PSYC 1020H Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Virtual Reality Therapy, Polo Neck, Classical Conditioning
14 Jun 2018
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Psych Chapter 6: Learning
Learning: Any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience.
Intro
- Superstition= operant conditioning
- Phobias: irrational fears of specific objects or situations= classical conditioning
- Agoraphobia: An intense fear of being in public places where it may be difficult to escape
from/or obtain help
- Learning is a fundamental concept is psychology as it is hard to name a lasting change in
behaviour not from the result of experience and it is not just a human process
- Conditioning: ioles leaig oetios etee eets that ou i a ogais’s
environment ie. Wearing a black turtle neck and scoring three goals in a hockey game
- Lays the foundation for other complex learning such as learning by observation
o Can help improve your self-control and how conditioning procedures can be used
to manipulate emotion
Classical Conditioning
- Classical conditioning: is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to
evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus
Palo’s Deostatio: Pshi Reflees
- Pavlov was responsible for showing a more objective, rigorous, scientific approach: his
worked showed how stimuli in the external world controlled our actions and behaviour;
assoiatios ould e uilt up i osiousess led to functional perspectives,
suggesting that conditioning must be evolutionarily adaptive
- His experiment: He had dogs harnessed in an experimental chamber. Their saliva was
collected by a tube. He would present meat powder to a dog and then collect the
resulting saliva. As it progressed, he paired presenting the meat powder with an auditory
stimulus, which was a tone. He noticed after a few trials that the dogs would salivate
before the meat powder was presented; such as when they would hear just the tone.
o The tone started out as a neutral stimulus; it did not originally produce the
response of salivation, however Pavlov paired the tone with a stimulus (meat
powder) in which the tone acquired the capacity to trigger the response
*leaed assoiatios ee foed eets i a ogais’s eironment
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Terminology and Procedures
Unconditioned association: the meat powder and salivation: natural, unlearned association
The unconditioned stimulus (USC): a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without
previous conditioning (presentation of meat powder)
The unconditioned response (USR): An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that
occurs without previous conditioning (salivation)
Conditioned association: tone and salivation established through conditioning
Conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired
the capacity to evoke a conditioned response that occurs because of previous conditioning
(tone)
Conditioned response (CR): a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of
previous conditioning (salivation)
Other:
- Palo’s pshi efle ae eflees eause the ae da foth; ost of the ae
relatively automatic
- Classical conditioning is also involved in some types of non- reflexive responding
- A trial in classical conditioning consists of any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli;
psychologists are interested in how many trials are required to establish a particular
conditioned bond
Everyday Life Classical Conditioning
- Conditioned Fear and Anxiety ie. A gil ho as’t saed of idges efoe elated he
phobia of bridges to past experiences; her father would stop short of the bridge but this
terrified her- the bridge became a conditioned stimulus eliciting great fear
- Other example: cringing when you hear the sound of a drill; you associate pain with the
sound
- Some people acquire conditioned fears less readily than others
- Phobias can lead to emotional distress and adaptive problems; can be treated through
traditional therapies and virtual reality therapy
Paloia oditioig a also ifluee people’s attitudes…
- Subtype of classical conditioning: evaluative conditioning; refers to changes in the liking of
a stimulus that result from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli
- Ie. Pleasant music paired with two unknown brands of root beer had significant effects
on participants liking for the drinks
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- Advertising campaigns try to take advantage of evaluative conditioning; pair products
with unconditioned stimuli to a pleasant emotion ie. Attractive people, cars in beautiful
outdoor settings to relate it to feelings of nostalgia
Conditioning and Physiological Responses
- Immune resistance: when an infectious agent invades your body, your immune system
attempts to repel through producing antibodies
- Classical conditioning can lead to immunosuppression: a decrease in the production of
antibodies
- May also elicit allegoric reactions and contributes to growth of drug tolerance
Drug Effects
- Stimuli that are consistently paired with the administration of drugs can acquire the
capacity to elicit conditioned responses
- Drug administration can serve as an unconditioned stimulus: but the conditioned
responses are physiological reactions that counterbalance potential dangerous effects of
various drugs
- These opponent responses are called compensatory conditioned responses
- Most drug users have routines that lead to consistent pairings of drug admin and certain
stimuli (syringes, rituals) but environmental cues begin to elicit compensatory CRs that
cancel our anticipated effects of drugs- they neutralize the drugs pleasurable effects and
i the use’s esposieess to the dug
- If drugs are taken in new ways or settings, the usual compensatory CRs may not occur
- When people try to quit drugs and are exposed to drug-related cues; it may trigger
compensatory CRs that increase drug cravings and fuel drug addiction
Basic Processes in Classical Conditioning
- Acquisition: the initial stage of learning something. The acquisition of a conditioned
response depends on stimulus contiguity (if they occur together in time and space; CS-
UCS Pairings)
- Extinction: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response
tendency. The consistent presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone leads to
extinction in classical conditioning. Ie. When Pavlov just presented the tone, dog
gradually lost its capacity to elicit the response of salivation
- Spontaneous Recovery: Is the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of
non-exposure to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction suppresses a conditioned response
rather than erasing it.
o A related phenomenon is called the renewal effect: if a response is extinguished in
a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will
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Document Summary
Learning: any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience. Phobias: irrational fears of specific objects or situations= classical conditioning. Agoraphobia: an intense fear of being in public places where it may be difficult to escape from/or obtain help. Learning is a fundamental concept is psychology as it is hard to name a lasting change in behaviour not from the result of experience and it is not just a human process. Conditioning: i(cid:374)(cid:448)ol(cid:448)es lea(cid:396)(cid:374)i(cid:374)g (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:374)e(cid:272)tio(cid:374)s (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) e(cid:448)e(cid:374)ts that o(cid:272)(cid:272)u(cid:396) i(cid:374) a(cid:374) o(cid:396)ga(cid:374)is(cid:373)"s environment ie. wearing a black turtle neck and scoring three goals in a hockey game. Lays the foundation for other complex learning such as learning by observation: can help improve your self-control and how conditioning procedures can be used to manipulate emotion. Classical conditioning: is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
