Final Review - Day 3

Front 1

Pavlovian Conditioning - Def, essential elements

Back 1

Def

1) also known as classical conditioning, or respondent cond (archaic)

2) a pervasive and non-conscious form of learning in which an initially neutral stimulus is paired w/ another stimulus that is capable of eliciting a reflexive response, until eventually the previously neutral stimulus b/c capable of eliciting a response on its own

~the individual learns that a particular stimulus or stimuli predict the occurrence of another sig stimulus or event

Essential elements

1) the stimulus that elicits a reflexive response b/f training is call the unconditioned stimulus (US) - meat powder

2) the response elicited by the US is called the unconditioned response (UR) - salivation

3) the stimulus paired w/ the US (meat powder) is called the conditioned stimulus (CS) - bell

4) the response eventually elicited by the CS is called the conditioned response (CR) - salivation to the bell (CS)

Front 2

Pavlovian Conditioning - Characteristics, Application

Back 2

Chara

1) when the CS (bell) reliably precedes the US (meat powder), the procedure is called Forward Conditioning

~Forward Cond is the most effective type of Pavlovian cond

2) when the CS (bell) overlaps in time w/ the US (meat), it is called delay cond, a type of forward cond

~delay cond is the most effective type of forward cond

3) when there is an interval btw offset of the CS (bell) and onset of US (meat), it is called trace cond, a type of forward cond

~trace cond is typically less eff than delay cond

4) when the CS (bell) follows the US (meat), it is called backward cond

~backward cond is usually ineffective (no CR - salivation - develops)

Appl

1) The CR (salivation) can either resemble the UR (salivation - most common), or it can be the opp of the UR (called compensatory CRs - exp: dry mouth, nausea?/aversion to hunger?) - exp: aversion to alcohol after aversion tx)

2) Pavlovian cond is pervasive and has clinical appl to such cond as phobias and anxiety disorders

3) secondary reinforcer: once paired w/ a reinforcing US (meat), a CS (bell) could b/c reinforcing by itself

~exp: the bell (CS) is paired w/ meat (US) & b/c a reinforcing stimulus w/out the presence of the meat

Front 3

Backward Chaining - Def, Appl

Back 3

Def

1) an operant learning technique in which a series of responses is broken down into its components

2) the ind is trained on the final comp first, the penultimate and final comps are then comb; thereafter, the ante-penultimate comp is added; and so on, until the whole series of responses is mastered

Appl

1) used to train complex series of responses

2) primary reinforcement is provided whenever the final response in the sequence is performed

3) during each progression, the mastered components serve as conditioned reinforcers that support the learning of the added component

4) it is effective b/c it allows the ind to see the completed goal prior to compl of the task

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_IyEqUxvnM

Front 4

Stimulus Discrimination

Back 4

1) a term that is used in both classical and operant cond

2) refers to an ind's ability to respond diff to diff stimuli or when in diff situations

3) a cue or contextual feature that signals whether reinforcement is available for a particular operant beh is referred to as a discriminative stimulus

4) the opp of stimulus disc is stimulus gen

5) the greater the diff btw two stimuli or situations, the more likely that stim disc will occur

6) the greater the similarity btw two stimuli or sits, the more likely that stim gen will occur

Front 5

Stimulus Generalization

Back 5

1) a term used in both classical and operant cond

2) in classical cond, it occurs when other similar stim (buzz, ding) elicit the same cond response (CR - salivation) as a conditioned stimulus (CS - bell)

3) in operant cond, it is demonstrated when an ind fails to differentiate btw cues or contexts and responds in the same way regardless of whether the present cues or context signal that the response will be reinforced

4) PTSD invl a prob w/ stimulus gen, as ppl diag w/ PTSD may show fear for many types of similar stimuli (door slam / loud noise & gun shot/explosion)

5) mediated generalization is a term given to instances where a response is elicited by stimuli that are not physically similar to the CS (bell) and not previously encountered in cond

~For example, a person conditioned to feel anxious on hearing a bell may also become anxious on hearing the word bell.

