4 - Classical conditioning

Question 1

Name the basic conditioning phenomena.

Answer 1

acquisition; extinction; stimulus generalization and
discrimination; context fear generalization and discrimination;
phobias

Question 2

What is acquisition?

Answer 2

• The process of developing (acquiring) and strengthening a conditioned response through repeated pairings of NS with US
• It proceeds rapidly during early conditioning trials, then gradually levels off

Question 3

What are the factors influencing the speed of acquisition?

Answer 3

1) Intensity of the US
→ More intense US produce stronger and more rapid conditioning than less intense US
→ Example: when the US consists of a large amount of food or a highly preferred food, conditioning is stronger (more salivation)
2) Intensity of the NS
→ Similarly, a stronger NS will produce stronger conditioning
→ Example: when the NS consists of a louder metronome (paired with food), conditioning is stronger (amount of salivation)

Question 4

What is the asymptote of conditioning?

Answer 4

The maximum level of conditioning possible

Question 5

True or false: Aversive conditioning tends to be acquired rapidly.

Answer 5

True: Often only requires a single trial
→ i.e. Context Fear Conditioning: if given a shock (US) while in a certain box (NS), the animal will quickly learn to fear that box (CS)

Question 6

What is extinction?

Answer 6

• Extinction is the weakening or elimination of a CR when the CS is repeatedly presented in the absence of the US
  → p.ex: if we keep presenting the metronome without the food
• Extinction is not simply a process of unlearning the conditioning
  → Extinction involves learning something new about the CS
• New conditioning inhibits the occurrence of the CR in the presence of the CS
• The term extinction also applies to the procedure whereby repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus can also happen

Question 7

Give an example of extinction

Answer 7

• In the metronome (NS) example, let’s say it has been paired with food (US), such that it now elicits an UR of salivation
  → once this pairing has happened, the metronome is no longer a NS, it is now a CS, and now the salivation is a CR
  → if we now continue to present the metronome by itself, the CR of salivation will eventually die out
  → once the metronome is completely extinguished, it becomes a NS again

Question 8

What happens to the CR after extinction?

Answer 8

• The CR decreases in strength
• It has not been completely eliminated
  → you can get to a point where the dog doesn’t salivate when he sees the metronome, BUT, the memory of the pairing is still present (trace memory)
• The CR can be reacquired quite rapidly when the CS (or ‘NS’) is again paired with the US
  → the ‘NS’ is no longer a pure neutral stimulus
  → Example: pair the metronome with food following an extinction procedure will take less time than it did initially
• The extinction does not completely eliminate the effect of conditioning
  → because of the trace memory, it can come back even following the extinction

Question 9

What is spontaneous recovery and when does it occur?

Answer 9

• The reappearance of a CR following a rest period after extinction
• An extinguished response can reappear even in the absence of further pairings between the CS and US
• This recovery doesn’t last forever; Each time the response recovers it is somewhat weaker and is extinguished more quickly than before
• Especially pertinent when trying to extinguish a fear conditioned response
  → several sessions will be needed to entirely extinguish it
  → p.ex: being anxious at the beginning of a date, then getting comfortable but at the next date still feeling anxious at the beginning; it’ll take some time to feel entirely comfortable from the get-go

Question 10

What is disinhibition?

Answer 10

• Support for the notion that extinction involves a buildup of inhibition is also provided by a phenomenon known as disinhibition
• Disinhibition is the sudden recovery of a response during an extinction procedure when a novel stimulus is introduced
  → p.ex: when you get more comfortable with class presentations, the anxiety might come back when someone comes in late in class because of the shift in environment
  –> p.ex: following repeated presentations of the metronome once it was conditioned, the salivation weakens, but once we introduce a novel humming noise, the salivation returns in strength

Question 11

What is stimulus generalization?

Answer 11

• The tendency for a CR to occur in the presence of a stimulus that is similar to the CS
• The more similar the stimulus is to the original CS, the stronger the response
• It is an important evolutionary adaptation
  → Example: If we learn to fear a poisonous spider, it is far more adaptive to learn to fear other spiders as well, particularly those spiders that look similar to the one that bit us
• Generalization can increase over time
  → p.ex: after being bitten by a dog, a child will fear other types of dogs as well, and the child is particularly likely to more fear dogs similar to the original one

Question 12

What is stimulus discrimination?

Answer 12

• The opposite of generalization
• The tendency for a response to be elicited more by one stimulus than another
• This can be deliberately trained through discrimination training
  → being able to find differences in the spectrum of the same stimulus

Question 13

Will rats generalize or discriminate in recent fear memories and in older fear memories?

Answer 13

• For recent fear memories (1 day), rats will discriminate between contexts
  → They will freeze in Context-A (previously paired with shock), but not in Context-B (never paired with shock)
• For older fear memories (1 month), rats will generalize (not discriminate) between contexts
  → because rats’ long-term memory storage isn’t as expansive as that of humans
  → They will freeze in Context-A (previously paired with shock), and in Context-B (never paired with shock)

Question 14

How does conditioning explain the development of phobias?

