PSY 402

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PSY 402

• Theories of Learning
• Chapter 5 The Role of Conditioning in Behavior

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Is Conditioning Remembered?

• Henderson showed that rats remembered an
  associated CS and shock 60 days later.
• Over time, both the US and CS become more
  generalized, memory for the stimulus is fuzzy.
• Inhibition of fear is forgotten more quickly than
  excitatory conditioning.
• The inhibitor lost its ability to inhibit over
  time.
• Memory reactivation a reminder revives
  behavior, if given close to test time.

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5.1 Conditioned fear 1 day and 60 days after
conditioning
More licking is suppressed with greater shock
intensity
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5.2 Conditioned inhibition is forgotten over time
The inhibitor X has lost in inhibitory influence
after 35 days.
More inhibition
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5.3 Forgetting can be reduced by a reminder
The faster the rat runs out of the room, the more
memory
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Causes of Forgetting

• Trace decay the physical memory encoded in the
  brain decays, fades away.
• This seems plausible but is contradicted by
  memory reactivation, even years later.
• Interference learning new, conflicting
  information makes it difficult to retrieve
  previous learning.
• Retrieval failure the right cues are not there.

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Two Types of Interference

• Proactive interference material that is learned
  first interferes with what is learned later.
• Retroactive interference material that is
  learned later interferes with previously learned
  material.
• To decide whether it is proactive or retroactive,
  look at the subject of the test.

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Importance of Context

• The more similar the context between learning and
  retrieval, the more likely the material will be
  recalled.
• Rats trained to run from white to black
  compartment to avoid shock flashing light is CS
• Distinctive contextual cues were odor, size,
  lighting.
• Performance decreased when the room was changed.

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5.4 Forgetting also happens after a context
change
Faster running means more memory.
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Renewal Effects

• Changing the context during extinction has no
  impact on the rate of extinction.
• However, after extinction of a learned
  association, the learning comes back when the
  context is changed.
• Returning the rats to the learning context acted
  as a new situation for them and learning
  returned.
• Changing to a new context also caused
  reactivation.

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5.5 (A) Bouton-King design (B) Results during
extinction and testing
same
different
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5.6 Associations that a tone CS (T) might have
after extinction
Only occurs if both the Tone and Context are
active (present).
The meaning of the Tone depends on its context
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Temporal Cues

• Spontaneous recovery may occur due to temporal
  cues related to passage of time.
• Changes in internal bodily state.
• Renewal occurs when a stimulus is outside its
  normal temporal context.
• Reminders reduce both spontaneous recovery and
  renewal effects.
• Relapse prevention in drug treatment.

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5.7 (A) Spontaneous recovery (B) The renewal
effect
Extinction cues have the same effect on both
types of reactivation.
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Additional Reactivation Effects

• Reinstatement occurs when the US is presented
  alone (without the CS).
• The previously extinguished CS produces a CR
  again.
• Rapid reacquisition the CS-UCS learning returns
  very quickly after extinction, due to the prior
  learning.

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Counterconditioning

• During counterconditioning, a new association is
  learned to a previously presented CS.
• Learning from the new pairing interferes
  retroactively with the previous learning.
• Systematic desensitization pairs relaxation with
  previous fear-eliciting stimuli.
• Spontaneous recovery and renewal occur.

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Other Paradigms are Affected

• Table 5.1 lists other paradigms affected by
  context change and temporal renewal effects.
• Latent inhibition can be reduced by a context
  switch.
• Latent inhibition goes away with time.
• Interference and memory effects are used to
  explain these experimental results.

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Changing the Context

• Due to the long time lapses (24 hrs typically),
  the CS cannot remain in short-term memory.
• The context is the cue that retrieves the CS.
• This is retrieval-generated priming
• When the context is changed, there is no
  pre-exposure effect and learning is normal.
• When CS preexposure and conditioning occur in
  different contexts, there is no latent inhibition.

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5.8 The effects of time after latent inhibition
The taste aversion is less inhibited after 12
days.
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Context Modulates Behavior

• Occasion setting occurs when the occasion
  (context cue) modulates responding to a CS.
• The CS is not directly associated with the UCS
  but depends on presence of a second CS.
• The second CS2 is not associated with the UCS
  either, but provides information about the
  UCS-CS1 pairing.
• Example a craving for a cigarette after dinner
  but not at other times.