Conditioning

Conditioning

1. Classical Conditioning: development of new reflexes (responding to what was a previously neutral stimulus)

   • Pavlov's Dog
     • Unconditioned Stimulus: food
     • Unconditioned Response: salivation
     • Conditioned Stimulus: bell
     • Conditioned Response: salivation
     • Aquisition based on contiguity
   • Most learned reflexes are subject to extinction. They can return through spontaneous recovery
   • Generalization: conditioned response occurs to a new stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus (ringing a gong, not a bell)
   • Discrimination Training: giving reward to one stimulus, even when both are present
   • Blocking: adding a second stimulus to a reflex that already contains a conditioned stimulus
   • Conditioned taste averison
   • Contingency: dependent relationship between variables
   • Contiguity: timing relationship between two factors

2. Operant Conditioning: operant responses that operate on the environment to produce an effect, goal oriented

   • Law of Effect: actions/behaviors that provide positive results to an animal will become more common, vice versa with negative results
   • Shaping: broad range of similar behaviors is narrowed by selectively rewarding specific behavior
   • Constant vs. partial reinforcement (4 schedules)
     • Fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable ratio, variable interval
       • Fixed: all the time
       • Variable: unpredictable
       • Ratio: # of times (how many)
       • Interval: amount of time (how long)
   • Complicated process of linking together different sets of behaviors and rewards
   • Reinforcement Schedules
     • Positive: adding something
     • Negative: taking something away
     • Punishment: something that makes you sad
     • Reinforcement: something that makes you happy