Respondent Conditioning

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Unit 2

• 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
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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)

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• Stimulus substitution model, the CS functions as
  a replacement for the US and elicits a similar
  response.
• Preparatory model, the CS elicits a response that
  physiologically prepares the organism for the
  effects of the US (opposite responses)