Front 6

Extinction - Def, Extinction Burst

Back 6

Def

1) used in both operant and classical cond

2) occurs when the rate of a previously reinforced behavior decreases following the discontinuation of reinforcement

3) the decr or discon of beh is not always permanent, and the beh can recover spontaneously w/ the passage of time (spontaneous recovery)

Extinction burst

1) occasional bursts of beh, called extinction bursts, can occur during the extinction process, even if the overall freq of the beh is decreasing

2) b/c EBs may occur, alternative to extinction should be used to eliminate certain behs when the occurrence of those behs cannot be tolerated

Front 7

Extinction - Procedures, Spontaneous recovery, Cue deflation, Response cost

Back 7

Procedures - extinction procedures must be employed consistently in order to effectively reduce the target beh, and even occasional reinforcement can reinstate beh to pre-extinction levels, and incr resistance to further extinction

Spon recovery - a beh that has gone thru the extinction process and then reappears due to nothing more than the passage of time

Cue deflation - when a compound stimulus controls beh, extinction to one element of the compound can incr response to the other element thru a process called cue deflation

Response cost

1) not to be confused w/ extinction

2) negative punishment (something taken away to stop a beh)

3) no direct assoc btw the reward or stimulus perpetuating the negative beh and the desired item being taken away to stop the neg beh

Front 8

Little Albert Experiment - def, key elements

Back 8

Def - a Pavlovian cond experiment conducted by John Watson, in which he repeatedly presented a child w/ a white lab rat, followed by a loud and frightening noise, until the child was cond to fear white lab rats and other objects that resemble them

Key elements

1) the loud noise was the cond stimulus (CS)

2) fear, as indicated by crying, was the uncond response (UR) to the noise

3) the white lab rate was the cond stim (CS)

4) fear, as indicated by crying or avoidance, was the cond response (CR)

Front 9

Little Albert Experiment - sig

Back 9

1) ethically questionable

2) an exp of the mechanisms that underlie the acquisition of Phobias in humans

3) demonstrated stimulus gen in Pavlovian fear cond

Front 10

Higher order cond (2nd order cond)

Back 10

Higher order cond

1) first dev by Pavlov

2) a classical cond phenom w/ no counterpart in operant cond

3) classical (pavlovian) cond: an NS (neutral stim - bell) is paired w/ a US (uncond stim - meat) until the former b/c a CS (cond stim - bell), evoking a cond response (CR - salivation)

4) higher order cond: after classical cond has taken place, another NS (exp: green light) is paired w/ a CS (bell) until is also becomes a CS capable of evoking a CR (salivation)

5) exp: a green light (NS) is paired w/ a bell (CS) until the green light also elicits salivation, hence becoming a higher-order (or second order) CS

6) the first CS (bell) evokes stronger response (CR) than the 2nd CS (light) does (hence, it can be described as higher-order)

7) the process can continue indefinitely, turning several neutral stimulus into cond stimuli (CS) capable of eliciting a CR

8) higher-order cond is an imp mechanism thru which stimuli acquire incentive value, b/c something for which an ind is willing to work

Front 11

Taste aversion - def, origins, exp

Back 11

Def

1) also known as cond taste aversion, it is a type of classical cond that occurs when the taste of a relatively unfamiliar food is assoc w/ gastro discomfort or illness, leading to an enduring aversion to that part taste

Origins - first demonstrated in rats by John Garcia

Example - Garcia fed rats saccharin-flavored water followed by apomorphine, which causes nausea; other rats received saline solution rather than apomorphine. Days after nausea had dissipated, the rats that had received apomorphine would drink very little saccharin water, whereas those that had received saline displayed the opp pattern

Front 12

Taste aversion - Characteristics, Application

Back 12

Chara

1) occurs in may species, incl humans

2) a unique classical cond phenom b/c

a) it can occur in few trials or a single trial

b) effective intervals btw CS and US can be very long (i.e. hours)

c) it is highly resistant to extinction

Appl

1) taste aversion often occurs in oncology patients undergoing chemo or radiation, as both tx cause nausea

2) the patient can be provided w/ novel-tasting food (e.g. licorice-flavored ice cream) to prevent assoc btw nausea and more desirable foods

Front 13

Rescorla-Wagner model - formula, origin, appl

Back 13

Formula

1) a mathematical account of how assoc strength grows during Pavlovian conditioning

2) delta Vn = K(lambda - Vn-1)

a) V = associative strength (level of knowledge about the CS-US rel)

b) n = the conditioning trial number

c) delta = change (the measure of learning)

d) K reflects salience of the CS and US; can vary btw 0-1

Origin

1) 1970s

2) formulated to explain conditioning phenom that cannot be explained by CS-US contiguity

Appl

1) explains why typical learning curves for P cond are gradual and negatively decelerating

2) explains why cond is faster w/ stimuli that are more salient (i.e. overshadowing)

3) explains why cond occurs to the one w/ the strongest predictive validity (i.e. contingency) when 2 or more stimuli predict a US

4) explains why conditioning will not occur to another CS that provides redundant info (i.e. blocking) if the US is already predicted by one CS