Pavlovian or Classical Conditioning Psychology 3306 Introduction l

Pavlovian or Classical Conditioning Psychology 3306

Introduction l l l Pavlov was working on digestion, the rest is history! Figured that lots of dogs’ behaviour may have involved this conditional redirection of reflexes Called the phenomenon ‘Conditional Reflexes’

Conditional? l l l Yes conditional Was mistranslated and ‘conditioned’!!! So that is where we get the term conditioning from

Key terms l Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS or US) l Biologically relevant stimulus, that without prior learning elicits an…. Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR) l Conditioned Stimulus (CS) l l Neutral stimulus that with many CS – US pairing elicits a l Conditioned Response (CR)

Cool conditioning stuff Seems that pretty much any reflex can be hooked up l Today we concentrate on a few different preparations l Human eyeblink (rabbits too) l CER (Conditioned emotional response) or suppression l SCR (Skin conductivity response) l Taste aversion or food aversion l

Early theoretical ideas Pavlov and stimulus substitution l US replaced by CS l However the CR is not always the same as the UR l l Sign tracking takes this idea into account actually l Weak, but intuitively pleasing

Perhaps physiology? Pavlov thought there were CS and US centres in the brain l Hmmm, don’t seem to be, though some responses are hooked up to specific brain regions l What is the connection though is it S – S or S – R? l

S-S and S-R US CS UR

If we could just get rid of that US – UR bond…. . US CS UR

Rescrola (1973) So, how do you get rid of a response that is hard wired to a stimulus? l Well, if you use CER, then your response is startle right? l How do you get rid of a startle reflex? l Habituation!! l (Bob is a smart man) l

Design Group Phase 1 Phase 2 Test Habituatio L -> N n Noise Light Control Nothing Light L -> N

Results Less suppression in Habituation group l (In other words, more responding) l Therefore, the connection MUST be S – S l WOW! l

Some important properties of Pavlovian conditioning Acquisition l Asymptote l Extinction l Spontaneous recovery l Disinhibition l Rapid Reacquisition l

Conditioned Inhibition l Summation Test l B+ l Al AB l Retardation Test l Al AB

Generalization So you will get a response (CR) to a given CS. l Just like with habituation, you will get generalization l Just like with habituation the less similar the new CS is to the original, the less CR you get l

Discrimination Sort of the opposite of Generalization l CS+ and CSl Animal responds (CR) to S+ not to Sl Discrimination gets too hard you get ‘neuroses’ l

Temporal Relationships Simultaneous conditioning l Short delay l Long delay l Trace conditioning l Backwards l l Again, contiguity alone does not do the trick, no surprise here

Correlation of events CS- CSCSCSold control group, animal learns what? CS + CSCS+ Rescorla Control CS- CS+ CS+ CS+ CS-

Conditional probability The animal basically compares p(US | CS) with p(US | no CS) l The greater the difference the greater the conditioning l Long term more than short term l Whole new take on learning l

Other paradigms Higher order conditioning l Sensory preconditioning l Outside the lab too! l l Daily life l Systematic desensitization l Aversive counterconditioning l Flooding