1. Context Cues and Conditional Relations

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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

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

10. 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 ) are presented together “simultaneous” a light/noise compound to model complex stimuli

11. 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.

12. 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