Elicited Behavior: Behavior doesn't happen randomly; there's always a cause.
Behavior often follows a predictable sequence, allowing anticipation and preparation.
Classical Conditioning (CC): Learning an association between two stimuli or events.
Learning the relationship between stimuli enables preparation for stimulus 2 based on stimulus 1.
Conditioning = learning or training.
Classical = a specific method of conditioning.
Focus on learning that:
Has lasting effects on behavior.
Is established through mental associations.
Association: A link between mental representations (e.g., doctor-nurse).
Associations form through repeated pairing, forming the basis of classical conditioning.
Pavlov's dogs and their "psychic secretions" are a classic example.
Before Conditioning:
Unconditioned Stimulus (US) --> Unconditioned Response (UR) (e.g., Food --> Salivation).
Neutral Stimulus --> No response (e.g., Bell --> No salivation).
During Conditioning:
Neutral Stimulus + Unconditioned Stimulus --> Unconditioned Response (e.g., Bell + Food --> Salivation).
After Conditioning:
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) --> Conditioned Response (CR) (e.g., Bell --> Salivation).
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Naturally provokes a response (e.g., Food, Sex, Shock).
Unconditioned Response (UR): Naturally elicited by the US (e.g., Salivation, Arousal, Startle).
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Initially neutral; paired with the US (e.g., Bell).
Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to the CS (e.g., Salivation to the bell).
Acquisition: CS is followed by an outcome.
Excitatory Associations: CS predicts the occurrence of an outcome.
Excitatory CS: A CS that predicts the US.
Timing and Stimulus Duration:
Inter-stimulus interval (ISI).
Inter-trial interval (ITI).
Order of Stimulus Presentations:
CS --> US
Types of Excitatory Conditioning Paradigms:
Delay.
Trace.
Long-delay.
Simultaneous.
Backward.
Rapid and strong conditioning.
The rate and strength of conditioning decrease as the trace interval increases.
Early inhibition, later excitation.
No direct demonstration of conditioning or learning.
Evidence of both excitatory and inhibitory learning.
Organisms learn the temporal relationship between the CS and US.
Distinction between knowing and performing.
Quantifying Behavior:
Magnitude: Amount of response (e.g., amount drank, amount of conditioned emotional responding (CER)).
Probability: Likelihood of response (e.g., blinking in human conditioning studies).
Latency: Time to respond (RT - Reaction Time).
These measures are not always convergent.
Extinction: Stop reinforcing a previously excitatory CS.
Inhibitory Associations: CS predicts the absence of the outcome.
Slower to learn.
Eventually, the subject stops producing a CR to the CS.
Knowing when to expect the absence of negative events maximizes potential rewards.
Knowing when to expect the absence of positive events minimizes wasted time and energy.
Predictable aversive events are preferable to unpredictable ones.
Inhibition is dependent on an expectation of an event occurrence.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) in Excitatory Conditioning: Conditioned Excitor (CE).
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) in Inhibitory Conditioning: Conditioned Inhibitor (CI).
Pavlovian Conditioned Inhibition (CI).
Differential CI.
Explicitly Unpaired CI.
Inhibition of Delay.
Backward CI.
CE US, CE Cl
CE US, Cl
US Cl, Cl US
US
Cl
Bi-directional response systems:
CI = change in the negative direction.
CE = change in the positive direction.
Neutral = no change or 0.
Other response systems require indirect measures because inhibition depends on the presence of excitation.
Negative Summation Test
Retardation Test
Summation test results alone might be explained by the organism paying too much attention to the CI, at the expense of attention to the CE.
Retardation test results alone might be explained by the organism paying too little attention to the CI.
But, both tests' results cannot be explained by either attentional explanation.
Assess whether and how much responding to the CS is due to the CS-US pairings.
Pseudo-conditioning: General increase in responding to a previously ineffective stimulus due to exposure to the US.
Differs in only one way.
May need multiple controls.
Random control procedure (Rescorla, 1967) - not so good due to occasional CS-US pairings.
Explicitly unpaired control.
Counterbalancing.
Equate stimulus identities across CSs.
Controls for confounding properties of the stimulus properties.
Aversive conditioning.
Appetitive conditioning.
Eyeblink conditioning.
Sign and goal tracking.
Conditioned taste aversion/preference.
Evaluative conditioning.
Uses a frightening or startling US (e.g., electric shock or loud noise).
CSs can be tones, lights, odours, contexts, and pictures.
Acts on the defensive action pattern.
Measure conditioned emotional response (CER).
Assess CER by measuring fear-potentiated startle / augmented startle response.
Learning is indicated by decreases in behaviour in presence of CS.
Conditioned suppression/freezing:
Lick suppression.
Lever suppression.
Conditioned Suppression Formula:
SR = \frac{CS}{CS + preCS} = \frac{a}{a + b}
Outcome (US) associated with the CS is rewarding (e.g., food or sex).
CSs can be a range of stimuli.
Learning is indicated by increases in behaviour in the presence of CS.
Eyeblink reflex is an early component of the startle response.
Used to study learning in infants.
Shows the importance of pairing events for learning.
Shows separation of learning and performance.
The rate of learning eyeblink conditioning is used to differentiate normal ageing and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Presumably due to changes in the cerebellum and disruptions of the hippocampal cholinergic system.
Organisms approach and contact stimuli that signal the availability of the US.
CS must be a discrete and localized visual signal.
This is Pavlovian conditioning – no act is required for food to be presented.
Organism orients towards the location of US delivery.
Differentiate autoshaping and goal tracking by physically separating the sign and goal (long-box procedure).
Adding delay (i.e., trace) between presentation of sign and US increases goal tracking behavior.
Individual differences in sign tracking and relation to impulsivity and drug abuse.
Sensory aspects of food serve as CSs for the feelings we get after eating, which are USs.
Seeing or smelling food influences how much food we will eat.
Robust:
One-trial learning.
Long-delay learning, evolutionarily adaptive.
Duration.
Resistant to extinction.
Occurs even though the individual knows the food was not the cause of illness.
Clinical applications: chemotherapy induced anorexia.