Context Cues and Conditional Relations

Contextual Cues and Conditional Relations Discrete stimuli: a tone, a light Contextual Cues: background stimuli which can be a combination of visual, auditory, olfactory, or other cues of the room or place. Control by Contextual Cues Conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm to measure differences in motivation, reward, and aversion Initial preference test: free to explore two adjacent locations Training: provide food in one location but not at the other location Final preference testing: free to explore two adjacent locations with no food Often used to test new drugs for addictive potential Akins 1998: Contextual cues as a signal for sexual reinforcement. Context (cs) 1: orange with sand on the floor Context (cs) 2: green walls and wire mesh floor After initial preference test Training in context : Group paired: in context 1 access to female as the US Group unpaired: homecage access to female Place preference tested on 5th and 10th trial see Fig 8.11

5th Trial 10th Trial Before Conditioning The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Conditioned place preference in children Affective processing, which can influence attention, motivation/reward, and emotional regulation difficult to test in young children when trying to determine these functions in a non-verbal child establishing capacity in developing executive function Using conditioned place preference (CPP) in human adults drugs, music or food have been used as US testing affective processing in children, ages of 30–55 months CS: child-friendly arena, a castle US engaging toys such as musical toys less engaging toys such as puzzles and books

Conditioned place preference successfully established in typically developing children Initial Preference Test The child was provided 6 min to explore both training rooms Training Trials The child was then given access to only one room of the arena with either the more or less engaging US, Final Preference Test The child was allowed to freely explore both training rooms for an additional 6 min. Results: initial preference test no differences in mean time spent in each room there was a significant room preference CPP scores were not correlated with scores on the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) A measure cognitive ability and motor development

Contextual Cues and Conditional Relations Contextual stimulus control is possible without reinforcement for the context Thomas, Mckelvie & Mah (1985) Context 1 (standard chamber): S+ Vert line S- Horz line Vert line (S+) pecking (R) to get food (O) Horz line (S-) no food Context 2 (different light & noise in chamber) : S+ Horz line S- Vert line Note: within subject design, each pigeon was trained in both contexts Discrimination training produced Generalization Gradients appropriate to context see Figure 8.12 Context can activate memories of S+/S- associations Pigeons learned a conditional relationship If Context 1 then recall of S+ Vert line If Context 2 then recall of S+ Horz line Generalization test across different degrees of line angle

vert horz The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Control by Conditional Relations In the Thomas, Mckelvie & Mah (1985) example context can acquire conditional stimulus control over (R-O) Context acts as a modulator for the (R-O) relationship Similar to other examples of instrumental conditioning such as discrimination training with S+ (1000Hz) and S- (950Hz) Modulators can also control (CS-US) in classical conditioning Colwill (2005) goal tracking procedure Light then Noise (CS) --- Food (US) No Light Noise (CS) --- No Food Measure number of times head went into the food cup More responding to light-noise sequence then just noise Very little responding to just the light see figure 8.15 The light facilitates responding to the noise CS

The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Control by Conditional Relations Modulator terminology in Pavlovian conditioning Holland in the early 1980s called them occasion setters Rescorla called them facilitators Procedures used by Colwill (2005) Produces positive modulator light increases responding so this could be called positive occasion setting Procedure for inhibitory conditioning fig 3.11 produces inhibitory modulator so this could be called negative occasion setting Modulation versus Configural Conditioning when light and noise were presented as a sequence act as Modulators Light for 15 seconds then noise for last 5 sec Light comes first and then overlaps CS-US relationship configural cue examples we covered earlier (pages 219-220) are presented together “simultaneous” a light/noise compound to model complex stimuli

Distinction Between Excitation and Modulation Modulators have properties that differ from those of conditioned excitation. Modulators can set the occasion for a CS to elicit a response without itself eliciting that response. Conditioning simple excitatory properties to a stimulus does not allow it to function as a modulator. Presenting an established modulator by itself repeatedly (extinction) does not reduce its ability to modulate a CS-US relation, because it signals a CS-US relation, not the individual occurrence of the CS or the US.

Distinction Between Excitation and Modulation Modulators can have properties that differ from those of conditioned excitation. Colwill (2005) Light (modulator) then Noise (CS) Food (US) No Light (modulator) Noise (CS) Nothing The light does not become excitatory Can be Tested with an extinction procedure typically for an excitatory CS such as noise followed by food repeated presentations of the CS noise by itself would produce extinction presenting the light modulator repeatedly by itself has no effect on the light acting as an excitatory An excitatory CS produces an expectation of the US A modulator produces expectation of CS-US relationship, sets the occasion