessary, if it were sufficient, we would have salience on both cues

Kamin blocking experiment

Cue A is paired with an US, and once conditioning has occurred, cue B is simultaneously presented with cue A. Kamin argued that subjects did not learn the added element of the cue because it has to be surprising. After they have learned cue A tells you what will happen, adding cue B does not add any new information. Thus, there must be a surprise element for learning to occur. Weakening the US can also lead to learning of cue B because it is surprising.

Kamin's unblocked effect

Added stimulus is no longer redundant when you do the same experiment and make the second stimulus a stronger shock. With the stronger shock, learning takes place because it is surprising.

predictive value of the conditioned stimulus

One rat group receives tone (CS) and shock (US) pairings. The other group also receives these pairings, but in between trials, they get extra shocks in random arrangements. This random group learns more poorly, because the random shocks ruined the predictive value of the conditional stimulus. Getting shocked without the tone (CS) weakens the association between the tone (CS) and shock (US).

Rescorla-Wagner model

A cognitive model of classical conditioning; it states that the strength of the CS-US association is determined by the extent to which the unconditioned stimulus is unexpected or surprising.

Rescorla-Wagner blocking effect

US could only support a limited amount of conditioning, when adding another CS you won't find more conditioning because the US can become maxed out. When we produce a small then large US - more food, bigger shock - and we pair the large US with a new CS, then we see conditioning. This is because a new CS supports more learning. If we reduce US, this model does not support learning the added CS because the US has already learned the association.

conditioning in real world contexts

A woman was taking out the garbage (CS) when she was raped (US). Thus taking out the garbage in the future (CS) can bring up anxiety (CR) stemming from the rape.

Critical aspect of fear conditioning

The amygdala sends signals to different areas that control fear response [heart rate, sweating, etc.] When you destroy the amygdala in humans, they know what's happening but don't show a fear response. They no longer recognize fearful facial expressions.

conditioning the immune system (Psychoneuroimmunology)

When a particular taste accompanies a drug that influences immune responses, the taste by itself may come to produce an immune response.

Desensitization

the tendency over time to show weaker emotional responses to emotional stimuli (repeated exposure to a spider evokes less anxiety over time)

instrumental conditioning (operant conditioning)

Occurs when we learn to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes and avoid those that yield negative outcomes [behavior is instrumental in producing an outcome]

Thorndike's Law of Effect

Responses that lead to satisfying consequences are automatically strengthen and more likely to be repeated

Skinner Box

A small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is systematically recorded while the consequences of the response are controlled. We know learning occurs when the speed of response from the start to the goal decreases.

Latent Learning (Tolman)

Learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful

Latent learning example

rats explore the maze in an equal amount of trials but there is no food, they get to a goal point get taken out, and start again. It takes them a long time for each trial to explore. They find the goal point quickly when food is introduced to the box. They were learning about this maze the entire time, but once they made a goal - food - they remembered how to get there.

positive contingency

Behavior leads to an added stimulus - whether positive or negative - to either increase or decrease behavior

negative contingency

Behavior leads to the removal of a stimulus to either increase or decrease behavior.

positive reinforcement example

Giving a gold star on homework, resulting in a student studying more

positive punishment example

spanking a child for misbehaving

negative reinforcement example

Take aspirin for headache --> headache goes away --> use of aspirin in future more likely for headache pain

negative punishment example

taking away a car for too many parking tickets

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)

Reinforcement of any behavior other than a target behavior that is being extinguished; collect the response rate of hand flapping at baseline, then introduce several trials of DRO where you reward every behavior except hand flapping which reinforces other behaviors and decreases hand flapping behavior

If something is truly a reinforcer...?

it should be it should work for other behaviors and in different situations

bundling

Pair a workout with a favorite audio item - podcast - to serve as reinforcer for exercise

Conditional Reinforcer/ Secondary Reinforcer

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer. [receive a gold star for grades then get praised by a parent].

social reinforcement

rewarding a behavior with social approval by someone else

instinctive drift

tendency for animals to return to innate behaviors following repeated reinforcement; behavior extinguished because raccoons were treating objects as if they were food instead of exchanging it for food.

Evolutionary preparedness and operant conditioning

Whenever hamsters reared up in a cage, they received reinforcement which increased the behavior, but they didn't increase scratching or grooming behaviors with reinforcement. Evolutionary history made them sensitive to reinforcement contingency of rearing up to find food because hamsters would have been successful if they reared up to find food. Scratching/grooming would not lead to a meal.

positive contrast

going from a small reward to a bigger reward increases behavior [but it is more difficult to show because of ceiling effects]

negative contrast

Going from a large reward to a small reward leads subjects to respond more poorly than if they were always given a small reward. It's as if they were disappointed that the reward was decreased.

Incentives suggests...

Expectations. Changing an incentive may impact goal expectancy - going against Thorndike's view.

superstitious behavior

in Skinner's view, behavior acquired through coincidental association of a response and a reinforcement; one pigeon might turn around and then get a free reward (food) so they continued to turn around to get the reward

What would happen if we spread the free rewards minutes apart?

This does not lead to superstitious behavior because whatever the bird is doing momentarily gets strengthen

What makes a reinforcers work

reinforces tend to reduce a drive/need state

shaping (operant conditioning)

The reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response.

shaping example

First a rat might be reinforced for going to the side of a box with the lever. Then we might reinforce the rat for touching the lever with any part of its body. By rewarding approximations of the desired behavior, we increase the likelihood that the rat will stumble upon the behavior we want.

reinforcement implies

Strengthening behavior. A reward is not always needed.

reinforcement schedule

The frequency and regularity with which rewards are offered; they can be based on a number of target behaviors (ratio) or on a time interval (interval); types include: fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval

fixed-ratio schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses

fixed-ratio schedule example

buy 10 coffees, get one free

variable-ratio schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses

variable-ratio schedule example

gambling

fixed-interval schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed

fixed-interval schedule example

weekly paycheck

variable-interval schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals