time and causality Flashcards
what is asociative learning for
- learning about causality
- learning about concurrence - what goes with what
how does associative learning work
- if you had to design a learning mechanism to encode causality, what would it be like?
- you only want associations to form when there’s a real causal relationship
what should associative learning detect
- directionality: cause–>effect
- sensitivity to delay between cause & effect (trace interval)
- sensitive to corr
- no learning about predictable outcomes as already known cause
associative learning being sensitive to correlation
- perfect correlation - good signal
- same number of pairings but US occurs alone = bad signal
- same number of pairings but CS occurs alone = bad signal
what possible rules are there for forming associations?
- would a pure contiguity model work? - hebb
- when CS & US are paired, change in associative strength proportional to intensity of CS & intensity of US
- can only explain delay
- cannot explain direction, corr, or predictable outcomes
rescorla wagner avoiding problems from hebb
- allows selective learning about surprising outcomes
- when CS & US are paired, change in associative strength proportional to intensity of CS, intensity of US, and how surprising US is
if you look at a learning graph, it becomes an asymptote due to learning becoming less surprising
how does rescorla wagner improve upon hebb issues
- can explain sensitivity to corr
- learning reduced through extinction
- association reduced by presenting CS alone
- learning reduced through blocking
- learning reduced by presenting US alone (importance of contextual cues)
rescorla wagner
- can explain correlation & predictable outcomes
- cannot explain direction & delay
- cant explain why backward conditioning doesnt work & cannot easily explain the effect of trace intervals
wagner’s SOP (1981)
sometimes opponent process theory
- incorporates time by exploting idea that processing of a stim can vary as a function of time & recent events
- stim processing is reduced if: the same stim has just been presented, a predictor (CS) for the stim has just been presented
SOP general assumptions
- stim represented as a set of elements, some of which may be activated by stim presentation
- elements may be inactive, or in 1 of 2 states
- when a stim is presented, some of its inactive elements enter A1, then rapidly decay into A2 & then slowly become inactive again
differences between A1 & 2
response elicited by A2 less intense than that elicited by A1 - may even oppose A1 activity
particularly important for drug tolerance
how does SOP produce self-generated priming?
activation of food elements when food just presented
- first time stim presented, elements go into A1
- when food taken away, quickly decay into A2
- slowly decay into inactive again
- elements cannot go from A2 directly to A1
- only a finite number of elements
- if the next US occurs before this decay is complete, weaker response
- if associate of stim is presented, elements are activated directly to A2 state
what happens if food is actually presented after a CS that predicts it
- only the few inactive elements available to enter A1
- overall response to food is weaker if it is predicted
- conditioned diminution of UR
in order to form an excitatory association
A1 & A2
- CS must be A1
- US must be in A1
in order to form an inhibitory association
A1 & A2
- CS must be A1
- US must be in A2
how does conditioning happen
- conditioning can only happen once food has occurred
- A1/A1 overlap –> excitatory conditioning
how does conditioning stop
- presenting can opener puts food elements into A2 before food is presented
- so when food actually occurs there
- is less A1 activity (conditioned diminution of UR)
- less A1/A1 overlap & less excitatory conditioning
- some A1/A2 overlap & inhibitory conditioning
- eventually they cancel each other out –> no net learning
how does extinction happen
- CS in A1
- US all in A2
- –> inhibitory learning
how does inhibitory conditioning happen?
- establish can opener –> food association
- sound of can opener puts food elements directly into A2
- an inhibitory prevents inactive elements of US from entering A2
- it will thus interfere with action of a conditioned excitor, which is trying to put inactive US elements into A2
- SOP predicts properties of conditioned inhibitors
blocking
- early stage 1: whistle –> food so strong predictor of food
- late stage 1: food goes straight into A2, can opener where elements go into A1
- stage 2: CS mainly A1, US in A1 and A2 –> mix of excitatory & inhibitory learning
excitatory conditioning short ISI
- mainly A1/A1 –> strong excitatory association
- interval between stim impact response
- if there is a A1/A1 overlap this causes excitatory learning
- can be associated more easily
excitatory conditioning longer ISI
fewer CS elements in A1 by the time food is presented –> weaker excitatory association
excitatory conditioning very long ISI
no CS elements in A1 by the time food is presented –> no excitatory association
backward conditioning
- CS in A1, US in A1&2 –> mixture of excitatory and inhibitory learning
- compare activity in the food representations
- food then can opener
- interested in can opener predicting food
- learning starts when there’s the overlap
- forward all in A1 (A1 and A1 overlap)
- backward some in A1 some in A2 (A1 and A2 overlap)