1. For exam, bring Form F-288-PAR-L
Required
information

2. Learning Part I Learning Classical Conditioning

3. Study of learning Learning:
process by which long-lasting changes occur in knowledge/behavior as a result of experience
Has to be long-lasting: needs to reach a relatively permanent state. fatigue would be excluded.
Has to be due to experience and not some physical change (hormones, injury, aging, etc)/

4. Two approaches to study learning
Behaviorism (early 20th century)
studied simple learning mechanisms
introduction of stimulus-response theories
focus on animal studies
Cognitivism (1950s-present)
introduction of complex mental processes (“inside the mind”)
focus on human learning
Behaviorists believed that animal learning allows researchers to study learning in a purer form, uncontaminated by culture and language
Animal experiments were also subject to fewer ethical constraints
Sea slugs have been used and are still used

5. Nonassociative forms of Learning
Habituation:
An organism’s response to a stimulus will decline following repeated presentations of a stimulus.
Dishabituation
Presentation of a novel stimulus leads to an increase in responsiveness
Habituation, a decreased tendency to respond to stimuli that have become familiar, is perhaps the simplest form of learning, and it occurs at virtually all levels of the animal kingdom.
It serves an important adaptive function by limiting the range of stimuli that provoke escape reactions from an organism.
One is better able to focus on what is new if there is a way to ignore that which has already become familiar. Just as important for survival is dishabituation, an increase in responsiveness caused by the presentation of something novel.
In addition to being an interesting form of learning, habituation has proved to be very useful as a means for studying the perceptual abilities of young infants.
Habituation has both benefits and costs. Thanks to habituation, the bison of Wyoming’s Yellowstone Park have grown accustomed to the automobile traffic. This is helpful for the bison—but it may be less helpful for the traffic. Similarly, many city residents have become habituated to the sight of homeless people on the street—a sad fact that may undermine people’s motivation to help them.

6. Using habituation to study infant cognition
2-month old infant
4-month old infant
Looking
time
Looking
time
No habituation
habituation
dishabituation
Repeated
observations
of Object 1
Present
Object 2
Repeated
observations
of Object 1
Present
Object 2
With these techniques, it has been found that babies can discriminate between faces and voices. Within nine months, can tell difference between happy and sad faces. They know biological motion.

7. Video: habituation (40 secs)
(for original video, see:

8. Classical Conditioning
In classical conditioning, animals learn about the association between one stimulus and another.
In classical conditioning is a type of learning, a neutral stimulus gets associated with a unconditioned stimulus and it gets to trigger a response (the unconditoned response).
Examples of classic conditioning: Pavlov dogs / Little Albert / Being Disciplined (spanked).
reflexive learning
Pavlov was a physician that studied digestion.
In contrast to habituation, in which the organism only learns to recognize an event as familiar, other forms of learning require the animal to form an association.
Pavlov was one of the first to study such associations experimentally. His studies introduced the four major components of the classical conditioning procedure: the unconditioned stimulus (US), the unconditioned response (UR), the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the conditioned response (CR).
The US elicits the UR automatically and without prior learning (e.g., food powder automatically elicits salivation).
The CS initially elicits no response, but after repeating pairings of the CS and the US, the CS comes to elicit the CR.
Classical conditioning has been demonstrated in a remarkable range of species (from cockroaches to octopi) and circumstances. An example in humans is the emotional experience triggered by certain smells or a familiar song.
One of Pavlov’s dogs
Ivan Pavlov
Nobel Laureate

9. Video (~3 min.) Tube collected saliva
Presented meat powder and then measured the response in term of salivation
Dog started to salivate not only in response to the meat powder but to other “neutral” stimuli. Such as guy bringing in food. Footsteps of the guy bringing in food.

10. Acquisition of a conditioned response
Salivation is a physiological
reflex to food. Unconditioned response
A tone is presented at the same time as the food.
An association between the tone and food is established.
In contrast to habituation, in which the organism only learns to recognize an event as familiar, other forms of learning require the animal to form an association.
Pavlov was one of the first to study such associations experimentally. His studies introduced the four major components of the classical conditioning procedure: the unconditioned stimulus (US), the unconditioned response (UR), the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the conditioned response (CR).
The US elicits the UR automatically and without prior learning (e.g., food powder automatically elicits salivation).
The CS initially elicits no response, but after repeating pairings of the CS and the US, the CS comes to elicit the CR.
Classical conditioning has been demonstrated in a remarkable range of species (from cockroaches to octopi) and circumstances. An example in humans is the emotional experience triggered by certain smells or a familiar song.
After training, the tone presented alone will elicit salivation.
The UR and CR are similar, but not necessarily identical.

