PSYC104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Addiction, Drug Tolerance, Conditioned Taste Aversion
29 May 2018
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Lecture Four – Classical Conditioning
Classical Condition Basic Principles
- Stimuli can have unpleasant consequences – phobias can be created
- Emotional responses can be conditioned
- Stimulus generalisation
o Tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar – Little Albert who was conditioned
to fear a white rat grew to fear other things such as rabbits and Santa Claus (white
and fluffy)
o Transfer training – applying knowledge from one thing to another
- Stimulus discrimination – learned ability to respond differently to similar stimuli
Stimulus Discrimination
- Learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not
signal an unconditioned stimulus.
Allergic Reactions
- Can be developed through classical conditioning
- Neutral stimulus of flowers, with allergic reaction from pollen producing the response –
person will release histamines to the sight of flowers eventually
Higher Order Conditioning
- Two factors determine the extent of higher-order conditioning
o Similarity between the higher-order stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus
o Frequency and consistency with which the two stimuli are paired
- Classical conditioning is about predicting future events
o CS prepares the animal/person for an imminent event – sets up the expectation for
that event
Principles of Classical Conditioning
- During acquisition, the CS-US pairings will lead to increased learning so the CS can produce
the CR
- If the CS is presented without the US, CR will eventually extinguish
- Later, if the CS is presented alone it will produce a wear CR, spontaneous recovery
- Will extinguish if CS is continually presented alone.
- The CS must be a predictor of the imminent arrival of the US – must be in close proximity of
the two events in time (cognitive element to CC)
How does the CR form?
- Contiguity theory – when two stimuli are presented together, associations are made
between them
- Temporally contiguous events tend to be associated together
- Theory suggests that in order to form a CR – two stimuli need to be put together in time
- Contiguity theory explains most of the data
o Weakened by a delay between CS and US
o Does not fully explain all data however
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Stimuli can have unpleasant consequences phobias can be created. Stimulus discrimination learned ability to respond differently to similar stimuli. Learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. Neutral stimulus of flowers, with allergic reaction from pollen producing the response person will release histamines to the sight of flowers eventually. Two factors determine the extent of higher-order conditioning: similarity between the higher-order stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus, frequency and consistency with which the two stimuli are paired. Classical conditioning is about predicting future events: cs prepares the animal/person for an imminent event sets up the expectation for that event. During acquisition, the cs-us pairings will lead to increased learning so the cs can produce the cr. If the cs is presented without the us, cr will eventually extinguish. Later, if the cs is presented alone it will produce a wear cr, spontaneous recovery.
