Learning & Behaviour Flashcards
1
Q
Pavlov
A
Classical or Pavlovian conditioning, subject has no control over response, eg dog salivation.
2
Q
Skinner
A
Operant or instrumental conditioning, subject must consciously perform a task for reward, ie they learn to associate an action with a consequence, eg: rats push a lever for food.
3
Q
Innate behaviours
A
Behaviours that are inborn and evolve across generations
4
Q
Kinesis
A
Reflexes involving the whole body, eg animals placed in dry conditions will seek moisture, but those placed in a moist environment will stay.
5
Q
Taxis
A
Similar to Kinesis except it is directional. Eg, moths attracted to light.
6
Q
Testing for innate behaviours
A
Eibesfeldt’s squirrel studies
Deprivation experiments with rats
Yang kuo’s kittens and rats.
7
Q
Displacement behaviours
A
Differs across species, inborn and pervasive behaviours triggered by conflict situation yet unrelated to conflict itself. Perhaps to delay the decision to either fight or flight. Eg, rats preening, fowl sham feeding, humans yawn or fidget.
8
Q
Imprinting
A
Bond formed between young animals and particular class of objects during critical development period. Eg filial imprinting: response of young land birds to follow any moving object whether mother bird or human.
9
Q
Harry Harlow
A
Monkey experiments, 1960. Found young monkeys attached to object resembling mother, monkeys bred without mother were savage, unfeeling and treated heir young badly. Suggests attachment approximate form of imprinting and influences capacity of animal to nurture.
10
Q
Habituation
A
Form of simple conditioning, tendency for response to get progressively weaker to repeated stimulus. Eg living near airport, gradually not being disturbed by noise. Vital for freeing brain to process new information. Orientations response- new stimuli attracts your attention. Spencer 1960- habituation more rapid with weak stimulus, habituation will occur faster the second time stimulus is introduced.
11
Q
Abherrant operant behaviours
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Unusual phenomena that cannot be explained by traditional operant principles.
12
Q
Instinctive drift
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Naturally occurring behaviours sometimes intrude into operant training procedures.
13
Q
Criticisms of behaviourist approach
A
Timberlake: experiments with captive animals fail to consider the biological significance of behaviours, the context they are produce in, and the form of naturally occurring stimulus to response. Proved natural behaviours could be activated, resulted in more naturalistic feeding routine of zoo animals.
14
Q
Causal reasoning
A
Capability of animals to learn the relationship between stimulus and response, ie that there is a link between behaviours and outcomes.
15
Q
Contingency
A
Behaviour or response of animal actually influence the rate or amount of reinforcement. Hammond 1980: contingency does clearly influence conditioning ( rats).
16
Q
Non- contingency
A
Leads to the response being a redundant predictor of reward. Non response must be made more salient ( add stimulus) to break this effect.
17
Q
Human contingency learning - David Hume
A
The cause and effect must be contiguous in space and time, the cause must occur prior to the effect, there must be consistent connection between cause and effect, the same cause must always produce the same effect, when several events cause the effect, it must be because the events share a component.
18
Q
False contingency
A
Errors and false perceptions can arise under certain circumstances. Superstitious conditioning: whatever animal was engaged in prior to reinforcement had a greater probability of being reproduced.
19
Q
Illusion of control
A
Subjective probability of success is higher than the objective probability brought about by the false perception that ones actions can influence outcomes when this hardly seems possible.
Can occur in both chance and skill based tasks.
We have an innate desire to feel in control and bolster our self esteem.
Our brains are designed to find connections and associations
Langer 1975- people find it hard to differentiate between tasks involving chance and skill ( situational confusion). This is because tasks involving chance often contain elements of skill tasks eg decision making and competition.
Primary control- use of direct skills and strategies to influence environment .
Secondary control- aligning oneself with higher power eg prayer
Interpretive/ predictive control - witchcraft, tarot, gamblers fallacy ( I’m due a win), law of averages ( three loses should follow up a win), availability heuristic.