Answer 14

• Not only the classical conditioning of a fear response, but also the overgeneralization of a fear response to inappropriate stimuli
• Overgeneralization of a fear response to a CS can lead to the developments of a phobic response

Question 15

What are the 3 phases of classical conditioning?

Answer 15

Phase 1: Before conditioning has occurred
- US (meat) -> UR (salivation)
- NS (tone) -> Orientating response
Phase 2: The process of conditioning
- NS (tone) followed by US (meat) -> UR (salivation)
Phase 3: After conditioning has occurred
- CS (tone) -> CR (salivation)

Question 16

What are the 2 extensions of classical conditioning?

Answer 16

• Higher-order conditioning
• Sensory preconditioning

Question 17

What is higher-order conditioning? Give an example using wasps and trash bin.

Answer 17

• A stimulus that is associated with a CS can also become a CS
  → Thus, the trash bin could very well come to elicit a fear response through its association with the wasps (after having been stung by a wasp)
  Step 1: First-order conditioning
• Wasp (NS1) + Sting (US) = Fear (UR)
• Wasp (CS1) = Fear (CR)
  Step 2: Higher-order conditioning
• Trash bin (NS2) + Wasp (CS1) = Fear (CR)
• Trash bin (CS2) = Fear (CR)

Question 18

What is sensory preconditioning? Give an example using toolshed and wasps.

Answer 18

• When one stimulus is conditioned as a CS, another stimulus it was previously associated with can also become a CS
  Step 1: Preconditioning phase in which the toolshed is associated with wasps
• Toolshed (NS2) = Wasps (NS1)
  Step 2: Conditioning of wasps as CS1
• Wasp (NS1) + Sting (US) = Fear (UR)
• Wasp (CS1) = Fear (CR)
  Step 3: Presentation of the toolshed
• Toolshed (CS2) = Fear (CR)

Question 19

When is sensory preconditioning more effective?

Answer 19

The procedure is sometimes more effective when the two stimuli in the preconditioning phase are presented simultaneously as opposed to sequentially

Question 20

What are the specificities in classical conditioning?

Answer 20

Overshadowing; Blocking; Occasion setting; Latent inhibition

Question 21

What is a compound stimulus?

Answer 21

• Compound stimulus: consists of the simultaneous presentation of 2 or more individual stimuli
  → p.ex: the sound of a metronome, and at the same time present the light

Question 22

What is overshadowing?

Answer 22

• The most salient member of a compound stimulus is more readily conditioned as a CS and thereby interferes with the conditioning of the least salient member
  → in the wasp example, you’re more likely to develop a conditioned fear response to the most distinctive stimuli (salient stimuli) associated with that event, such as the sight of the wasp, or perhaps the buzzing sound that it makes
  → it makes more sense to develop a fear of stimuli that are most salient (that stand out) at the time of being stung, such as the sight of the wasp
• You have a higher chance of encoding a memory when the stimulus is closer to you
  → the elements of the environment that are further out are thus subject to memory decay

Question 23

Give an example of how a compound stimulus can interfere with the conditioning of a metronome with food.

Answer 23

• Pairing a compound stimulus (bright light) and a faint sounding metronome
  → due to the presence of the bright light during the conditioning trial, no conditioning occured to the faint metronome
  → this is not because the metronome is unnoticeable (it could’ve become a CS if paired with only the food), but in the presence of a more salient stimulus (smt that stands out more and grabs the attention, in this case the bright light), it gets drowned out and the salient stimulus elicits the response

Question 24

What is blocking?

Answer 24

• In blocking the presence of an established CS interferes with the conditioning of a new CS
• Blocking is similar to overshadowing, except that the compound consists of a neutral stimulus and a CS rather than two neutral stimuli that differ in salience
  → p.ex: if a manager has to fire an employee, they will use this principle to make a joint announcement with another manager who is already disliked by others, or who is unknown and thus neutral
  → the employees will attribute this bad news to the already disliked or neutral person

Question 25

What is latent inhibition?

Answer 25

- A familiar stimulus is more difficult to condition as a CS than an unfamiliar (novel) stimulus → anything that is new allows you to orient your attention → p.ex: if you present the metronome on its own 40 times, then try to pair it with food, it will not pair because of habituation - Latent inhibition prevents the development of conditioned associations to redundant stimuli in the environment

Question 26

What is habituation in the context of latent inhibition?

Answer 26

- Habituation prevents the occurrence of unlearned reflexive responses to redundant stimuli -> latent inhibition prevents the development of conditioned responses to redundant stimuli that are coincidentally paired with a US

Question 27

True or false: Latent inhibition is utilized when trying to reform memories.

Answer 27

True: if you were to intake everything at all times, your brain would overload → so the ability to disregard information from memory by preventing associative learning of certain stimuli is thought to prevent information overload → inhibit formation of memory = prevent information overload → integral part of the observation/learning process

Question 28

True or false: People with psychosis have a very strong ability of latent inhibition.

Answer 28

False: most people are able to shut out the constant stream of information and focus on the salient stimuli → it’s theorized that a low level of latent inhibition can cause psychosis or a high level of creativity