Extinction Flashcards

1
Q

What does extinction show us?

A

Extinction shows how durable learning is (we don’t forget) and shows how adaptable our bvr is

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2
Q

What is learning?

A

• Change in behaviour as a result of experience
o Adaptive: behaviour is plastic and flexible to suit the environment in which we find ourselves

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3
Q

What is non associative learning?

A

o Habituation, sensitisation – changes to make our experience more suited to the surroundings
no associations made between cues or bvrs and outcomes

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4
Q

What is associative learning?

A

o Learning to predict relationships between events, actions and outcomes.
o Allows us to seek out and obtain rewards and avoid situations that are dangerous

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5
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

Learning that an event / object / context predicts a particular outcome
no particular bvr input require from the subject to get the outcome

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6
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

Learning that particular actions will result in particular outcomes
dependant on the bvr of the subject, subject has to elicit a specific response to get an outcome

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7
Q

What is a reinforcement and a punishement?

A

Reinforcement = an event that increases the likelihood of repeating the response that preceded it.

Punishment = an event that decreases the behaviour that precedes it.

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8
Q

What is the prediction error theory?

A

• The amount of learning that will occur in any one trial depends on how surprising the unconditioned
stimulus is
If smtg occurs that you werent expecting, you learn a lot more about the conditions you were in
• The difference between the expected outcome and the actual outcome.

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9
Q

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE EXPECTED OUTCOME IS OMITTED?

A

NEGATIVE PREDICTION ERROR

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10
Q

What is extinction?

A

decrease in the conditioned response as a result of CS-alone presentations

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11
Q

What are 2 theories of extinction?

A

• Unlearning or erasure of the CS-US association

• New learning of a second, competing association that inhibits the expression of the original association (not unlearning)

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12
Q

What is classical reinstatement?

A

“REMINDING” THE SUBJECT ABOUT THE STIMULUS
1) Trained to fear tone
2) Extinguish so dim fear
3) Reminder shock without CS (no learning) => retrieval of fear
The reminder is context dependent (has to occur in the same context as initial con) => contextual cues are very imp

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13
Q

What is classical renewal?

A

EXTINCTION IS CONTEXT SPECIFIC
Put in new env for extinction
If put back in env of initial con, show much more fear than in extinction env
Renewal is a very robust effect: if extinguish in a diff context then its like never extinguished at all
If extinction context matches retrieval context = unlikely to get renewal
Extinction is context specific – removal from extinction context –> renewal
Acquisition is less context specific – will generalise across contexts

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14
Q

What is classical spontaneous recovery?

A

EXTINCTION DISSAPATES OVER TIME
There’s a bit of aug in responding in animals who are tested immediately but its ntg compared to the aug in responding 6 days later
Maybe time is a context
Over a period of time, the discrete features of context generalise, makes more likely to retrieve initial association which is less context specific than extinction

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15
Q

What does extinction do?

A

It causes ambiguity
The meaning of the Tone depends on its context; In some contexts, CS predicts US and in others it predicts the absence of US
Inhibitory association only occurs if both the Tone and Context are present.
Context helps to disambiguate the situation: will I or wont I get shocked?

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16
Q

Why is the conditioned response not erased after classical extinction?

A

Extinguished fear responses often recover without any additional CS-US retraining.
This is because extinction learning and memory is closely tied to the context where extinction occurred.
The original CS-US memory is NOT context dependent

17
Q

What is the clinical significance of classical extinction?

A
  1. To understand how we learn about our environment, to understand how we learn about changes to our environment.
  2. To understand anxiety.
    Exposure therapy is extinction.
18
Q

What are 3 caveats of using classical extinction in a clinical setting?

A

• Extinction is context specific
• Learned behaviour reinstates following brief exposure to the unconditioned stimulus
• Extinction dissipates over time

Often following clinical intervention theres still aniety bc the initial fear associations arent erased and expression of extinction is much more labile

19
Q

What are the age differences in classical extinction?

A

Reinstatement (reminder of US should cause aug in bvr): preado aug bvr but babies dont same thing for renewal and spontaneous recovery
Reinstatement, renewal and spontaneous recovery is not presence in babies bc the circuitry necessary for extinction is not fully dev in juveniles (flexibility of bvr is not present yet), they cant retrieve the initial associations

Adolescents show poor extinction retention

20
Q

What are the sex differences in classical extinction?

A

• Some evidence for sex differences
• Not always
• Fluctuating hormones may mediate sex differences
• If considered by estrous phase:
• Proestrous (high estradiol) = facilitated extinction
• Metestrus (low estradiol) = impaired extinction
- Hormone supplements/blocks can facilitate/impair extinction
• In females
• And males
• Suggests that hormone cause changes to extinction rate
Males given estradiol inhibitor had impaired extinction recall but showed good extinction recall when given estradiol with the inhibitor
In adolescents the effect is the opposite!
Proestrous and Disestrous (high estrogen) = impaired extinction.

21
Q

How is operant conditioning different from Pavlovian conditioning?

A

In contrast to classical con where the outcome depends on the experimenter, the outcome in operant con depends on the bvr of the subject

22
Q

How does operant extinction work?

