Conditioning Concepts Quiz

Part 2 Recap

• Lecture 1 recap covered human and animal learning and behaviour.

• Behaviour is defined as any outward or inward response to a stimulus, including actions, speech/language, feelings, and thoughts, whether conscious or unconscious.

• Two main sources of behavioural change are evolution (nature) and learning (nurture).

• Darwin's Theory of Evolution

  • Populations can increase exponentially if resources are plentiful.
  • Resources are limited.
  • Competition for resources leads to a struggle amongst individuals.
  • There's variability in species due to genetic mutations or random chance.
  • Individuals with advantages for adaptation have a better chance of survival and reproduction.

• Learning is an enduring change in behaviour based on experience, potentially conscious or unconscious, associative or non-associative.

• Understanding the relationship between learning and behaviour allows for better prediction and modulation of behaviour. This functions alongside evolutionary adaptations.

• Evolution-dominant behaviours (like the reflex arc) involve a sequence of events from stimulus to response via sensory receptors, afferent pathways, integrating centers and effector organs.

• Reflexes are simple, single actions, while modal action patterns involve sequences of responses characteristic of a species (e.g., mating rituals).

• Repeated stimulation can lead to habituation (decline in responding) or sensitization (increase in responding), considered non-associative learning.

• Spontaneous recovery and dishabituation are concepts related to repeated stimulation.

• Dual-process theory suggests separate underlying processes that explain habituation and sensitization, not exclusive.

• The opposite effect to the main process is the opponent process (b). This process arises after the primary process.

• Opponent process theory explains how emotional responses change over time with repeated stimulus exposure.

• Opponent process theory is applicable to conditioned drug tolerance, a form of associative learning where stimulus cues pair with stimulus effects.

• Lecture 2 Recap focused on classical conditioning I.

  • Classical conditioning describes learning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response.
  • Neutral stimuli become conditioned stimuli (CS) after pairing with an unconditioned stimulus (US) that naturally elicits a response (UR). The resulting learned response is the conditioned response (CR).
  • Excitatory conditioning involves learning an association that occurrence of a stimulus predicts an outcome, for example a bell predicting there will be food.
  • Acquisition involves procedures like inter-stimulus interval (ISI) and inter-trial interval (ITI).
  • Different procedures for classical conditioning (e.g., delay, trace, long-delay).
  • Variables like magnitude, probability, and latency are used to measure conditioned responses (CRs).
  • Inhibitory conditioning (extinction) occurs when the conditioned stimulus (CS) predicts the absence of the outcome.
  • Multiple inhibitory conditioning paradigms include Pavlovian, differential, explicitly unpaired, inhibition of delay, and backward CI.
  • Methods like the retardation test and negative summation test are used to measure conditioned inhibition.
  • Various experimental conditioning paradigms exist, encompassing aversive and appetitive conditioning, eyeblink conditioning, sign and goal tracking, and conditioned taste aversion.

• Lecture 3 Recap focused on classical conditioning II.

• Contiguity, the temporal relationship between events, is critical for learning.

• Contingency (necessity) explores the relationship between stimuli and outcomes in different situations (presence/absence).

• Key concepts of overshadowing, blocking, latent inhibition, and US pre-exposure, are studied using controlled groups.

• The CS-US relevance/belongingness concept, proposed by Garcia and Koelling's experiment, highlights that learning associations between certain stimuli are more natural or biologically relevant.

  • For example, food is more naturally associated with sickness than visuals and noises.

• Higher-order conditioning is a form of learning; where an already conditioned stimulus (CS) is used as an unconditioned stimulus (US), thereby creating second-order stimuli.

• Sensory preconditioning examines the possibility of conditioning an association between two stimuli with initial training, which are not directly experienced.

• Occasion setting refers to the ability of an external event (occasion setter) influencing a learnt association or response.

• Stimulus control by contextual cues has been developed.

• The Bush-Mosteller model and Rescorla-Wagner model are often used in models of classical conditioning and instrumental learning, and their principles and shortcomings are explored in the notes.

• The Rescorla-Wagner model predicts various learning phenomena in classical conditioning, but it also presents some challenges with concepts such as spontaneous recovery, latent inhibition, and extinction.

• Interfering learning paradigms, such as Proactive and Retroactive Interferences are investigated to understand these issues.

• Renewal and reinstatement are concepts explored in regards to recovery from extinction learning.

• Learning factors in stimulus control

  • Experiences can influence the perceivable and identifiable qualities of complex stimuli and where the individual focuses their attention.
  • Peak-shift, learning aspects involved in discriminative stimulus control, are discussed.
  • Acquired equivalence generalises responses to other, similar stimuli.

• Lecture 9 looked at evaluative conditioning.

  • Evaluative conditioning is the acquisition of likes and dislikes.
  • It investigates the changes in the valence of a neutral stimulus based on pairing with an affective stimulus.

Other Content

• Specific types of learning paradigms, such as activity deficit and attention deficit hypotheses related to learned helplessness.
• Factors influencing punishment effectiveness including intensity, schedules of punishment (contingency), and presence of positive reinforcement.
• Concepts like discrimination, generalization, interference, and retrieval of memories are described.
• Explanation of the theories of punishment.