Module 5 - Classical Conditioning - Applications

Rescorla-Wagner Theory and Blocking

• According to the Rescorla-Wagner theory, blocking occurs because the US in the compound has already picked up all of the available associative value.
• Example: If a compound stimulus has an associative value of 25 and one CS has acquired 15 units, the other CS must have acquired at most 10 units of associative value.
• If a tone and a light are each conditioned with food to a maximum associative value of eight units, combining them into a compound stimulus for further conditioning trials will necessarily decrease the associative value of each stimulus. This is known as the overexpectation effect.

Rescorla-Wagner Theory and Romantic Relationships

• Analogy: Using the Rescorla-Wagner theory, strong romantic feelings for one person might result in weaker romantic feelings for others due to a limited amount of associative value (love) to distribute.
• Some people may have a larger maximum associative value for romantic feelings, allowing them to have strong feelings for multiple partners, or they may be responding to distinct aspects of each partner.

Phobias and Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning plays a significant role in the development of fears and anxieties.
• A conditioned fear response can be elicited by a previously neutral stimulus that has been associated with an aversive stimulus.
• Fear conditioning is generally adaptive, motivating individuals to avoid dangerous situations.
• Phobias are extreme, irrational fear reactions to events that are not dangerous or only minimally dangerous.
• Phobias often involve overgeneralization, where a conditioned fear response becomes generalized to other harmless events.

Little Albert Experiment

• John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner proposed that classical conditioning and overgeneralization contribute to the development of phobias.
• In 1920, they conducted the Little Albert experiment, attempting to condition a fear response in an 11-month-old infant named Albert.
• Albert initially showed no fear of objects like a white rat, rabbit, or dog but was startled by a loud noise (US), which elicited a fear response (UR).
  $Loud \text{ noise (US)} \rightarrow \text{Fear (indicated by startle reaction) (UR)}$
  $Rat \text{ (NS)} \rightarrow \text{No fear (—)}$
• Watson and Rayner paired the white rat (NS) with the loud noise (US).
  $Rat \text{ (NS)} + \text{Loud noise (US)} \rightarrow \text{Fear (UR)}$
  $Rat \text{ (CS)} \rightarrow \text{Fear (CR)}$
• Albert began to show fear of the rat and generalized this fear to similar objects like a rabbit, fur coat, dog, and Santa Claus mask.
• The Little Albert experiment has been criticized on ethical grounds due to the lack of established ethical guidelines for psychological research at the time.

Criticisms of the Little Albert Experiment

• Possibility of pseudoconditioning: Albert may have been sensitized by the loud noise, leading to negative reactions to unfamiliar objects, rather than specific pairing of the rat with the noise.
• The fear reactions weakened over time.
• Real-life phobias usually require only one pairing of the CS with the aversive US and often grow stronger over time.
• Albert's fear response was absent when he sucked his thumb, suggesting weak conditioning.
• Modern analysis suggests that Albert's fear reactions were developmentally appropriate for an infant of that age.

Quick Quiz Answers

1. overgeneralization
2. neutral; unconditioned
3. unconditioned; conditioned
4. only one; stronger
5. absent; weak
6. appropriate; innate

The Real Little Albert

• Initial Identification: Douglas Merritte identified as Little Albert based on census and hospital records.
• Later Doubts: Concerns arose that Douglas suffered from hydrocephalus and that Watson knowingly experimented on a neurologically impaired child.
• New Candidate: William Albert Martin identified as a more likely candidate based on hospital records and interviews with his niece.
  Albert Martin’s historical records matched Watson and Rayner’s, including the fact Albert Barer weighed approximately 22 pounds and was a stout, healthy child.
  Albert Barer’s name was written in the hospital records as 'Albert Barger'- his mother and father were not married yet- which matches the name, “Albert B”, reported by Watson and Rayner.
• His niece reported that he had an aversion to dogs due to a childhood trauma, but also said he had a dog he loved as a child; they believe he had no idea he had taken part in these experiments as a baby. There is nothing to confirm for sure if this is the individual, and if this experiment had any effect on his life.

