PSY402 Theories of Learning

1. PSY402Theories of Learning Chapter 9, Theories and Applications of Aversive Conditioning

2. More Drawbacks • Suppressive effects may generalize from an undesirable behavior to other desirable behaviors. • Punishment may not generalize to similar undesirable behaviors. • The person may not recognize the contingency between the behavior and the punishment.

3. Explaining Avoidance • The existence of avoidance behavior implies a cognitive process: • Behaving in order to prevent an aversive event. • Behaviorists like Hull needed to explain this without cognition. • Mowrer’s two-factor theory was developed to explain this – but it has problems needing explanation.

4. Mowrer’s Two-Factor Theory • Mowrer proposed a drive-based two-factor theory to avoid explaining avoidance using cognitive (mentalistic) concepts. • Avoidance involves two stages: • Fear is classically conditioned to the environmental conditions preceding an aversive event. • Cues evoke fear -- an instrumental response occurs to terminate the fear.

5. Mowrer’s View (Cont.) • We are not actually avoiding an event but escaping from a feared object (environmental cue). • Miller’s white/black chamber – rats escaped the feared white chamber, not avoided an anticipated shock. • Fear reduction rewards the escape behavior.

6. Criticisms of Two-Factory Theory • Avoidance behavior is extremely resistant to extinction. • Should extinguish with exposure to CS without UCS, but does not. • Levis & Boyd found that animals do not get sufficient exposure duration because their behavior prevents it. • Avoidance persists if long latency cues exist closer to the aversive event.

7. Is Fear Really Present? • When avoidance behavior is well-learned the animals don’t seem to be afraid. • An avoidance CS does not suppress operant responding (no fear). • However, this could mean that the animal’s hunger is stronger than the fear. • Strong fear (drive strength) is not needed if habit strength is large.

8. Avoidance without a CS • Sidman avoidance task – an avoidance response delays an aversive event for a period of time. • There is no external cue to when the aversive event will occur – just duration. Temporal conditioning. • How do animals learn to avoid shock without any external cues for the classical conditioning of fear?

9. Kamin’s Findings • Avoidance of the UCS, not just termination of the CS (and the fear) matters in avoidance learning. • Four conditions: • Response ends CS and prevents UCS. • Reponse ends CS but doesn’t stop UCS. • Response prevents UCS but CS stays. • CS and UCS, response does nothing (control condition).

10. D’Amato’s Acquired Motive View • D’Amato proposed that both pain and relief motivate avoidance. • Anticipatory pain & relief responses. • Shock elicits unconditioned pain response RP and stimulus SP motivates escape. • Classically conditioned cues sP elicit anticipatory pain response rP that motivates escape from the CS.

11. Anticipatory Relief Response • Termination of the UCS produces an unconditioned relief response RR with stimulus consequences SR. • Conditioned cues elicit an anticipatory relief response rR with stimulus consequences sR. • Example: dog bite elicits pain response, sight of dog elicits anticipatory pain, house elicits relief

12. A Discriminative Cue is Needed • During trace conditioning no cue is present when UCS occurs and no avoidance learning occurs. • A second cue presented during avoidance behavior slowly acquires rR-sR conditioning. • Similarly, in a Sidman task, cues predict relief -- associated with avoidance behavior, not the UCS.

13. Flooding (Response Prevention) • Flooding -- forcing a person to experience a feared stimulus until they realize no UCS will occur. • Also called response prevention. • Effectiveness increases with longer exposure to the feared stimulus. • Also used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder – suppresses obsessive behaviors and fear.

14. Thorndike’s Negative Law of Effect • Thorndike suggested that punishment weakens an S-R bond. • Skinner’s finding that suppression of behavior is temporary contradicts this. • The effect of punishment must be something different than weakening of the S-R bond.

15. Guthrie’s View of Punishment • When a punishment occurs, the response to it is conditioned to the environment during the event. • Freezing, jumping, flinching. • The effect on behavior depends on the UCR elicited by the shock. • Shock to forepaws inhibits running but a shock to hindpaws facilitates it. • Monkeys struggle more when shocked.

16. Guthrie’s Competing Response Theory • Guthrie suggested that punishment works only if the response elicited by the punishment is incompatible with the punished behavior. • Gerbils punished for standing upright do it more, not less.

17. Problems with Guthrie’s Theory • Response competition alone is insufficient to make punishment effective. • When punishment is contingent instead of just co-occurring, it is more effective. • Contingent means the punishment happens only when the behavior occurs, not independent of it, randomly

18. Este’s Motivational View • When a behavior is rewarded, the motivational system becomes associated with the behavior. • The response occurs the next time the motivational system is activated. • Punishment works by changing the motives. • Stimuli associated with punishment inhibit the motivational state.

19. Support for Estes • Thirsty rats were trained to lever press for water and “dry lick” for air on alternate days. • Punishment of both behaviors had a greater effect on dry licking (a thirst-related behavior) than lever pressing. • If the behavior rather than the motive were being suppressed no such difference should occur. • Results differed with hungry rats.

20. Applications of Punishment • Widespread use of punishment (e.g., spanking) probably does not serious harm. • Two applications: • Persistent vomiting decreased. • Tree-climbing behavior suppressed. • Use of such punishment may be preferable to ineffective methods.

21. Ethical Use of Punishment • Cruel and unusual punishments prohibited by 8th Amendment of US Constitution. • Rights of individual must be safeguarded. • APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists • Least restrictive alternative • Balance punisher pain against pain if the behavior is left untreated.