Preparedness

1
Preparedness

• Aims
• Know what is meant by preparedness, instinctive
  drift, equipotential
• Be able to contrast traditional learning with
  prepared learning
• Be capable of describing Garcia Koelling and
  Öhman's research
• Consider how to test the notion of preparedness
• Know what is meant by evolutionary memory, fear
  responses, adapative conservativism
• be able to evaluate factors that may contribute
  to phenomena observed with evolutionary memories
• Be capable of describing experiments on modelling
• Appreciate some of the limitations of
  preparedness as a concept.

2
Neurotic behaviour

• Maladaptive behaviours accompanied by strong,
  irrelevant and persistent emotions, occurring in
  full awareness of their maladaptive and
  irrational nature.
• Watson Raynor (1920) learning theory.
• Albert white rat. loud noise fear rat other
  furry.
• Watson's (CS) with the loud noise (UCS). furry
  object fear (CR).

3
Problems for traditional theories of learning

• Single trial learning -common with neurosis, not
  in lab.
• Time relations - strict in lab. Shown not to be
  important elsewhere.
• Equipotential of learning - doesn't exist.
  evidence of belongingness
• Extinction - is slow in neurosis
• Traumatic UCS not always present
• no memory of traumatic events causing the
  neurosis
• Pain may not be involved in neurosis
• Different neurosis have characteristic ages of
  onset
• Enhancement of CR when CS is presented alone can
  occur
• Replication - individual differences exist

4
Unprepared Learning

• It often takes many trials to accomplish an
  association (1).
• actual timing of the CS and UCS is important.
  (trace conditioning)(2)
• Hull, Rescorla Wagner all features of all the
  stimuli present on a conditioning trial are
  reinforced. equipotential to become associated.
  (3)
• If the CS is presented alone without the UCS then
  this is an occasion for extinction (l 0) and so
  the strength of the connection is diminished. (4)

5
Little Albert

• Little Albert a few acquisition trial not many.
• time relations
• of all the stimuli present at the time of the UCS
  only furry object conditioned to
• not phobic towards radiators, carpets or tables,
  but animals. belongingness
• phobic reaction extinguish?
• Seligman, Eysenck H, and Mineka

6
Prepared learning

• taste aversions,
• Garcia Koelling (1966)
• rats flavoured drinks light and click. then sick
  avoid the flavoured drink no association to the
  noise and lights.

7
Prepared learning
X-ray
shock

• Belongingness

8
Prepared learning
R1increase gsr
CS1 non fear CS2 fear
US1 shock

• acquisition very fast, time relations were
  unsatisfactory, extinction was very slow.

9
Preparedness

• Seligman biological constraints.
• some learning is easier (prepared) other
  (unprepared) and some difficult to ever achieve
  (contraprepared).
• partially determined by biological factors.
  evolutionary memory
• being sick with things that have been eaten and
  drunk
• dangerous predators information should be quickly
  gathered to learn
• Breland Breland (1961) contraprepared
  instinctive drift.

10
Fear Conditioning

• Öhman his colleagues accept the notion of
  preparedness. Phobias are misapplied prepared
  learning. sensible to be prepared to fear snakes
  and spiders
• phobias for animals occur at younger ages, when
  predators dangerous. a few people who couldn't
  remember a painful experience
• Öhman preparedness privileged processing of
  prepared stimuli (i.e.. automatic way, below
  conscious awareness, and are resistant to
  backward masking effects)

11
Fear related stimuli

• learning to fear related stimuli is different to
  the learning of other stimuli.
• fear related (snakes, spiders etc.) vs. not fear
  related (umbrellas, flowers).
• The pictures paired with shocks. measuring
  GSRlearning of the association was quicker for
  the fear related objects. presenting the CS
  alone, extinction should be slower for the fear
  Öhman found good support for slow extinction.

12
PY503 Minekas contribution

• Mineka relevant to recall of the episodes
• Failure to recall a painful incident.
• causes of preparedness.

Evolutionary memories and emotional processing
13
Learning through modelling

• Evolutionary Memories. acquiring phobias a
  special type of learning.
• controlling for differences in the size of the CR
  
• phylogenetic vs. ontogenetic processes in
  learning.
• captured monkeys snakes video'd fear reactions
• laboratory reared monkeys no fear to snakes.,
• videos of a calm or fearful monkey

Evolutionary memories and emotional processing
14
Learning through modelling

• Underneath monkey on a screen picture toy snake
  or flower.

Evolutionary memories and emotional processing
15
phylogenetic

• Initially equal toy snake or flower. Phylogenetic
  
• model fear with the snake long lasting
  effects prepared learning.
• learn through observation cf. having a bad
  experience
• animal vs. non animal crocodile vs. a rabbit.
• Evolutionary memories fear is based on
  prototypical fear early mammals and dominant
  reptilian (dinosaur) species.
• fear conditioned to crocodile pictures, not
  rabbits.

Evolutionary memories and emotional processing

• .

16
salience

• Do fear irrelevant stimuli have low salience.
• Used stim as cues for food rewards- evidence was
  generally that the stimuli were of equal
  salience.
• concludes snakes are selectively associable
  aversive outcomes.
• Are fear representation prototypes hard wired or
  do phobic animals share perceptual
  characteristics?

Evolutionary memories and emotional processing
17
Overgeneralisation of Fear

• Gradient flattening. Riccio et al. found that
  over time the gradient around CS flattens.

Evolutionary memories and emotional processing

• UCS specifics forgotten. Hendersen et al
• Disinhibitors soon forgotten.
• Fear extinction context specific. (Bouton et al.)

18
Adaptive conservatism and biases

• conservatism adaptive for aversive events.
• better to err on the side of caution even at the
  cost of resources (physical and emotional).
• Attentional bias stroop task show that spider
  phobics treat phobic words differently to non
  phobic words.
• Memory bias eg. poor recall of large spiders
  because material has not been adequately
  elaborated.
• Frequency overestimates.-gt overestimate the
  frequency of bad events relative to good.

Evolutionary memories and emotional processing
19
Preparedness as a concept

• definition is circular.
• What is preparedness?

propensity to learning fast because of biology

• no satisfactory way of defining what is
  biologically significant.
• It is possible to get quick acquisition and slow
  extinction if the parameters are set in a
  particular way even in Rescorla Wagner's
  formulation (e.g. make a and b 1 gives one
  trial learning, and adjusting the salience of the
  CS would affect the learning and extinction
  rate).

20
Preparedness - problems

• evolutionary memories or ontogenetic i.e. in the
  lifetime of the individual.
• e.g. Jacobs Nadel Sullivan visual properties of
  stimuli become associated with sickness rather
  than the olfactory aspects.
• McNally reviewed the research on preparedness no
  evidence that acquisition was faster, little
  evidence that there was a lack of rationality,
  plenty of evidence that extinction was slower,
  for prepared (fear related) .