Lecture 13: Respondent Conditioning Flashcards
Why are learning, motivation and emotions inextricably related
They are all connected through the limbic system
What is learning from a psychology and neuroscience definition?
Psychology: Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience.
* Neuroscience: Learning is the response of the brain to environmental events/experiences and involves adaptive
changes in synaptic connectivity which will in turn alter behaviour (remember – our brains are plastic!).
* Not synaptic changes due to drugs, injury/illness
* But, changes in the brain and behaviour due to our interaction with our environment.
What are behaviours that aren’t learnt, they’re innate
1)Reflexes
– Simple innate response - single set of muscles
– Patellar, eye-blink reflex
2)Taxes
– Involves entire body (positive or negative)
– Positive phototaxis in moths, sea turtles
3)Instincts (‘Fixed action patterns’)
– More complex
– e.g. Food begging in herring gulls (Niko Tinbergen)
Describe Niko Tinbergen’s Herring gull experiment
- He observed that the mother gull had a red dot on the beak. The chicks would peck that dot in order for the mother to respond by feeding them.
- He manipulated the colour of the beak/dot or even the location of the dot to investigate how the feeding behaviour changed and how innate it was.
- When dot was moved to a different location or removed, the behaviour barely happened. Fixed innate behaviour from chicks and innate response from mother to feed.
What are limitations of innate behaviours
- Stimulus (or trigger or ‘releaser’ of behaviour) must be physically present in environment and is fixed (i.e. specific)
- Behaviour/Response is also fixed and there is little opportunity to modify the behaviour (little trial and error learning)
- Modification of innate responses does not occur within an individual’s life time (ontogenetic), but can occur on an evolutionary time scale (phylogenetic).
e.g. Australian Jewel Beetle showing copulatory response to beer bottle and therefore their population decreased. The colour of the bottle and the texture meant the beetle recognised it as innately female jewel beetle biology.
Why do we learn? What are the two types of learning?
Learning allows for adaptations in behaviour within our lifetime
Types of learning:
1. Non-associative learning
- Learning that stimuli exist in the world. Learned suppression of a response to a repeated stimulus.
e.g. loud noise presented to rat - at first startled and freezes, then habituates to it and realises it’s just a sound.
2. Associative learning
- Respondent/Classical/Pavlovian/Type 1 conditioning or stimulus-outcome learning =Learning associations between stimuli and stimuli, or stimuli and events.
- Operant/Instrumental/Skinnerian/Type 2 conditioning or action-outcome or response-outcome learning = learning associations between actions and consequences.
Define habituation
learned suppression of a response to a repeated stimulus. e.g. not leaving the building on test fire alarm.
Used to study the synaptic basis of learning in
snails.
Give the two main people who developed associative learning experiments/research
- Ivan Pavlov’s laboratory
- Edwin B.Twitmeyer
First experimental evidence of associative learning in humans: Association between auditory stimulus and patellar reflex.
Pavlov’s famous dog experiment in which they learned to salivate at the sound of a metronome due to association with food.
Describe Pavlov’s classical conditioning experiment
food (unconditioned stimulus) = salivation (unconditioned response)
sound (neutral stimulus) = no salivation
sound (ns) + food (uns) = salivation
sound (cs) = salivation (conditioned response)
Describe the process of classical conditioning
1)Acquisition of the association
* Pairing in time of Conditioned Stimulus (CS) and Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
* Pairing occurs because of reinforcement (i.e.
because the unconditioned stimulus – the food is rewarding)
* Measurement (DVs):
Probability/Magnitude of conditioned response when the CS is presented
* Important concept: contiguity – CS and US have to be presented close in time to each other for associations to occur.
Define extinction as a phenomena of respondent conditioning
- No reinforcement/loss of contiguity
- response loses strength
i.e. presenting the bell without the food for many trials.
This is NOT loss of memory.
Define spontaneous recovery as a phenomena of respondent conditioning
- Passage of time after extinction
- Retest CS
Define reacquisition as a phenomena of respondent conditioning
- CS (again) reinforced by CS
- “Savings in relearning”
Give the 6 phenomena of respondent conditioning
1) Acquisition
2) Extinction
3) Spontaneous recovery
4) Reacquisition
5) Generalisation
6) Discrimination
Define generalisation as a phenomena of classical conditioning
Similar CS will also elicit CR
Define discrimination as a phenomena of classical conditioning
CS+ (reinforced) - reward paired of food
CS- (non-reinforced)- not paired w reward
How is classical conditioning beneficial
Helps us adapt to our environment beyond “simple” reflexes – by making associations between stimuli or between stimuli and events.
* Ontogenetic ‘adaptation’ (adaptation in our lifetime)
* Ubiquitous (occurs in all species) and preserved by evolution (there is an evolutionary purpose to this type
of learning)
* All learning is classical conditioning (according to Pavlov – we know that this is not true)
* Classical conditioning can shape our emotional life.
Describe the little Albert experiment
Baby + white rat = playing/calm behaviour
baby + rat (CS) + loud noise (UCS) = distress
baby + rat = fear/distress (UCR)
Suggests classical conditioning could cause some phobias.
Where do conditioned fear associations take place in the brain
In the amygdala and lateral amygdala due to sensory/auditory thalamus and somatosensory thalamus input and control over motor output.
What was Pavlov’s hypothesis about learning
Pavlov hypothesized that, when (psychological)
connection between the CS and US is
conditioned, the area of the cortex activated by
the CS becomes physically connected with the
area activated by the US.
i.e. auditory centre connects with food centre of brain.