Illusion of control may be more or less likely due to individual and situational factors:
- confusion of luck and skill
- task framing/ instructional sets ( false contingency occurs more often when people are given naturalistic vs analytic instructions)
- need for outcome: more likely to perceive illusion of control if outcome is highly motivating ( Binet et al)
- more depressed people less likely to perceive control ( alloy & abramson)
- more likely to have illusion if anxious, “ hyper vigilance” ( fredland et al)
20
Q
Thorndike ( classical theories)
A
Stimulus response theory
Cats escaping puzzle box via trial and error
“ instrumental learning” consequence binds or connects response to stimuli. Distinct from contingency learning as it occurs is association.
3 elementary behaviour laws
1. Law of effect- contiguity of stimuli and response, successful responses have a greater probability of being repeated
2. Law of readiness ( abandoned)
3. Law of exercise ( abandoned)
-notion of multiple response ( animals who vary their response are more likely to get it correct)
- associative shifting ( animals responses can be gradually shifted by making small changes to the stimulus) ( skinner fading or vanishing)
- response by analogy ( animals use a successful response from one situation to a new situation) ( generalisation)
- response availability ( modify response in reaction to variation in environment) ( discrimination learning)
21
Q
Thorndike vs Guthrie
A
Thorndike- gradual trial and error learning vs Guthrie - correct response there all the time, matter of producing it in the right situation
Thorndike- rewards reinforce desired responses from animal vs Guthrie- rewards “ weld” behaviour to stimulus conditions but are not essential.
22
Q
Tolman’s purposive learning
A
- animals are purposive, produce behaviours to achieve goals
- cognitive maps to navigate environment
- learning can occur in absence of goal
- place learning rather than response learning
- rats learned place even when released at the other end of the t maze
- vicarious trial and error
Influence of tolman’s work: - contiguity and contingency both important
- influenced development of expectancy value theory
- influenced development of Rotter 1966 locus of control construct
- distinguished learnt from performance
23
Q
Hull
A
- not a radical behaviourist
- contingency + contiguity
- separation of learning and performance
- drive reduction
- learning= finding appropriate response to stimulus condition/ situation that reduces drive.
- included intervening variables in his theories
Reaction potential theory
Attempted to develop a unified system of behaviour
24
Q
B.F. Skinner and operant conditioning
A
- definitive work: ‘ schedules of reinforcement’ fester and skinner 1957
- learning by consequence rather than association
- operant paradigm: increasing dominance of behaviours that lead to reinforcing consequences
- learning is inferred from performance
- positive reinforcement: presenting reinforcing stimulus after desired behaviour
- negative reinforcement: aversive stimulus removed after desired behaviour performed ( eg bob does the dishes to stop wife nagging)
- positive punishment: presenting negative consequence after undesired behaviour
-negative punishment: desirable stimulus removed after undesirable behaviour exhibited
Skinner’s 3 term contingency - discrimination learning: animals learn to recognise the conditions that signal whether making a response will have any effect eg. In the Skinner box, turning the lights off means pressing. The lever will have no effect.
- generalisation gradient: learning that is generalised to other stimulus, plot of response probability and stimulus similarity follows a normal curve.
- extinction and spontaneous recovery: animals deprived of reinforcement will gradually reduce their rate of responding to zero ( extinction). Responses return after an absence of exposure to extinction conditions ( spontaneous recovery).
25
Contiguity vs contingency
Contiguity : sequential occurrence or proximity of stimulus and response, causing their association in the mind ( Pavlov)
Contingency: conditioning more complicated than the number of CS-US pairings. If CS is paired with US then US is contingent ( conditional) on the CS. Positive, negative and zero contingency. Positive ( excitatory conditioning), negative ( inhibitory conditioning) ( Rescorla).
26
Behaviour modification
- shaping and successive approximations: selective reinforcement of responses closer and closer to desired response
- clinical applications teaching children with autism, ID and speech therapy
- response chaining & conditioned reinforcement: completion of one element of behaviour becomes the discriminant stimulus for the next element, eg. Teaching a rat to complete a complex series of behaviours eg barnabus maze.