Additional Factors in Phobic Conditioning

• Observational Learning
• Temperament
• Preparedness
• Incubation
• US Revaluation
• Selective Sensitization

Observational Learning

• Phobias can be acquired by observing fearful reactions in others.
• A display of fear by others can be an unconditioned stimulus that elicits fear in oneself.
  $Display \text{ of fear by others (US)} \rightarrow \text{Fear in oneself (UR)}$
  $Snake \text{ (NS)} + \text{Display of fear by others (US)} \rightarrow \text{Fear in oneself (UR)}$
  $Snake \text{ (CS)} \rightarrow \text{Fear in oneself (CR)}$

Temperament

• Temperament is one’s level of emotional reactivity, affecting how easily a conditioned response is acquired.
• People with certain temperaments may be more susceptible to developing conditioned fears.

Preparedness

• Preparedness is an innate tendency to learn certain behaviors or associations more easily than others.
• People may have an inherited tendency to make aversive associations with certain types of events (e.g., snakes, spiders).

Quick Quiz E

1. unconditioned; unconditioned; conditioned; conditioned
2. Temperament; does
3. preparedness
4. inherited; temperament
5. innate; preparedness

Incubation

• Incubation is the strengthening of a conditioned fear response due to repeated brief exposures to the CS.
• This contradicts the general rule that presentation of the CS without the US will result in extinction.
• Covert exposures to the feared stimulus (e.g., worrying about it) might also result in incubation.

US Revaluation

• Exposure to a US of a different intensity than that used during conditioning can alter the strength of the response to a previously conditioned CS.
• US revaluation can also occur through observational learning or verbally transmitted information.

Selective Sensitization

• Selective sensitization is an increase in one’s reactivity to a potentially fearful stimulus following exposure to an unrelated stressful event.

Quick Quiz F

1. incubation; stronger; extinction
2. US; more; US; observational learning; verbally
3. selective; sensitization; unrelated

Treating Phobias

• Phobias are highly susceptible to treatments based on behavioral principles of conditioning.
• Two classic forms of treatment: systematic desensitization and flooding.

Systematic Desensitization

• Counterconditioning: A CS that elicits one type of response is associated with an event that elicits an incompatible response.

• Reciprocal Inhibition: The occurrence of one response is inhibited by the simultaneous occurrence of an incompatible response.
  Mary Cover Jones used eating food with two-year-old, Peter. The positive emotional response elicited by the cookies countered the mild anxiety elicited by the distant rabbit.
  Then, over several sessions, the rabbit was gradually brought closer to Peter as he continued eating cookies, and eventually Peter was eating cookies while holding the rabbit in his lap, eliminating the initial fear response to rabbits.
  Wolpe would go about feeding cats in rooms that were made progressively similar to their shock room. Eventually they were able to eat in their room they had been shocked with no conditioned fear present.

• Wolpe’s Procedure: Systematic desensitization involves pairing relaxation with a succession of stimuli that elicit increasing levels of fear.

• Three main steps:

  1. Training in Relaxation
  2. Creation of a Hierarchy of Imaginary Scenes
  3. Pairing of Each Item in the Hierarchy with Relaxation

• In vivo desensitization uses real stimuli rather than imaginary ones.

• Virtual reality (VR) technology enables people to experience feared situations without real-world risk.

• Systematic desensitization is effective for patients with few, highly specific phobias but less effective for social phobias. Must be able to visulaize them effectively.

Quick Quiz G

1. counterconditioning; reciprocal inhibition; incompatible; inhibit
2. eating; systematic desensitization; deep muscle relaxation
   a. Training in relaxation
   b. Creation of a hierarchy of imaginary scenes that elicit progressively intense levels of fear
   c. Pairing of each item in the hierarchy with relaxation
3. In vivo; generalize
4. few; specific; does not
5. is not; severe

Flooding Therapy

• Flooding therapy involves prolonged exposure to a feared stimulus, providing maximal opportunity for the conditioned fear response to be extinguished.
• Imaginal flooding: Visualizing a scenario involving the feared event.
• In vivo flooding: Prolonged exposure to the actual feared event.
  Goethe climbed the tower of the local cathedral and stood on the ledge to cure his fear of heights.
• In vivo flooding is has a higher effectiveness, however, can’t always be applied to certain scenario’s, such as a house fire.

