2. Pavlovian Conditioning: General Principles

Front 1

Describe Ivan Pavlov's classic experiment.

Back 1

**Pavlovian conditioning was first recognised physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
**Used surgical procedures to measure saliva flow; presentation of meat into dogs mouth elicited a salivation reflex. Experienced dogs salivated before food was presented.
**Dogs predicted that onset of US through the CS

Front 2

What is the Unconditioned stimulus (US)?

Back 2

A stimulus that elicits an unlearned response (no learning associated with it)

Front 3

What is the Unconditioned response (UR) ?

Back 3

The unlearned response to an US

Front 4

What is conditioning?

Back 4

The association or pairing of a US with a neutral stimulus (soon to be a CS)

Front 5

What is the Conditioned stimulus (CS) ?

Back 5

A stimulus to which an organism must learn to respond

Front 6

What is the Conditioned response (CR)?

Back 6

The response to a CS (which is learned)

Front 7

What is the key difference between Pavlovian and Operant conditioning paradigms?

Back 7

**Pavlovian conditioning is purely association;
**operant conditioning deals with rewards/punishers

Front 8

What are the three stages of Pavlovian conditioning?

Back 8

1. Habituation
2. Acquisition
3. Extinction

Front 9

What is the Habituation phase of Pavlovian conditioning?

Back 9

**Check that US elicits a CR (usually physiological measures such as skin conductance or startle)

**Something novel will elicit a response; habituation phase extinguishes orienting response.

Front 10

What is the Acquisition phase of Pavlovian conditioning?

Back 10

**Where learning is acquired; CS is paired with the US

**The change is strength of a CR is what is called the learning curve; the strength of the CR increases with more acquisition trials (there is a ceiling effect)

Front 11

What is the Extinction phase of Pavlovian conditioning?

Back 11

**Presentation of CS alone will elicit the CR response.

**In extinction repeated exposure of CS alone will weaken the strength of the association

Front 12

What happened in Watson and Rayner 1920 Little Albert experiment.

Back 12

Little Albert onditioned to fear white rat; but resulted in generalised fear

Front 13

What processes affect the acquisition learning curve?

Back 13

**Intensity - the more intense, the more rapid learning

**Order – the CS coming before the US yields better learning

**Timing (delay; trace; simultaneous; backward)

Front 14

What is the difference between Delay conditioning (short) and Delay conditioning (long) ?

[Timing affect the acquisition learning curve]

Back 14

**(short) – CS proceeds onset of US, but US onset still coincides with CS (most effective) (seconds)

**(long) – long delay between CS and US, generally weaker than short delay conditioning (minutes) – generally not effectively but there are exceptions (taste aversion)

Front 15

In Delay conditioning what is the most important factors?

Back 15

Interstimulus interval (ISI) – the interval between the two stimuli that are being presented

also Intertrial interval (ITI) -- the longer the better

Front 16

What is the optimal Interstimulus interval (ISI)?

Back 16

**Optimal ISI – depends on conditioning: eyelid reflex is ~200ms (very short); and in taste aversion is ~30mins, but can still be there after a 24hr delay

**Generally is 0.4sec to 1sec is optimal in humans

Front 17

What is Trace conditioning?

[Timing affect the acquisition learning curve]

Back 17

CS proceeds US and there is a trace interval between the two, Is still effective but weaker than delay conditioning; the length of the trace interval determines effectiveness of acquisition

Front 18

What is Simultaneous conditioning?

[Timing affect the acquisition learning curve]

Back 18

CS and US start and end together, but is least effective covered so far (besides backward)

Front 19

What is Backward conditioning?

[Timing affect the acquisition learning curve]

Back 19

CS is meant to predict US but sometimes can get excitatory response, but rare and is sometimes used as a control

Front 20

What is Excitatory conditioning (CS+) ?

Back 20

CS predicts the occurrence of the US: A-US, A-US, A-US (elicits CR)

Front 21

What is Inhibitory conditioning (CS-) ?

Back 21

**CS predicts the absence of the US: A-US, A-US, AB, A-US, AB (no CR)

**Where AB predicts the absence of US

**Inhibitors are silent behaviours – needs tests to confirm inhibitor status

Front 22

What are the two Tests for Inhibitors (Rescorla)?

Back 22

Inhibitors must pass BOTHthe retardation and summation tests

Front 23

What is the Retardation Test?

Back 23

**How long does it take to make the inhibitor and excitatory stimulus with a neutral stimulus

**Passes it there is slower learning of inhibitor to excitatory than neutral to excitatory in same process (I < N)

Front 24

What is the Summation Test?

Back 24

**An inhibitor is presented with an excitatory; and compared to excitatory stimulus or excitatory stimulus, neutral pairing.

**The inhibitor passes if there is reduced learning of the I + E pair compared to both E and N + E separately.

Front 25

What are some possible explanations for Extinction?

Back 25

**Forgetting – (passive decay over time) doesn’t explain faster learning during re-acquisition and that Pavlovian condition can be maintained over long periods of time

**Unlearning – actively learning that there is no association between CS and US

****CS becomes ambiguous – as seen by the phenomenon: spontaneous recovery, renewal and reinstatement. (most likely)

Front 26

What is Spontaneous recovery?

Back 26

Reintroduce the CS after a ‘break’ in time; the CR reappears: CR is not completely removed, the CS becomes ambiguous (not sure if it predicts or not)

Front 27

What is Renewal effect?

Back 27

When extinction is context specific, then in a different context (such as the context acquisition took place) the presented CS can elicit CR

Front 28

What is Reinstatement?

Back 28

(Reminder effect) present US alone after extinction, then present CS and it yields CR
US alone can reinstate association of CS: CR

Front 29

What are the Hidden assumptions of classical conditioning?

Back 29

Equipotentiality

Contiguity

Contingency

Front 30

What is Equipotentiality ?

Back 30

Any stimulus can be paired with any response (false)

Front 31

What is Contiguity ?

Back 31

The more two stimuli are paired, the stronger the individual will associate them (false)

**Control and blocking groups had same pairing and the same number of trials but different strengths of association

Front 32

What is Contingency ?

Back 32

Conditioning changes trial to trial in a regular way (false)

**Pairing is not enough though

Front 33

What is CS preexposure (Latent Inhibition) ?

Back 33

Preexposure to the same CS that your about to be conditioned with retards learning (preexposure effect), but not if you present something else pre-acquisition

Front 34

What are some explanations for CS preexposure (Latent Inhibition) ?

Back 34

**Not purely habituation, since it’s not context specific; but CS preexposure is context specific (can preexpose in one room and acquire conditioning in another – context specific)

**Not a Conditioned Inhibitor, since it does not pass the summation test (E + conditioned I < E + latent inhibitor, therefore isn’t a conditioned inhibitor)

**But it does retard learning

Front 35

What is the Blocking effect?

Back 35

CS+ that predicts CR; pairing CS+ with X wont stimulate learning

**(nothing is learned about X because there is already an association between CS+ and CR, thus Blocking of X occurs)

Front 36

What is Super conditioning ?

Back 36

CS- that predicts the absence of CR; pairing of CS- with X stimulates rapid learning about the association between X and CR, since CS- predicts the absence of CR.

**(learning of X occurs, thus super conditioning)