- conditioned stimulus: one which is not naturally reinforcing but which comes to be a reinforcer because its presence signals the presence of primary reinforcement or that it is about to follow
- forward chaining: initial sequence in the chain of behaviour is trained first followed by all subsequent ones eg teaching skills to people with ID
- fading: behaviour modified by eliciting responses to successive variations of an original stimulus object ( used in the past to change sexuality)
- assisted or forced learning: physical intervention in the subjects attempt to learn new behaviours eg lifting an autistic child's head for eye contact
- intermittent reinforcement: animal is not rewarded for every response; ratio or interval
- ratio: reward every (x) responses
- interval: reward response after ( x) seconds or minutes
- fixed ratio schedule: animal is only reinforced after x number of responses. Eg: FR5 = reward only on 5th, 10th, 15th etc
- fixed interval schedule: animal must wait a certain length of time for reinforcement. Eg: FI3 = animal reinforced for first response after 3 minutes then after 3 minutes has elapsed again etc
- variable ratio: reinforcement of varying number of responses, produces rapid rate of responding
- variable interval schedules: reinforcing the animal after a variable number of minutes eg VR4 on average after every four minutes.
27
Rescorla-Wagner model,Hull-Spence model, Mackintosh and Pearce - Hall models
-latent inhibition effect: if a CS ( light) is repeatedly presented without consequence during the exposure phase, then animals subsequently learn to associate it with a US more slowly ( compared to a novel CS (tone)). The light does not become inhibitory during the exposure phase ( better name is CS preexposure effect) Rescorla- Wagner and Hull- Spence models cannot explain this.
Rescorla- Wagner model: model of classical conditioning in which the animal is said to learn from the discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Predicts blocking condition ( In Kamin's blocking effect the conditioning of an association between two stimuli, a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) is impaired if, during the conditioning process, the CS is presented together with a second CS that has already been associated with the unconditioned stimulus.)
-Hull-Spence model, same as above but cannot predict blocking condition.
-Pearce-Hall model - makes the following assumptions: learning is proportional to attention, attention is proportional to the amount of surprise, unpredictable events enhance attention( correct, proved by Kay & Pearce) once a US is fully predicted by a CS, attention to the CS diminishes. Predicts blocking and latent inhibition effect ( but NOT partial reinforcement extinction effect:The partial reinforcement effect (PRE) is the empirical finding that resistance to extinction is greater following acquisition where some, but not all, responses are reinforced (PRF); compared to acquisition all responses are reinforced (CRF).)
-mackintosh: selective attention theory, different explanation for blocking effect, explains latent inhibition, does not always make correct predictions, does not assume that stimuli are automatically attended ( unlike RW and HS) does not explain little to large US switch)
28
Prediction error
Actual outcome- expected outcome
| Assumed to drive new learning
29
Dopamine neurons
- involved in learning, evidence that brains compute prediction error
- activity in dopamine neurons matches associative strength of CS
- show " blocking effect" that mirrors behavioural effect
- activity is consistent with Rescorla-Wagner 1972 model
30
Catastrophic interference
- new learning erases old learning ( most models of learning suffer from this including RW)
- the brain does not suffer catastrophic interference( interference does occur but it isn't catastrophic)
31
Memory
- memories are stored in more than one structure, this might explain why we don't suffer from catastrophic interference.
- brain might store similar versions of the same memory in the hippocampus and in the neocortex, but the rate that the memories are strengthened is different.
- memories are stored in the hippocampus, which learns new associations fast
- at the same time, memories are gradually stored in the Neo-cortex, which learns slowly.
- implies that recent memories rely on the hippocampus and old memories rely on the Neo cortex.
32
Damaged hippocampus
- unable to form new episodic ( what, when, where) memories but can form procedural memories ( they require slow changes in the neocortex)
- retrograde amnesia ( forget memories that happened before damage)
- amnesia is temporally graded, recent memories are far more likely to be lost than old ones.
- old memories stored in neocortex independent of hippocampus.
33
Synaptic plasticity
Learning is thought to occur( at least in part) due to synaptic plasticity. Synapses between neurons gradually become more efficient at transmitting a neural signal.
34
Memory consolidation
A newly acquired memory needs to be consolidated in order to be remembered permanently. During synaptic consolidation, neurons produce proteins that strengthen synaptic transmission.
