chapter 7 pt. 1

  • Operant and Respondent Conditioning

    • Defined by experimental procedures that produce behavior.
    • Often simplified into either respondent or operant conditioning, but usually involve both.

  • Biological Context of Conditioning

    • Species-characteristic behaviors may occur alongside operant behaviors.
    • Respondent procedures can be embedded in operant reinforcement contingencies.
    • Evolution has shaped both species-characteristic behaviors and conditioning mechanisms.

  • Instinctive Drift

    • Raccoons struggled with coin depositing due to instinctive behaviors like rubbing.
    • Instinctive drift overrides operant conditioning at times.

  • Sign Tracking

    • Tendency to approach stimuli linked with biologically relevant events (e.g., food).
    • Elicits responses that can involve a combination of conditioned and operant responses.

  • Autoshaping

    • Brown & Jenkins (1968) showed that pigeons can learn to peck at a key light that signals food delivery without prior hand shaping.
    • The key light acts as a conditioned stimulus that reinforces the pecking behavior operantly.

  • Taste Aversion Learning

    • Animals avoid tastes associated with illness, demonstrating species preparedness.
    • Garcia & Koelling (1966) found distinct responses in rats based on flavor and visual cues when paired with illness (e.g., nausea).
    • Challenge to traditional notions of contiguity in classical conditioning, as taste aversions can form despite gaps in timing between CS and US.

  • Behavioral Neuroscience

    • Research indicates that specific brain activity (c-Fos expression) correlates with taste aversion learning.
    • Findings show the importance of novel tastes and situational contexts in conditioning.

  • Key Terms

    • Species Preparedness: Species are predisposed to form certain associations.
    • Stimulus Substitution: The idea that a CS can substitute for a US, though flawed in many experimental outcomes.