A
  • Conditioning: bvr is reinforced, aug in learned bvr that is reinforced
  • Extinction: take away reinforcer, dim in responding, no change in inactive lever
  • Reinstatement: extinction isnt the erasure of the 1st association but the formation of a new one bc we can retrieve the 1st one
23
Q

What is the clinical significance of operant extinction and its 5 problems?

A

Reduce unwanted behaviours e.g….
• Conduct disorder and other disruptive behaviours
• Substance use disorder, gambling use disorder
Extinction and reinstatement can help understand relapse in drug seeking (understand the neurocircuiterie)

Problems with extinction as an intervention
• What is the reinforcer?
• Are there more than one reinforcers?
• What is being extinguished?
• Extinction burst
• Extinguished behaviours can return.

24
Q

What is reinstatement in operant extinction?

A

Retrieval of extinguished response as a result of the reinstatement of the reinforcer
Reinforcer itself acts as a “discriminative stimulus”/signal that pellets were available
Each time food is give, theres an aug in responding but declines over time bc just bc get one pellet, dont get more if press

25
Q

What is drug primed reinstatement? (operant extinction)

A

Rat lever presses for coke, extinguish by takng coke away, reinstate by giving coke injection before lever pressing
Injection of drug provides and interoceptive signal that drug is available.

26
Q

What is renewal in operant extinction?

A

Retrieval of extinguished response as a result of putting them back in the 1st context
AAA: High responding that extinguishes across session. Some between session recovery, but this is almost gone by session 6
ABA: Initial responding is much lower. At session 6, the return to original context causes renewal of responding
Extinction doesn’t generalise across contexts
Operant con doesn’t generalise so well over diff contexts (in contrast to classical)

27
Q

What is spontaneous recovery in operant extinction?

A

As with classical con, if wait a period of tim, see aug in responding compared to rats that are tested right away

28
Q

How is the conditioned response not erased after operant extinction?

A

Recovery of responding after extinction occurs in operant conditioning as for pavlovian conditioning
Cues present in the env (CS) signal reward delivery, theres also an association between cue light and outcome and cue light and response, CS changes the expression of the response outcome association
Context activates the inhi association just as it does in classical con
Context is also imp for the expression of the initial response
Original response is also context dependent (more than in classical con)
In right context, context helps subject decide which response is appropriate

29
Q

What is CUE INDUCED REINSTATEMENT?

A

Cue light = conditioned reinforcer (causes release of DA after training)
Cue light is just associated with the outcome (not with extinction)
If cue light is turned back on, they will press
even if theres no food
Stimuli that are presented during reinforced responses form associations with the reinforcer
These stimuli can mediate responding after extinction

30
Q

What is STRESS-INDUCED REINSTATEMENT?

A

Doesnt involve retrieval of extinguished responding with anything that was associated with responding in the past
If animal was trained to press for drugs and then extinguish, if expose rat to stressor, responding will re-aug
Circuitry of stress-induced reinstatement is different from forms of reinstatement.
Stressful event reinstates responding not as a result of previous learning
Stress shares a common neural substrate with many drugs of addiction.

31
Q

What is resurgance?

A

– reinforcement of competing behaviour during extinction
Bc reinforcer is available from a diff bvr, the 1st bvr is extinguished but if take away the 2nd response (both), theres a resurgance of the 1st bvr
Trying all other options that worked in the past
Shows an important difference between classical and operant conditioning
Classical extinction leaves the CS with two available meanings:
1. CS → US (Excitatory conditioning)
2. CS → no US (Inhibitory conditioning)
Operant extinction leaves the individual with two available options:
1. Give up
2. Try some other means  reinforcement
(having another response available makes extinction faster)

32
Q

What is rapid reacquisition in operant extinction?

A

Responding is higher in rats who had lever pressing for drugs
extinguished than rats that are 1st being trained to press for drugs (learning isnt lost)

33
Q

How do we reduce relapse by extinguishing the context
(not the response)?

A

Can extinguish without extinguishing the response itself
No lever extinction but context was extinguished
Context is really imp for expression of response outcome following extinction

34
Q

How do we reduce relapse by extinguishing the cue (not the response)?

A

1) cue and response 2) cue extinction
Rats with no cue extinction have more responding than the rats that had cue extinction
Cue extinction causes dim in response outcome association

35
Q

What happens when we reduce the reinforcer?

A

EXTINGUISHING BEHAVIOUR BY REDUCING THE REINFORCER
When reduce, rats run down corridor much slower than those who always have the same amount of food pellets (clear extinction)
Theres a neg prediction error, the outcome isnt 0 but its still less than the expected outcome

36
Q

What happens when we punish the operant response?

A

EXTINGUISHING BEHAVIOUR BY PUNISHING THE RESPONSE
1) lever press for acohol
2) alcohol is still available but get shocked at random intervals of lever pressing
Change meaning of lever causes extinction even though reinforcer is still there

37
Q

What happens if we provide an alternative reinforcer?

A

EXTINGUISHING BEHAVIOUR BY PROVIDING AN ALTERNATIVE REINFORCER (social reward)
Rats prefer friends over drugs

38
Q

What are the age dependent effects of operant extinction?

A

Adolescents show an extinction deficit, as with Pavlovian conditioning

39
Q

What are the sex dependent effects of operant extinction/reinstatement?

A

Stress-induced reinstatement is stronger in females than in males