- synaptic plasticity takes minutes to hours to complete
- drugs that affect protein synthesis during consolidation can interfere with synaptic plasticity and hence prevent a memory from being formed.
35
Memory re consolidation theory
- recent research suggests that even old memories become labile ( easily altered or broken down)every time they are recalled, they undergo re consolidation.
- like consolidation, re consolidation requires protein synthesis. Drugs that inhibit protein synthesis during the retrieval of an old memory can weaken it.
- Nader, Schafe and Le Doux 2000: amygdala stores fear memories, rats who had protein synthesis inhibitor injected into amygdala while recalling memory, memory was reduced.
- implication: possible treatment for PTSD using propranolol to inhibit fear response.
36
Avoidance learning
- how animals learn via negative reinforcement
- Soloman& Wynne 1953 electrified shuttle box design
- dogs learnt to anticipate and avoid shock by jumping
- two factor theory of avoidance ( Mowrer 1947), avoiding fear
- classical conditioning component: UCS ( shock) - UCR( fear), CS( dark)-CR(fear)
- operant component: fear gives rise to unpleasant state. Fear is avoided by jumping.
- supported by: Rescorla & LoLordo 1965, Neil Miller 1948, Kamin et al 1963
- two factor model is problematic ( animals show less fear the better they get at avoiding the problem)
- one factor avoidance theory: animals continue to avoid the shock because avoidance itself is reinforcing
37
Response blocking
- used to remove avoidance behaviour
- animals are presented with signal or situation associated with shock but get no shock
- clinical implication- treating irrational fears
38
Flooding
- people suddenly exposed to the stimulus they are avoiding in a place they know they are safe eg placed in a room with the feared animal.
39
Learned helplessness
- defines a sense that a situation is uncontrollable ie that the subject feels helpless
- original experiments were flawed in that they did not show the dogs had generalised a form of learned helplessness
- development of yoked designs ( yoking= matching up the pattern of outcomes) this method still not satisfactory
Attributed to 2 processes:
- motivational deficit ie a reduced motivation to respond
- cognitive deficit ie a perception of non contingency
- in human experiments, the group exposed to uncontrollable outcomes was simply slower and performed more inaccurately.
- depressed people perform similarly to learned helplessness
Added complexities in research:
- confounding of punishment and non contingency
- confusion of failure & non contingency
- role of individual differences
- external vs internal locus of control
- generalisation/ similarity of pretraining and test phase
-Lack of inevitability of the learned helplessness effect.
40
Learned optimism
Consistent application of a healthy attributional style which is meant to lead to greater resilience ( positive psychology movement)
41
Cognitive neuroscience
The physiology of behaviour ie the role of the nervous system interacting with the rest of the body ( especially the endocrine system) in controlling behaviour.
42
Neuroplasticity
The lifelong capacity of neural activity generated by an experience to modify neural circuit function and thereby modify subsequent thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
- studied in many brain regions
Many processes involved:
- neuronal growth
- synaptogenesis/ synaptic pruning
- changes in efficacy of existing synapses largely through activity dependent mechanisms
- critical for learning, memory and recovery from injury
43
Short term synaptic plasticity
-Numerous forms observed at virtually every synapse in organisms
- duration of milliseconds up to several minutes
Thought to play important roles in:
- short term adaptations to sensory input
- transient changes to behavioural states
- short lasting forms of memory
- allows synapses to act as information processing filters with a wide range of properties
44
Long term synaptic plasticity
- 1949 Donald Hebb - Hebbian learning/plasticity
- neurons that fire together, wire together
- bidirectional modifications in the strength of synaptic transmissions
- long term potentiation ( LTP): activity dependent increase ( strengthening) in synaptic transmission between two neurons
- long term depression ( LTD): activity dependent decrease ( weakening) in synaptic transmission between two neurons
- occurs most rapidly at synapses stimulated by afferent activity
- thought to play key roles in learning and persistent memory formation
45
3 main functional classes of neurons
- afferent: sensory receptors to CNS
- association: CNS ( info sensory to motor)
- efferent: motor neurons ( CNS to muscles)
46
4 main structural classes of neurons
- multipolar ( motor and inter neurons)
- bipolar( eg retinal cells)
- pseudo-unipolar ( sensory)
- true unipolar( only exist in invertebrates)
- pyramidal neurons: technically multipolar, found in cerebral cortex, hippocampus and amygdala, critical roles in motor cortex and prefrontal cortex, movement and cognition.