11. Acquisition and extinction of a conditioned response
7.8 Extinction of a classically conditioned response The figure shows the decrease in the amount of saliva secreted (the CR) with increasing number of extinction trials—that is, trials on which the CS is presented without the US. However, if the animal then spends a short amount of time away from the conditioning apparatus, the CR will reappear the next time the animal encounters the CS—a pattern known as spontaneous recovery.
A conditioned response is not permanent. If the tone is repeatedly presented without food, the salivation response will gradually decay.
These findings show that there are general laws of learning.
Exposure therapy can seemingly extinguish a conditioned fear response but spontaneous recovery can occur. Therapy needs to generalize stimuli, context, environment.
Important Question
At some point, even spontaneous recovery will be completely extinguished. Has the association been erased?
No. If the dog is reconditioned following complete extinction, fewer pairings of food (US) and tone (CS) will be required to reestablish the salivation response to tone alone.

12. Examples of US-UR pairings
Stimulus (US) / Response (UR):
Food / Salivation
Electric shock / Pain reaction
Food / Nausea
Puff of air / Eye blink
In classical conditioning, a response is elicited.
In operant conditioning, a response
“operates on the environment”
Insulin injection / Lower blood sugar level

13. Video: conditioned eyeblink response (~2 min.)
cerebellum is involved in the neuronal circuit
Original video:

14. Major Phenomena of Classical Conditioning
Second-order conditioning
Generalization
Discrimination
Temporal ordering
Contingency
Blocking

15. Second-order conditioning
(1) US (food) paired with CS1 (metronome)
(2) CS2 (light) is followed by CS1 (metronome) followed by no food
(3) CS2 (light) alone elicits CR (salivation), although at a reduced level
Learning is based on establishing associations
Complex behaviors are assembled from simple ones

16. Generalization Training Pair a 1200 Hz tone with the US Testing
Generalization Gradient
Training
Pair a 1200 Hz tone
with the US
Testing
Measure the CR when
tones with different
frequencies are presented
If an animal is presented with a stimulus that is sufficiently similar to the CS, there will be stimulus generalization: the animal will tend to make a CR to this new stimulus.
The more the new stimulus differs from the original CS, the weaker the generalized CR will be.
Generalization gradient of a classically conditioned response This figure shows the generalization of a conditioned blinking response in rabbits. The CS during the initial conditioning was a tone of 1,200 hertz, and the US was electric shock. After the conditioned response to the original CS was well established, generalization was measured by presenting various test stimuli and noting the percentage of trials in which the animals produced the CR.
Food aversion and generalization gradient – what places/foods will you avoid after a stomach flu?

17. Temporal Ordering Green – CS Red - US
What is the underlying cause of the association between the US and CS?
Pavlov thought that temporal contiguity is the primary causal factor underlying the association. Although temporal contiguity is an important factor, it is not the primary cause.
7.10 The CS-US interval in classical conditioning The figure shows the results of a study of the effectiveness of various CS-US intervals in humans. The CR was a finger withdrawal response, the CS a tone, and the US an electric shock. The time between CS and US is plotted on the horizontal axis; negative values indicate that the CS arrived after the US. The vertical axis indicates the strength of conditioning.

18. Contigency
The primary causal factor for establishing an association between the US and CS is contingency
The CS should be informative about the arrival of the US

19. Contingency: an example
US no US
CS % %
no CS % %
Lack of Contingency: The CS is not informative and no conditioning occurs
US no US
CS % %
no CS % %
Shows that the CS should be informative
In both cases, US follows CS in 40% of cases
Positive Contingency: the US is more likely when the CS occurs and less likely when the CS does not occur. Conditioning occurs.

20. CS should provide new information about US: the blocking effect
BLOCKING: Training Phase Training Phase Test Phase
Pair CS1 with US
Pair CS1 and CS2
with US
Test CS2 alone
(establish association)
tone with shock
tone and light
with shock
test light alone; no response (CR)
There is no new or independent information provided by CS2. No conditioning occurs to CS2 .because it provides no new information about the arrival of the US.

21. What is the conditioned response (CR)?
The CR may a version of the UR
e.g. salivating to food might be the same as salivating to a bell
The CR may also be quite different from the UR
it might be a preparatory response to the US
organism might prepare a response that is adaptive for the US

22. Compensatory conditioning
Sometimes the preparation takes the form of a compensatory response
Examples:
drug addiction and drug tolerance
The “pre-game jitters” often experienced by athletes may result from increased blood sugar levels, a conditioned response to the anticipation of intense physical activity.
It is important to note that in conditioning, the CR is often similar but not identical to the UR. In the case of fear conditioning, for example, the CR is fearful anticipation rather than the UR to the unconditioned aversive stimulus.
The CR is more likely to be a useful form of preparation for the arrival of the US.
In some cases, such as certain drug reactions, this preparation is the very opposite of the UR and may represent a tendency to compensate for the effects of an anticipated UR, to help the system maintain homeostasis.
This process is evident in how the body prepares for the effects of drugs, including insulin, caffeine, and morphine, and explains why people experience drug tolerance and cravings

23. Video: Little Albert (~3 min.) Conditioned Emotional Responses
“little Albert’s” fear of rabbits
fear of dentists
● treatment of phobias
fear of snakes
fear of heights
● marketing
products are often paired
with an attractive model
John B. Watson