Quick Quiz H

1. blocked; extinguish
2. imaginal; in vivo
3. long
4. needs
5. exposure-based
6. systematic desensitization; flooding; participant modeling

Hybrid Approaches

exposure-based treatments such as participant modelling can reduce the intensity of fear by over 50% within a single session.
Ost demonstrated that they could have therapists accompany patients, to demonstrate the techniques, and touching while the object touched the model, before gradually pulling your hand away for the patient to overcome their fear.

Aversion Therapy for Problem Behaviors

• Aversion therapy reduces the attractiveness of a desired event by associating it with an aversive stimulus.

• Pliny the Elder recommended slipping a spider into a wine drinker's glass to reduce their desire for wine.

  • nausea-based treatments are more effective than shock-based treatments to avoid negative stimulants, as we are biologically inclined to associate nausea with anything that might cause us to ingest something poisonous for natural defence.
    Shock has been used for smoking.

• Rapid smoking involves a high rate of smoking to induce nausea.
  However, aversion therapy may result in extreme increases in heart rate, and must be administered with caution by medical professionals to avoid fatalities.

• Aversion therapy can be used to treat sex offenders by pairing images of unclothed children with drug-induced nausea.

• Covert sensitization uses imaginal stimuli rather than real stimuli.
  Could work through virtually stimulating environments that better promote results, with lesser side effects.

Quick Quiz I

1. aversion
2. nausea; emetic
3. rapid smoking
4. more
5. imaginal; covert

Medical Applications of Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning has significant medical implications.
• Allergic reactions can be conditioned to stimuli associated with allergens.

$Flowers \text{ (NS)} + \text{Pollen (US)} \rightarrow \text{Allergic reaction (UR)}$
$Flowers \text{ (CS)} \rightarrow \text{Allergic reaction (CR)}$

• The immune system can be classically conditioned.
• By administering immunosuppressive drugs paired with saccharin-flavored water.
  $Saccharine \text{ flavor (NS)} + \text{Immunosuppressive drug (US)} \rightarrow \text{Immunosuppression (UR)}$
• The chemotherapy had become associated with the immunosuppressive effect of the chemotherapy and was a CS for a conditioned immunosuppressive response.
  $Hospital \text{ (NS)} + \text{ Chemotherapy (US)} \rightarrow \text{ Immunosuppression (UR)}$
  $Hospital \text{ (CS)} \rightarrow \text{ Immunosuppression (CR)}$
  Increased killer cell activity.
• Placebo effects can be seen as the result of pairing the appearance of the drug (NS) with the active ingredients of the drug (US).

$White pill (NS) + Acetylsalicylic acid (US) \rightarrow Headache \text{ removal (UR)}$
$White pill (CS) \rightarrow Headache \text{ removal (CR)}$
This is due to the fact most effects are more effective after treatment with real medicine.
repeated use of the placebo would see a decline in the effectiveness of its ability to take away stress due to a natural process of decline.

Quick Quiz J

(US) Immuno-suppressive drug. (UR) immuno surpression
; (CS) Saccharin flavor; (CR) Immuna Supression

1. Saccharine flavor (NS): drug (US)→ immunosuppression (UR)
   Saccharine flavor (CS)→ immunosuppression (CR)
2. following; reduce; extinction

Summary

• Stimulus-substitution theory proposes that the CS acts as a substitute for the US.

• Preparatory-response theory suggests that the CR prepares the organism for the presentation of the US.

• The Rescorla–Wagner theory states that a given US can support only so much conditioning, which must be distributed among the various CSs.
  Drug tolerent models account for overdoses that occur within stable conditions.

• Fear and phobias result from learning and can be treated with conditioning procedures.

• The treatment methods that we should follow to ensure they dissapear are flooding ( with live scenario), being able to relax to not be over-stressed, the need for the therapist to participate and show the patients how to deal with certain anxieties.
  We should have these treatments as long term options to cure and remove trauma.

• Aversion therapy reduces the attractiveness of a desired event by associating it with an aversive stimulus, and conditioning has medical applications.

  • through real world applications with drug use and virtual senarios to better simulate more comfortable environments, and not putting people in direct danger.

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