47
Neuro genesis
- process by which neurons are generated from neural stem cells and progenitor cells
- most active during prenatal development
- limited in adults
- subventricular zone- lateral ventrical wall
- dentate gyrus ( hippocampus)
48
Changes in synaptic efficacy, four types
- habituation, sensitisation, long term potentiation and long term depression.
49
Uses of NIBS ( non invasive brain stimulation)
- assessment of neuroplasticity
- manipulate cortical network excitability or accessibility
- neuroplasticity and dysfunction ( abnormal synaptogenesis and pruning causes cognitive dysfunction)
- therapeutic applications eg stroke and depression
50
Occasion setting
Occasion setting is a form of hierarchical learning involving associative and nonassociative processes. Occasion setters are discrete stimuli or contexts that disambiguate Pavlovian and/or operant relations
51
Hierarchical associations
- associations that seem to activate or inhibit other associations
- seem to be learnt only under certain conditions, especially when CS are presented serially rather than simultaneously
52
Simultaneous feature positive discrimination
- discriminant procedure
- A and B occur simultaneously
- reinforcement occurs in presence of B
- B becomes excitatory, whereas A is neutral ( consistent with RW model)
53
Serial feature positive discrimination
- discriminant procedure
- B precedes A in conditioning
- serial rather than simultaneous presentation
- A becomes excitatory, but generates response only in presence of B
- B is neutral, but sets the occasion for A to be reinforced
- B becomes a positive Occassion setter
- not anticipated by RW model
54
Simultaneous feature negative discrimination
- discrimination procedure
- B is " feature" ( CS that differentiates the two trial types)
- B is negative as trials AB are not reinforced
- also called conditioned inhibition
- A becomes excitatory, B becomes inhibitory ( consistent with RW)
55
Serial feature negative discrimination
- discrimination procedure
- B becomes negative Occassion setter ( seems to inhibit A to US association
- does not pass summation and retardation tests for conditioned inhibition ( inconsistent with RW)
56
Tests for inhibition
- Summation test: pair the inhibitor with a different excitor, the inhibitor should suppress the conditioned response generated by any excitor.
- Retardation test: condition the inhibitor by repeatedly pairing it with the US, the inhibitor should condition ( become excitatory) slowly.
57
Classical conditioning terms
In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus.
In classical conditioning, an unconditioned response is the unlearned response that occurs naturally in reaction to the unconditioned stimulus. For example, if the smell of food is the unconditioned stimulus, the feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food is the unconditioned response.
In classical conditioning, the conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. For example, let's suppose that the smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus, a feeling of hunger in response the the smell is a unconditioned response, and a the sound of a whistle is the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle.
In classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response.
Pavlov example: unconditioned stimulus was appearance of assistant who fed the dogs ( anticipation of food), unconditioned response was salivation, conditioned stimulus was ringing bell, conditioned response was salivation to sound of bell whether or not food present.
58
Why do serial procedures generate occasion setters?
One possible answer is the lack of contiguity. There is a longer delay between the occasion setter and the US( or the surprising omission of the US) making is less likely to become directly associated to the US.
Holland (1984) occasion setters might develop both a hierarchical association and a direct association with the US simultaneously. The two associations might have opposite effects.
59
Why is it important to determine whether stimuli act direly on the US representation or are occasion setters?
- contextual stimuli often become occasion setters ( we learn to perform certain behaviours in some situations, and inhibit them in other situations) ( some behaviours are appropriate only in certain contexts)
- contextual cues might act as Occasion setters enabling CS to anxiety associations in phobias or CS to craving/ tolerance responses in drug addiction.
- treatments that directly attempt to extinguish the context might not work.
60
Cognitive behavioural therapy
- recognises that a person's way of thinking ( cognition) and acting ( behaviour) affect the way they feel.
- involves identifying patterns of thinking and behaviour
- once patterns are identified, new patterns can be developed to reduce anxiety and increase coping.
