Psychology of Learning

Module 05: Classical Conditioning 2

Key Terms

Bait Shy: A phenomenon in which rats that survive poisoning develop taste aversions to the poison’s flavor, making them nearly impossible to poison again with that particular bait; this practical problem led researchers to investigate taste aversions systematically.

Blocking: A cue competition effect in which prior conditioning of one stimulus precludes the conditioning of a second stimulus; even though the second stimulus is perfectly paired with the US, it gains little or no associative strength because the first stimulus already predicts the US.

Comparator Hypothesis: A theory proposing that the strength of the CR depends on comparing the CS’s association with the US to the strength of other stimuli’s associations with the US; what matters is relative predictiveness rather than absolute associative strength.

Comparator Stimuli: Stimuli other than the CS that are present during conditioning and testing; the CR depends on comparing the direct CS-US association to the indirect path through these other stimuli (typically the context).

Compensatory CR: A conditioned response that is opposite to the UR and seems to compensate for the UR’s effects; the CR opposes rather than mimics the UR, as seen in drug tolerance where contextual cues elicit responses opposite to drug effects.

Conditioned Taste Aversion: A technique using taste aversion learning principles to protect livestock from predators without killing them; leaving treated meat for predators creates aversions that reduce livestock predation while preserving predator populations.

Cue Competition: Effects in which the conditionability of a stimulus is influenced by the presence of other stimuli; to-be-conditioned stimuli appear to compete with each other for the ability to become a CS and predict the US.

Cue Facilitation: A phenomenon that occurs when pairing a compound CS with a US results in enhanced conditioning to one of these cues rather than competition between them.

Equipotentiality: The traditional conditioning assumption that any CS could be equally well conditioned with any US; this assumption was violated by taste aversion research showing that certain stimuli associate more readily with certain outcomes.

Facilitated Reacquisition: The phenomenon in which an extinguished CR is reconditioned more rapidly than original conditioning; demonstrates that extinction doesn’t completely eliminate the CS-US association but suppresses it.

Flooding: A technique for treating phobias by presenting patients with highly feared cues that aren’t removed until fear subsides; produces extinction by exposing patients to the CS without the US until the CR diminishes.

Mimicking CR: A conditioned response that is similar to the UR; the CR resembles what the US produces, as in Pavlov’s experiments where both UR and CR involved salivation.

Occasion Setting: A phenomenon in which a particular stimulus or environment (the occasion setter) helps retrieve a specific memory; contexts become occasion setters during conditioning, signaling which learning (original conditioning or extinction) is currently relevant.

One-Bottle Test: A method for testing taste aversions that compares consumption of the novel flavor between taste aversion conditioned animals and a control group; conditioned animals drink significantly less, demonstrating the aversion.

Overexpectation Effect: A counterintuitive prediction of the Rescorla-Wagner model in which pairing two fully conditioned CSs together with the same US actually weakens their individual associative strength because the compound produces expectations exceeding the actual US.

Overshadowing: A cue competition effect that occurs when one stimulus in a compound CS is easier to condition and therefore gains more associative strength with the US; the more salient stimulus overshadows the less salient stimulus.

Potentiation: The enhancement of a CS’s ability to elicit a CR by pairing it with another stimulus during conditioning; the opposite of overshadowing, typically occurring in taste aversion learning with odor-taste compounds where taste enhances conditioning to odor.

Prediction Error: In the Rescorla-Wagner model, the discrepancy between expected and actual US; positive prediction error (US better than expected) drives excitatory conditioning, while negative prediction error (US worse than expected) produces extinction or inhibition.

Preparedness: The innate potential to associate certain stimuli more easily and quickly with certain USs; organisms are prepared by evolution to form some associations readily while being unprepared or contraprepared to form others.

Renewal: The return of an extinguished CR when testing occurs in the original conditioning context after extinction in a different context; demonstrates that extinction learning is context-dependent.

Rescorla-Wagner Model: A mathematical theory of classical conditioning in which the strength of conditioning depends on the surprisingness of the US—specifically, when there is a discrepancy between what is expected and what actually occurs; learning is driven by prediction error.

Single-Trial Learning: Learning that occurs after just one CS-US pairing; characteristic of taste aversion learning where organisms can develop strong aversions from a single experience with illness following food consumption.

S-R Association: Stimulus-Response association in which the CS brain center becomes directly associated with the response center, bypassing the US center; the CS elicits the response directly without activating US representations.

S-S Association: Stimulus-Stimulus association in which the CS brain center becomes associated with the US brain center; when the CS activates its center, activation spreads to the US center, which then produces the response.

Stimulus Substitution Theory: Pavlov’s theory proposing that during conditioning, connections form between brain centers such that the CS comes to substitute for the US by activating its neural representation.

Systematic Desensitization: A behavioral technique based on classical conditioning that treats phobias by combining relaxation training with gradual exposure to phobia-related stimuli; patients progress from least-threatening to more intense exposures.

Taste Aversion Learning: A special case of classical conditioning in which consumption of a novel flavor (CS) followed by illness (US) results in avoidance of that flavor (CR); can develop after a single pairing and with delays of many hours between CS and US.

Tolerance: The phenomenon where repeated drug use requires increasing doses to achieve the same effect; explained by opponent-process theory as strengthening of the b-process; can also be explained by classical conditioning in which contextual cues become CSs that elicit compensatory CRs opposing the drug’s effects.

Two-Bottle Test: A method for testing taste aversions useful for detecting weak aversions; thirsty animals choose between a familiar flavor and the novel flavor, with conditioned animals drinking significantly less of the novel flavor.