PSYCH 320 Chapter 5

• The concept of acquired motivation is essential for understanding motivated behavior, as behavioral diversity often arises from motives acquired or altered during an organism's life.
• Chapter 5 discusses how motives are acquired
• Chapter 5 describes the contribution of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning to behavioral motivation.

Learning

• Learning is defined as a relatively stable change in behavior resulting from experience.
• Reflexes can be unconditioned or conditioned
• Conditioning is a systematic process that leads to the learning of associations and responses to particular stimuli.

Classical Conditioning: Unconditioned

• Classical conditioning involves pairing two stimuli together, leading to an association between them.
• Unconditioned Stimulus (US) is a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without prior learning which could be meat powder or food.
• Unconditioned Response (UR) is an automatic reaction to an unconditioned stimulus.

Classical Conditioning: Neutral

• Neutral Stimulus (NS) is a stimulus that, before conditioning, doesn't elicit a specific response.

Classical Conditioning: Conditioned

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) is a previously neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a conditioned response.
• Conditioned Response (CR) is a learned response to a conditioned stimulus, occurring after the CS has been paired with the US.

Classical Conditioning Process

• Acquisition is the initial stage of learning where an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus is formed.
• Contingency Theory suggests that the stronger the predictive relationship between the CS and US, the stronger the conditioning.
• Generalization occurs when stimuli similar to the original CS also elicit the CR.
• John B. Watson's study with Little Albert demonstrated stimulus generalization in classical conditioning.
• Discrimination involves responding only to certain stimuli and not to others.

Experimental Neurosis

• Experimental neurosis happens when subjects, like dogs, struggle to differentiate between increasingly tricky stimuli, leading to neurotic behavior.
• Experimental neurosis can cause restlessness, attacking of equipment, and hesitation in entering the testing area.
• Sheep under experimental neurosis show fast, irregular heartbeats during sleep, heightened sensitivity to stimuli, and increased reactivity.

Little Albert

• Classical conditioning was used to condition fear in Little Albert, associating a rat (CS) with a loud noise (UCS) resulting in distress (UCR).

Extinction

• Extinction is the process that leads to the elimination of learned behaviors.
• Extinction occurs by repeatedly presenting the CS without the UCS.
• Counterconditioning involves presenting a negative CS alongside a strongly positive UCS.
• Systematic Desensitization (Joseph Wolpe)
  • A therapeutic technique used to gradually reduce fear or anxiety responses by exposing the individual to increasingly anxiety-provoking stimuli while practicing relaxation techniques.

Interoceptive Conditioning

• Interoceptive conditioning is classical conditioning applied to the internal organs.
• Interoceptive conditioning is usually unaware and cannot often be avoided.
• Interoceptive conditioning is more permanent and important for psychosomatic medicine

Interoceptive Conditioning Types

• Intero-exteroceptive conditioning - CS internal, UCS external, such as a female dog with a rubber balloon in her uterus, CS = cool water irrigated into balloon, UCS = food
• Intero-interoceptive conditioning - CS and UCS are internal, such as loops formed in the dogs' intestines to create distention, distention as the CS, and carbon dioxide in the lungs as the UCS.
• Extero-interoceptive conditioning - CS is external, UCS is internal, such as balloon inserted into a human's bladder while looking at a gauge

Learned Aversions

• Taste aversion, studied by Garcia et al. (1966a & 1966b), is a form of learning where an organism avoids a specific taste after it has been associated with illness or unpleasant experience.
• Taste aversion is also known as long-delay learning.

Learned Awareness in Cancer Patients

• Cancer patients may develop learned aversions to food due to the association with chemotherapy side effects.

Biological Constraints

• Prepared associations refer to associations that are easily and quickly learned.
• Contraprepared associations refer to associations that are impossible to learn.
• Unprepared associations are associations that can be learned, but with more difficulty.
• Preparedness hypothesis suggests that different species will have different associations because of evolution.

Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning is a type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences.

Law Of Effect

• Thorndike's Law of Effect states that responses followed by satisfying consequences are strengthened, while those followed by dissatisfying consequences are weakened.

Operant Conditioning Components

• Antecedent (Discriminative Stimulus) refers to the environmental conditions or stimuli that precede a behavior.
• Behavior refers to the action or response that an organism performs.
• Consequence refers to the events that follow a behavior, influencing the likelihood of its recurrence.
• A:B→C is a symbolic representation of the relationship between antecedent, behavior, and consequence in operant conditioning.

Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement

• Contingencies in operant conditioning involve an "If... then..." relationship between a behavior and its consequences.
• Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior.
• Positive reinforcement works by adding pleasant stimuli to increase behavior.
• Negative reinforcement works by removing unpleasant stimuli to increase behavior.
• Primary reinforcers have survival value.
• Secondary reinforcers have no intrinsic value.

Operant Conditioning: Punishment

• Punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior.
• Positive punishment - Adding unpleasant stimuli to decrease behavior.
• Negative punishment - Removing pleasant stimuli to decrease behavior.
• Primary punishment is naturally aversive or painful.
• Secondary punishment takes on punishing qualities through association.
• Concern about Learned Helplessness is a state of passivity that develops when an individual believes that their actions have no effect on the environment.

Analyzing Operant Conditioning

• Key questions in analyzing operant conditioning:
  • What behavior changed?
  • Was the behavior increased or decreased?
  • What was the consequence of the behavior?
  • Did the consequence add or remove something?

Operant Conditioning: Shaping

• Shaping is a technique used in operant conditioning.
• Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations of desired behavior.
• Shaping involves shaping specific behaviors and then chaining them together.