- behavioural therapy involves changing levels of activity
61
Behavioural strategies
- aim to modify symptoms directly ( eg relaxation) usually in the initial phases of therapy where you are helping the client develop a range of coping skills
62
" components" of addiction
- salience: the activity is the most important thing in the person's life, which causes preoccupation and craving at all times of the day
- tolerance: the process whereby the person must spend increasing amounts of time engaged in the activity to achieve former mood modifying effects
- withdrawal: the unpleasant emotional state or physical effects that occur when the activity is suddenly discontinued or reduced
- relapse: the tendency for repeated reversions to earlier patterns of use, and for even extreme patterns of use to be restored quickly after periods of abstinence or regulation.
- mood modification: the subjective experience ( eg exciting buzz) associated with engaging in the activity.
- harm: the conflict between the user and those around hem including work, school, social life or hobbies.
63
CBT basics
- requires formulation
- structured or semi structured
- open and curious
- non judgmental
- problem orientated
- collaborative
- educational
-Socratic " self discovery"
Rule of thumb: if you find yourself giving advice, stop
64
CBT for addiction: interventions
- recognise cues and develop plan to avoid them
- distract and/or develop plan to move out of risk situation
- challenge thoughts, increase negative expectancies, enhance dissonance, enhance control over decision making process
- coping with craving without using, experience natural process of craving
- challenge facilitating beliefs, increase coping skills, exit situation, change lifestyle
- decatastrophise, learning from experience
65
Common behavioural techniques
- activity monitoring schedules
- relaxation training and physical exercise
- behavioural experiments
- contingency management
66
Activity monitoring
- useful basic strategy for understanding behaviour
- provides a topographical analysis of addictive behaviour
Uses of the daily schedule include:
- journal of present activities- understanding how activity related to drug use
- prospective guide- can schedule more pleasurable activities
- evaluation of extent to which a schedule is followed successfully
- assessment of pleasure associated with activities
Main problems:
- compliance, accuracy
Main advantages
- assessment, all purpose coping plan, adapting lifestyle
67
Relaxation training and physical exercise
- provide a safe ( drug free) method of relaxing
- introduction of a time log after the initial craving, during which the craving may subside
- antecedent - behaviour - consequence process
- examples: progressive, release only, cue controlled, differential, rapid etc
68
Behavioural experiments
- used to test clients ability to challenge their drug related beliefs and to practice newly learned adaptive coping skills
- in essence, this technique is an experiment used to test whether a specified belief is true or not
- based on the assumption that clients hold beliefs that are not true, but due to biases in thinking, or use of avoidance or safety behaviours, these inappropriate beliefs are strengthened and fail to be challenged
- cognitive or behavioural? Both?
69
Contingency management
- based on operant conditioning
- competing schedule of reinforcement incompatible with drug use
- the aim of CM is to facilitate change by providing clear and attainable behavioural goals for the client.
1) regular assessment or testing
2) client and therapist agree on rewards, timing etc
3) identification of alternative activities
4) consistent giving and withholding of rewards
- clients are rewarded for particular behaviours, eg. Drug free urine tests, attendance to programs
Evidence for CM:
- Higgins, Bickel, Hughes 1994, users had to choose between cocaine and $2, they chose the $2.
- Pendergast, Podus, Finney, Greenwell, Roll 2006, CM among more effective approaches, improves ability of clients to remain abstinent.
- Petry, Martin, Cooney, Kranzler 2000, standard treatment plus CM more effective than standard treatment alone, 4 tenants of CM:
1) clinician arranges the environment such that substance use is readily detected
2)tangible reinforcers are provided when abstinence is demonstrated
3) incentives are withheld when drug use uncovered
4) reinforcement from alternative sources ( eg family, social, employment) is increased to compete with reinforcement derived from drug use
70
Behavioural therapy for anxiety
- CBT recognises that a person's way of thinking ( cognition) and acting ( behaviour) affects the way they feel.
- involves identifying patterns of thinking and behaviour
- once patterns are identified, new patterns can be developed to reduce anxiety and increase coping.
- behavioural therapy involves changing levels of activity ( particularly avoidance) and increasing activities associated with pleasure and mastery.
