Elicited Behavior and Classical Conditioning

1. Elicited Behavior and Classical Conditioning Chapter 3 Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

2. For 2 days, Greg has resisted his urge to smoke. Having attempted to quit on more occasions than he can count, he's determined not to let his extreme nervousness and irritability keep him from succeeding this time. His family tries to distract his thoughts from cigarettes, but these attempts work only temporarily. Anticipating tonight's televised championship football game helped him for a while, but even this cannot prevent his recurrent, intense impulses to smoke (hard to believe but it’s true). Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

3. Greg began smoking cigarettes when he was 15. All his friends smoked, so it seemed like the natural thing to do. At first, he did not like to smoke; it made him cough and sometimes feel slightly nauseated. Greg smoked only with his friends to feel part of the group, and he pretended to inhale. However, as the unpleasant effects began to disappear, he learned to inhale and began to smoke more. By the age of 18, Greg smoked two to three packs of cigarettes each .day. He never thought about stopping until he met Paula. A nonsmoker, she tried to convince him to quit. Finding himself unable to break his habit, he simply did not smoke while with Paula. After they married, Paula continued to plead with Greg to stop smoking. He has tried every now and then over the past ten years to resist cigarettes, usually avoiding his habit for a day or two. This time had to be different. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

4. At age 35, Greg felt himself in perfect health, but a routine check-up with the family physician several days ago proved him wrong. Greg learned that his extremely high blood pressure made him a prime candidate for a heart attack. The doctor told Greg that he must lower his blood pressure through special diet, medication, and no smoking. Continued smoking would undoubtedly interfere with the other treatments. The threat of a heart attack frightened Greg; he had seen his father suffer the consequences of an attack several years ago. Determined now to quit, he only hopes he can endure his withdrawal symptoms. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

5. Phylogenetic Behavior • Behavioral relations based on genetic endowment. • Acquired on the basis of species history. • Repertoire of response evoked by environmental conditions Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

6. Elicited Behavior • Reflex – relatively simple, involuntary response to a stimulus. • Salivation • Eye blink • Startle response • Reflex Arc – neural structure that underlies many reflexes consisting of a sensory neuron, an interneuron and motor neuron. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

7. Reflexes • Reflex- stereotyped pattern of movement of a part of the body that can be reliably elicited by presenting the appropriate stimulus • Patellar reflex Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

8. Sequences of Behavior • Fixed action patterns • Sequences of behavior phylogenetic in origin. • All members of species (sex) engage in behavior (species-specific behavior). • Behavior evoked by sign stimuli or releasers. • Initiated sequence is repeated even if evoking stimulus is removed. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

9. Habituation • A decrease in the strength of an elicited behavior following repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus. • Decline in the tendency to respond to a stimulus once it has become “familiar” • Simplest form of learning • Advantage: provides constraints on what will cause alarm. • Low intensity stimulus ? • Stimulus-specific • Gradual changes • Drug effects (tolerance) • Dishabituation Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

10. Habituation Therapy of Tinnitus • Train the brain to classify tinnitus-related neuronal activity as representing a neutral, nonsignificant signal, then the process of habituation will occur automatically. To achieve this, it is necessary, however, to fulfill two basic conditions: • Removal of the negative association attached to tinnitus perception. • Preservation of tinnitus detection (but not necessary perception) during treatment. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

11. Sensitization • Increase in strength of an elicited behavior following repeated presentation of the eliciting stimulus. • High intensity stimulus? • Generalizes to other stimuli (PTSD). • Discrete changes • Drug effects Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

12. Emotion • Our common experience of emotions is that they are elicited by a stimulus, reach some peak, and then gradually return to baseline. • This gradual diminution of an emotion could be a form of habituation -- the emotion wanes because we "get used" to the situation (or, perhaps because the supply of neurotransmitter is exhausted). Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

13. Opponent Process Theory • Opponent process theory suggests that any given emotion also has an opposed emotion. • Activation of one member of the pair automatically activates the opposite emotion • The opposing emotion serves to diminish the intensity of the initial emotion. • Thus, the normally brief duration of intense emotions. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

14. Opponent Process Theory • Thus, opponent process theory is a variant of a homeostatic model -- input A (e.g. fear stimulus) triggers an action (process B; e.g. tranquility) which reduces the effect of the input. • The outcome of this process as applied to emotions is that no emotion is allowed to be intense for very long. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

15. Opponent Process theory • The theory of Solomon and Corbitt assumes two further characteristics of the opponent process -- it is strengthened with use and it is conditionable. • The implications of the strengthening process include the prediction that, with repeated evocation, the initial emotion should decrease in intensity. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

16. Opponent-Process Theory • Solomon and Corbit (1974) • The opponent-process theory states that when one emotion is experienced, the other is suppressed. For example, if you are frightened by a mean dog, the emotion of fear is expressed and relief is suppressed. If the fear-causing stimulus continues to be present, after a while the fear decreases and the relief intensifies. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

17. Opponent Process Theory Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

18. Opponent Process Theory • Problems with the theory: • what are the durations of the A and B process? • why isn’t there an opponent to the B process, etc. • how does the strengthening of the B process take place (what are the mechanisms) • does it apply to all emotions or peculiarly to strong negative emotions Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

