Behavior Unit 1

Unlearned and Simple Behaviors

Reflexes, modal action patterns, general behavior traits

• Reflexes: A relationship between a specific event and a simple response to that event

• MAP: A series of related acts found in all or nearly all members of a species. Also called fixed action pattern. Formerly called instinct.

• General Behavior Traits: Any general behavioral tendency that is strongly influenced by genes. Examples include introversion and general anxiety.

Why would you be incorrect if you said that a reflex is behavior alone?

• A reflex is a relation/relationship between a specific event/stimulus and a simple behavior/response.

How do MAPs differ from reflexes?

• Modal action patterns differ from reflexes in that MAPs involve the whole/entire organism and are more complex and variable

• Reflexive behaviors show simple responses to a specific event. Examples include eye blinking in response to a puff of air in the eye and withdrawing a hand when it touches something hot.

• MAPs, formerly called instincts, offer more complexity than reflexes, but like reflexes, they remain very stereotypical. Examples include the nest building of birds and the torpor of bears. General behavior traits have a strong genetic component. Examples include shyness, general anxiety, and compulsivity. Natural selection produces physical and behavioral characteristics that can help a species survive. However, it has its limitations

• Behavior is anything an organism does that can be measured

• Stimulus is an environmental factor that is capable of affecting behavior

Habituation: A decrease in the intensity or probability of a reflex response resulting from repeated exposure to a stimulus that evokes that response. Habituation is perhaps the simplest form of learning.

Measuring Behavior

• This text takes the natural science approach to behavior. 

• It assumes that all natural phenomena have causes; that causes are natural phenomena and precede their effects; and that the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions best accounts for behavior. 

• These assumptions cause most people no problem when applied to fields such as physics, chemistry, and biology, but when applied to behavior, particularly human behavior, people, even physicists, chemists, and biologists, often find them difficult to accept.

Topography: The form behavior takes

What happens to the slope of the cumulative record if the rate of a behavior is increasing? What does a flat record indicate about behavior?

• If the rate of a behavior is increasing, the slope of the cumulative record rises/goes up. A flat record indicates that the behavior is not occurring

Anecdotal Evidence: First- or secondhand reports of personal experience. Anecdotes are notoriously unreliable, so they do not provide a good source of evidence; however, they can generate useful hypotheses about variables influencing behavior.

Pavlovian Conditioning

Unconditional Reflexes: Reflex that is largely innate (unconditional stimulus and unconditioned response)

Higher-Order Conditioning: A variation of Pavlovian conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is paired, not with a US, but with a well-established CS.

Pseudoconditioning: The tendency of a neutral stimulus to elicit a CR when presented after a US has elicited a reflex response.

Advanced Pavlovian Conditioning (67-75) (75-82)

Trace conditioning: A Pavlovian conditioning procedure in which the CS begins and ends before the US is presented.

Delay conditioning: A Pavlovian conditioning procedure in which the CS and US overlap. The CS is presented before the US, but continues after the US appears.

Simultaneous Conditioning: A Pavlovian conditioning procedure in which the CS and US coincide exactly. That is, the CS and US begin and end at the same time.

Backward conditioning: A Pavlovian conditioning procedure in which the US precedes the CS.

Contiguity: Nearness of events in time (temporal contiguity) or space (spatial contiguity).

Interstimulus Interval: The time between the appearance of the CS and the US.

Compound Stimulus: Two or more stimuli presented simultaneously, often as a CS.

Overshadowing: Failure of a stimulus that is part of a compound stimulus to become a CS. The stimulus is said to be overshadowed by the stimulus that does become a CS. (Compare to blocking.)

Pavlovian Applications (97-108) (111-123)

• Counterconditioning: The use of Pavlovian conditioning to reverse the unwanted effects of prior conditioning. Typically takes the form of aversion therapy or exposure therapy.

• Classical conditioning provides explanations for the basic phenomena of drug addiction. What are these four basic phenomena: Classical conditioning provides explanations for the basic phenomena of drug addiction: the high, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, and relapse.