1. What are reflexive responses?
2. Differentiate the components of respondentconditioning.
3. How can the US and NS be presented temporally?
4. What is higher-order conditioning?
5. How are conditioned emotional responses formed? Who was Little Albert?
6. What factors influence the effectiveness of respondent conditioning?
7. Compare and contrast respondent and operant conditioning.
How can neutral _____ be made unpleasant by respondent conditioning?
(Staats et al., 1962)
- participants were introductory psychology students at Arizona State University
- asked to memorize a list of words like radio, chair, book, and key presented via headphones
- the word large was presented with noxious stimuli: an ________ _____ and a loud noise
- galvanic skin response (GSR, a measure of sweating) increased to the word large
- no increased GSR to the _______ big
- respondent behaviours are ________ or controlled by stimuli
- examples of reflexive responses:
• object in esophagus → vomiting
• loud noise → increased heart rate and GSR
• nasal irritation → ______
• light in eye → pupil constriction
• air puff to eye → eyeblink
• stroking cheek of infant → head turning
- typically, biologically significant stimuli elicit reflexive responses that have ________ value
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1927):
- performed research on the physiology of digestion
- measured a dog’s salivation to meat powder
- however, the dogs became “_______”: salivated when he entered the room, or when they heard his footsteps
- Pavlov wanted to use a more consistent stimulus, so he took the metronome from his wife’s piano
- dogs salivated to the sound of the metronome
- components of respondent conditioning:
• _____________ stimulus (US): stimulus that naturally elicits a reflexive response, without any learning or conditioning
e.g., meat powder
• _____________ response (UR): reflexive response naturally elicited by an unconditioned stimulus
e.g., salivation
• _______ stimulus (NS): stimulus that has no effect on reflexive responses
e.g., sound of metronome
• ___________ stimulus (CS): initially neutral stimulus that is paired with an unconditioned stimulus
e.g., sound of metronome
• ___________ response (CR): response elicited by a conditioned stimulus
e.g., salivation
- respondent (or classical, or Pavlovian) conditioning entails manipulating stimuli that elicit reflexive responses:
• the process of associating an NS with a US to form a CS is called “____________”
• “conditional” = dependent on learning
• “unconditional” = reflexive; not dependent on learning
• _____ conditioning: NS presented before US; they do not overlap in time
• _____ conditioning: onset of NS occurs before onset of US; both overlap in time
• ____________ conditioning: NS and US are presented at the same time
• ________ conditioning: US presented before NS
- definition: if an NS is paired with an established CS a number of times, the NS becomes a CS that will then elicit the same CR
Rizley and Rescorla (1972):
• flashing light + shock → fear response
• flashing light → fear response (_____-_____ conditioning)
• 1800 Hz tone + flashing light
• 1800 Hz tone → fear response (______-_____ conditioning)
J. B. Watson disagreed with Freudian theories claiming that childhood sexual conflicts were the cause of phobias; instead, he proposed that CERs were the result of conditioning.
Watson and Rayner (1920): “Little Albert” and conditioning of ____
- Albert B., an 11-month-old infant: a “healthy, unemotional child who rarely cried”
- showed no ____ response to a monkey, a burning newspaper, or a white rat
- then, when Albert reached for the white rat, they struck a metal bar with a hammer, making a loud noise
- Albert was startled, but did not cry
- when he tried to touch the rat with his other hand, they struck the bar again--this time he cried
- in ________ sessions, he was presented with the rat and the loud sound simultaneously
- when the rat was presented alone, Albert cried and crawled away (operant ______ response)
- when presented with a rabbit, a dog, a seal fur coat, or a Santa Claus mask, Albert cried
• (operant stimulus) ______________: avoidance response evoked by furry objects
• (respondent stimulus) ______________: Albert played with blocks normally
- Albert’s mother removed him from the hospital right after they finished the last series of procedures
- this research would have violated a number of today’s _______ standards
- b-mod can be applied to removing CERs of fear (i.e., phobia) and anxiety (more in lecture topic 24: fear and anxiety reduction procedures)
• respondent __________: repeated presentation of CS without the US causes weakening of CR
• spontaneous ________: presenting CS after extinction elicits a CR
What happened to Little Albert?
Beck et al. (2009, 2012):
- Watson ______ his personal papers late in life, but some facts were known
- hospital records included a wet nurse working on the Johns Hopkins campus named Arvilla Merritte (née Irons)
- her married name was likely fictitious to hide the fact the baby was ____________
- her baby’s age corresponded to that of Little Albert, but was named Douglas
(Why did Watson refer to him as “Albert B.”? Beck speculated that B stood for Broadus, Watson’s middle name.)
- pathology expert (forensic anthropologist) compared photos of Douglas and Albert, finding “certain facial similarities”
- pediatric neurologist viewed Little Albert video, and concluded that he had behavioural and neurological ________:
• he was “alarmingly unresponsive”: did not perform ____ __________: watching to see where others are looking
• used hand-scooping instead of more sophisticated ______ _____ (a developmental milestone typically occurring around 9 months)
- Douglas Merritte died at age 6 from hydrocephalus, likely due to meningitis infection
Nancy Digdon, Russ Powell, and colleagues (2014a; 2014b; 2014c):
- found evidence in Watson’s film that Little Albert used gaze monitoring, and used a pincer grasp to pick up a marble
- researched another wet nurse in the records, Pearl Barger
- she had a son born on the same day as Douglas Merritte, named William Barger
- William’s family, friends, and medical records called him by his middle name: ______
- Barger’s healthy weight and disposition more closely matched records of Little Albert
- Albert Barger died in 2007, at age 87; he reportedly did not like ____
• the ______ of the US and the CS: high intensity US, high salience of CS are more effective
e.g., loud thunder (US), bright lightning (CS)
• ________ relationship between the NS and the US:
- NS should precede US; shorter interval is better (optimal at 0.5 s)
- exception is conditioned taste aversion
▸ taste of food (NS) + toxins (US) → nausea/vomiting (UR)
▸ conditioning may occur long after presentation of taste (CS)
• ___________ between the NS and the US: should occur together on every trial
• if there are multiple NSs, the one most consistently associated with the US produces a stronger association
e.g., dark clouds, wind, lightning (NS) + thunder (US) → fear (UR)
- dark clouds and wind alone do not lead to fear
• the number of pairings of NS and US: more pairings create stronger conditioning
• previous ________ to the CS/prior learning
• respondent behaviours are ________ (automatic, reflexive, involuntary) by a CS or US vs. operant behaviours are ______ (voluntary) by an SD
• respondent conditioning involves pairing an NS with a US before a response vs. operant conditioning involves consequences after a response
• respondent extinction occurs when a CS is presented without the US vs. operant extinction occurs when reinforcement no longer occurs after a behaviour
• may work ________:
e.g., respondent conditioning in Little Albert: white rat (NS) paired with loud sound (US) elicited CER to white rat
e.g., operant conditioning: white rat is antecedent stimulus (SD) that evoked avoidance behaviour (R) which produced feeling of relief as a consequence (SR-) or negative _____________