- graded exposure or systematic desensitisation to feared stimuli.
71
Behavioural strategies ( anxiety)
- behavioural strategies aim to modify symptoms directly ( eg relaxation), usually in the initial phase of therapy where you are helping the client develop a range of coping skills
- behavioural therapy for anxiety is designed to reduce avoidant coping and safety behaviours.
72
Anxiety
- anxiety is normal and adaptive
- moderate anxiety improves performance
- higher levels of anxiety impair performance
- types of anxiety disorders: panic disorder, social anxiety, OCD, phobia, PTSD
-antecedent: feared situation eg germs
-behaviour: avoidance eg cleaning
- consequence: reduction in fear
Key anxiety cognitions:
- overestimation of threat and danger
- underestimation of personal coping resources
73
De-arousal strategies for anxiety disorders
- provide skills to relax effectively
- " riding the wave" of anxiety
- " sitting with discomfort" of anxiety
Examples:
- breathing
- hyperventilation control
- meditation/mindfulness
- psychoeducation
74
What is avoidance?
- escape or leaving the situation
- not doing something or going somewhere
- not talking about it
- using drugs or other activities to numb or reduce discomfort
- redirecting attention to other things
75
Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Obsession: persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced as inappropriate or inclusive and that cause anxiety and distress. The content of the obsession is often perceived as alien and not under the person's controll.
- compulsions: repetitive behaviours or mental acts that are carried out to reduce or prevent anxiety or distress and are perceived to prevent a dreaded event or situation.
76
OCD as learning
- based on conditioning process
- neutral events become associated with fear by being paired with something that provokes fear or discomfort
- this fear generalises so that objects as well as thoughts and images produce discomfort
- individual engages in behaviours that reduce anxiety and, because this is successful in the short term, it is performed whenever discomfort occurs.
- helpful to understanding triggers and maintenance of the disorder.
77
Behavioural therapy for OCD
- exposure and response prevention
- systematic desensitisation
- entails deliberate exposure to obsessional cues and prevention of unhelpful behaviours that alleviate the anxiety.
- identify ' safety' behaviours
- hierarchical progression using a ' fear ladder'
Treatment considerations
- collaborative
- intensive
- clients become their own therapist
- discourage dependency
- avoid reassurance
- encourage and challenge
- practical
- (safe) humour
78
Abnormal synaptogenesis and pruning of synapses and dendritic spines- clinical implications
- cognitive disorders associated with aberrant dendritic spine plasticity: ID, Rett syndrome, autism spectrum disorders.
- in schizophrenia, exaggerated spine pruning during late childhood or adolescence may lead to the emergence of symptoms during these periods.
79
Dendritic spines
- multiple shapes and sizes
- diverse functions depending on type & activity of the neuron
- numbers on a dendrite highly plastic, increase in response to activity, lose if unused
- spine morphology determines the strength and stability of the synapse
- increasing evidence that play distinct roles in learning and memory
- small spines - motile, readily generated and eliminated; rapid acquisition of new memories
- large spines stable morphology, robust readout
- hypothesised that complex cognitive functions require an increased spine density in the cortex
- abnormal spine morphology is a principle cause of synaptic dysfunction in a number of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders eg reduced density and size in schizophrenia
80
Synapses
- space or cleft between presynaptic bouton and post synaptic cell membrane ( on soma or dendrite)
- neurotransmitter released into cleft diffuses across ( milliseconds) to bind to specific receptor sites on post synaptic cell membrane
- causes specific ion channels to open on the post synaptic membrane triggering ionic fluxes which either depolarise or hyper polarise the membrane.
- excitatory synapses depolarise the post synaptic membranes while inhibitory synapses hyper polarise them
- activity dependent modification of the strength or efficacy of neural transmission at the synapse = synaptic plasticity
- thought to play a central role in the capacity of the brain to incorporate transient experiences into persistent memory traces.
- also thought to play key roles in the early development of neural circuitry
- accumulating evidence that impairments in synaptic plasticity mechanisms contribute to several prominent neuropsychiatric disorders.
- glutamate: main excitatory neurotransmitter
