Respondent Conditioning

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Unit 3

• Respondent Conditioning

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Phylogenic Behavior

• Kinesis- relation between a stimulus and speed of
  movement irrespective of direction
• Wood louse
• Taxis relation between stimulus and movement
  away from the stimulus
• Positive/negative phototaxis thermotaxis
• Fixed action patters Sequence of behavior
  movements that are phylogenetic
• Spider greylag goose squirrel
• Reaction chains Each response requires a
  stimulus to set it off
• Nursing reaction

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Reflexive Behavior

• A reflex is an unlearned (innate, inherited,
  inborn) functional relation between a specific
  type of stimulus (S) and a specific response (R)
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UR)
• Unconditioned Response

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Reflexive Behavior
Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned Response
Loud sound or touch to cornea Eye blink (lid closes)
Tactile stimulation under lid or chemical irritant (smoke) Lachrymal gland secretion (eyes watering)
Irritation to nasal mucosa Sneezing
Irritation to throat Coughing
Low temperature Shivering, surface vasoconstriction
High temperature Sweating, surface vasodilation
Loud sound Contraction of tensor tympani and stapedius muscles (reduces amplitude of ear drum)
Food or weak acid solution in mouth Salivation
Indigestible food in stomach Vomiting
Pain stimulus to hand or foot Hand or food withdrawal
Stimulus that is either painful or very intense or very unusual Activation syndrome heart rate increases, adrenaline secretion, liver release of sugar into bloodstream, constriction of visceral blood vessels, dilation of blood vessels in skeletal muscles, galvanic skin response, pupilary dilation, etc.
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Laws of Reflex

• Law of threshold there is a point in which no
  response is elicited and above which a response
  always occurs
• Law of intensity-magnitude as the intensity of
  the US increases so does the magnitude of the
  elicited UR
• Law of latency as the intensity of the US
  increases, the latency to the appearance of the
  elicited UR decreases

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Habituation

• Unconditioned stimulus repeatedly elicits an UR
  and the response gradually declines in magnitude
• E.g., startle response

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Respondent Conditioning

• If one presents a neutral stimulus and then a
  second or so later presents an unconditioned
  stimulus (US) for a reflex response, the neutral
  stimulus when later presented alone may elicit a
  type of response similar to the response elicited
  by the US.

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Respondent Conditioning

• The once neutral stimulus is called conditioned
  stimulus (CS)
• The response elicited by the US is called an
  unconditioned response (UR)
• The similar response elicited by the CS is called
  conditioned response (CR)

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Respondent Conditioning

• Insulin production
• 1. Sugar insulin production
• 2. Sweet taste Sugar insulin production
• 3. Sweet taste insulin production

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Respondent Conditioning

• Could you teach a rat to press a lever using
  respondent conditioning?

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Respondent Extinction

• Repeatedly presenting the CS in the absence of
  the US
• Tone ? Food
• Tone ? Food
• Procedure what you do
• Process - outcome

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Spontaneous Recovery

• Increase in the conditioned response after
  respondent extinction has occurred.
• Why does it happen?

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Generalization Vs. Discrimination

• Generalization occurs when organism shows a
  conditioned response to values of the CS that
  were never trained during acquisition
• Original CS 375Hz
• Tested 75-675 Hz
• Discrimination occurs when an organism shows a
  conditioned response to one stimulus but not
  other similar ones

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Temporal Contiguity

• Delayed CS a few seconds before US
• Simultaneous CS at same time as US
• Trace CS comes and goes off before US
• Backward US comes and goes off before CS

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Compound Stimuli

• Overshadowing during original conditioning
• Blocking after original conditioning
• Sensory preconditioning before original
  conditioning

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Conditioned Suppression

• Changes in operant behavior may be due to
  incompatible conditioned emotional responses
  (p.69)