Psychology Term II February 7, 1990

Remember:

Conditioned = Learned

Unconditioned = unlearned

E.G. foot steps/ giving dog food/ salivation

Neutral Stimulus(NS) - a stimulus which does not evoke a specific behaviourial response / Initial steps.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) - a stimulus which causes a response without need for a prior experience / Food.

Unconditioned Response (UR) - a response to a stimulus which is not conditional upon previous experience / salivation to food

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - a stimulus which causes a response as a result of previous association with a UCS/ footsteps which produce salivation.

Conditional Response(CR) - a response to stimulus / salivation to footsteps.

1. More frequent pairing of NS & UCS the stronger the CR becomes.

2. (NS) immediately before UCS - faster learning

3. NS paired after UCS - no learning

4. Extinction - Acquisition (CS & UCS) then CS alone

4. Spontaneous recovery

Application of Classical conditioning

Cigarette Cessation treatment

Alcohol treatment

Enuresis - bed-wetting

Rearing Children

5. Biological constraints

Garcia's (1966) Experiments on Prepared, unprepared, contraprepared "Learning Processes enable animals to adapt to their environment"

(5) Biological Constraint

- Taste aversion

e.g. drink to much tequila one knight and you never want to drink it again.

 

6. Discrimination & Generalization

e.g. Girl or Pavlov walking up stairs.

Pavlov yes \ Discrimination

girl no /

Pavlov yes \

girl yes / generalization

Watson: experiment where you can teach a baby to be scared of certain things.

Scare baby when baby with Little Albert (teddy bunny)

Baby develops phobia when it sees Little Albert

Association with elevator and height = fear

must teach patient to link elevator and height to relaxation

fear and relaxation are opposites.

subject must master the art of relaxation

small increments of exposing subject to height

After multiple exposers of staying relaxed

Cigar Cessation treatment

make person sick of cigars

Operant Conditioning

(Instrumental Learning)

(Respondent conditioning)

Reinforcement - B.F. Skinner

(Skinner Box)

Positive reinforcement - something good that is given to that animal that will increase the chance that the animal will do it again

Successive approximation ( Shaping_

Negative reinforcement - Negative reinforcement: also increase the likely hood that the subject will do something again

- reduce negative drive state

Example of positive drive state would be

Animal is in a cage and when the animal hits lever the animal is give food

Example of a negative drive state would be

Animal is being continually shocked, when the animal presses the lever the shocking stops

Punishment the application of negative reinforcement

is punishment stronger than negative reinforcement

Schedules of Reinforcement

Continuous reinforcement: Animal behavior is rewarded every time the desired behavior is achieved

Fixed ration: is after a defined # of behaviours the animals behavior is reinforced

Variable ratio: after undefined # of correct behaviours the animal's behavior is reinforced

Variable interval: randomly after a period of time the animal is reinforced

Fixed interval after fixed elapsed time period the animal is reinforced for the behavior

 

Best for acquisition

-constant reinforcement continuous reinforcement

 

Best for quick extinction

- continuous then take away

 

Best for long term learning

- variable learning

- schedule of reinforcement

 

- needs no learning, like unconditioned stimulus

example. food, sex, water, and more sex

- you have to learn

example 1000$ bucks or a car

- beware, leads to avoidance of punishment, leads to classical conditioning

- affective use of punishment

Learned helplessness ( Martin Seligman)