19. Reflexive Behavior • Organisms are born with an array of responses that are elicited by specific stimuli. • These do not depend on an individual’s history and are thus “unconditioned.” • The stimuli are termed – unconditioned stimuli or US • The responses are termed – unconditioned responses or UR Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

20. Pavlov and Classical Conditioning • Ivan Pavlov was a physiologist who won a Nobel Prize for his research on digestion. • His original description of classical conditioning was a by-product of this research. He did not set out to discover classical conditioning. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

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23. Pavlov Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

24. Classical Conditioning • Pavlov noticed that the dogs he used to do his research salivated upon the sight of the lab workers who fed them. • He concluded that this reflex was “psychological” because it was based on the dog’s previous experiences. • Further testing demonstrated that the sight of food produced the same effect as giving the same amount of food to the dog. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

25. Classical Conditioning • Based upon his tentative acceptance of the salivation as a reflex, Pavlov used the term conditional reflex to describe this response. • The term was mistranslated into English as conditioned reflex, a mistake that helped create the terminology we use to describe classical conditioning. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

26. Classical Conditioning • Pavlov started with the unconditioned reflex of salivation to food. He hypothesized that that this was an automatic connection. • The dogs had an unconditioned reflex between food and secretion of digestive juices. • A buzzer is called a neutral stimulus because it elicits attention to the sound, but no automatic connection. • The dogs would lift their ears and look around when the buzzer sounded, but no salivation was produced. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

27. Classical Conditioning • He conjectured that animals develop new connections by transferring a response from one stimulus to another. • He hypothesized that if a buzzer always preceded the food, the buzzer would begin to elicit the reflex of salivation. • After a few pairings of the buzzer with the food, the dogs would begin to salivate as soon as the buzzer sounded. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

28. Figure With classical conditioning a conditioned stimulus is followed by an unconditioned stimulus. At first the conditioned stimulus elicits no response, and the unconditioned stimulus elicits the unconditioned response. After sufficient pairings the conditioned stimulus begins to elicit the conditioned response, which can resemble the unconditioned response. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

29. Classical Conditioning • Terminology • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)  An event that consistently and automatically elicits an unconditioned response. • Unconditioned Response (UCR)  An action that the unconditioned stimulus automatically elicits. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

30. Classical Conditioning • Terminology • Conditioned Stimulus (CS)  Formerly the neutral stimulus, having been paired with the unconditioned stimulus, elicits the same response. That response depends upon its consistent pairing with the UCR. • Conditioned Response (CR)  The response elicited by the conditioned stimulus due to the training. Usually it closely resembles the UCR. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

31. Classical Conditioning • Factors that enhance conditioning • Conditioning occurs more rapidly when the conditioned (neutral) stimulus is relatively unfamiliar. If you are already habituated to (used to) the neutral stimulus, it will take longer for its pairing with an unconditioned stimulus to form a connection for you. • Conditioning is facilitated when people are already aware of the connection between the CS and the UCS. When people are informed of the conditioning procedure prior to its beginning, they will be conditioned faster. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

32. Respondent Conditioning Transfer of behavior control from one stimulus to another or induction of control from one stimulus to another. (Salivation) (Food in mouth) (Light) (Salivation) Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

33. Laws of the Reflex • Law of threshold - stimulus intensity below which no response is elicited and above which a response always occurs. A stimulus intensity that elicits a response 50% of the time. • Law of intensity-magnitude – As the intensity of US increases the magnitude of the UR increases. • Law of latency – As the intensity of the US increases, the latency to the appearance of the evoked UR decreases. Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

34. Appetitive and Aversive Conditioning • Appetitive conditioning – US is an environmental event the organism will seek. • Aversive conditioning – US is an environmental event the organism will typically escape from or avoid. • Occurs more rapidly • CER – conditioned emotional response • Suppression ratio • An aversive US can become an appetitive CS and an appetitive US can become an aversive CS Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

35. Excitatory and Inhibitory Conditioning • Excitatory conditioning - NS is associated with presentation of US • Inhibitory conditioning – NS is associated with absence of US Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

36. Respondent Conditioning • Acquisition • Magnitude of CR increases over repeated pairings • Asymptote for CR • Asymptote for CR function of intensity of US • Extinction • Repeated presentation of CS only results in a decrement of CR Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

37. US (Food) CS (Light) Time Temporal Relationships Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

38. A) Delay C) Trace US US CS CS B) Simultaneous US CS Temporal Relations and Conditioning D) Backward US CS Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

39. Respondent Conditioning • Extinction • Spontaneous Recovery • Increase in CR after extinction after passage of time. • Internal inhibition (Pavlov blocking of CS-CR relationship) • CS-CR relationship weakened (Behavioral Analysis). Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

40. Generalization • CR occurs to values of CS not trained during acquisition. Salivation (in cc’s) Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

41. Discrimination • CR to one stimulus but not to other similar events. • Peak Shift Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

42. Second Order Conditioning • CS1 paired with US • CS2 paired with CS1 • Suppression ratio • Resp tone/resp no tone Dr. Steven I. Dworkin

43. Applications • Systematic Desensitization • Treatment of Drug Abuse Dr. Steven I. Dworkin