Unit V – Motivation and Emotion

1. Unit V – Motivation and Emotion • Memory/Cognition – What we know about the world • Learning – How we make associations between causes and effects • Motivation – What effects do we really desire

2. Learning • The studies of how learning works are some of the earliest of psychology and are the most informative of the debate of the soul.

3. Habituation • Habituation – the simplest and most basic form of learning • It is the decline in the tendency to respond to a stimuli after repeated exposure. • Not only do our senses tune out constant stimuli, but we also consciously learn to ignore them. • Habituation is an adaptive advantage as organisms need to function without constantly reacting to threatening stimuli

4. Habituation works closely with memory: • Short-term habituation – responses to stimuli decrease quickly after repeated exposures over a short time. Eg. 300 loud sounds over 5 hours. • Spontaneous recovery – after an extended delay, short term habituation is extinguished and the response returns. • Long term habituation – responses to a stimuli decrease gradually after repeated exposures over a long time. Eg. 1 loud sound per day for 1 month.

5. Classical Conditioning • Habituation is the recognition of events as familiar, learning is the relationship between events and circumstances. These relationships are called associations. • Experimental study of associations did not begin until Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

6. Pavlov’s Dog • A dog was prepared for this experiment by having a small operation exposing the salivary gland to the surface, which made it possible to measure salivation automatically.Then the dog, which is fastened by leashes such that he cannot move, is given food while ringing a bell. This procedure was repeated several times.

7. Before training • US (food in mouth) ------------ UR (salivation) • CS (bell ringing) -------------- No response • Training • CS (bell ringing) + US ( food in mouth) • After training • CS (bell ringing) ---------------- CR (salivation) formerly the UR • Once the training is finished, the dog will now salivate at the sound of the bell, which previously had no effect on the dog.

8. The Reflex • Unconditioned reflex – The innate relationship between stimuli and involuntary responses. Composed of an unconditioned stimulus (US) and an unconditioned response (UR) • Conditioned reflex – Relationships between stimuli and responses that result from experience. Composed of a conditioned stimulus (CS) and a conditioned response (CR)

9. Reinforcement • Through training, the unconditioned stimulus is paired with the conditioned stimulus. • Trials where the US occurs with the CS are reinforced • Trials where the US occurs without the CS are unreinforced • The tendency of the CS to elicit the CR, and the strength of the CR, go up the more often they are reinforced – this can be plotted on the learning curve.

10. The Learning Curve • Learning curve: Learning is proportional to prediction error (received-predicted reward) and reaches an asymptote as the prediction error approaches zero. =prediction, and are learning constants, =reward.

11. Unlearning • Extinction – the greater the number of unreinforced trials, the weaker the strength of the CR until it no longer occurs. • Reconditioning – extinct CRs can be reconditioned through further reinforced trials. Reconditioning a CS takes fewer trials than the initial conditioning. • Spontaneous recovery – an extinguished CR will reappear after a rest interval.

12. Response Strength • There are 3 ways to measure the strength of the CR: • Response amplitude – The intensity of the response. Eg. How much saliva the dog produced. • Probability of response – The proportion of trials in which the CR occurred when the CS was presented alone. Eg. The number of times the dog drooled when hearing the bell alone • Response latency – the time from the presentation of the CS to the CR. Eg. The amount ot time it took the dog to drool after hearing the bell alone.

13. The implications of Pavlov’s discoveries has been instrumental in many different fields eg. Advertising

14. Generalization – the CS does not have to be identical in every trial, a range of variation will still elicit a CR even though the strength is reduced, this reduction is called generalization decrement. • Discrimination - subjects can be conditioned to distinguish between very small differences in stimuli. • pairing slightly different stimuli with reinforced trials, and others with unreinforced trials • Discrimination is important because it shows that learning is taking place. It takes multiple trials to get the subject to remember which is the right CS and which is the unreinforced CS.

15. Fear • Studies in fear have been linked with classical conditioning from its inception

16. Phobias • When a negative stimulus (an electric shock) is paired with a CS (a light going on) any learned behaviour will cease; this is called response suppression. • Many fears that adults have is closely linked with classical conditioning. If the fears are intense enough, they can be deemed phobias.

17. CR and UR • Fear highlights an important relationship between the CR and the UR: the CS (the bell) is a signal for the US (the food) but is not a substitute for it. • The CS causes the subject to prepare for the US and the subsequent CR. This occurs unconsciously and involuntarily.

18. Compensatory Reaction • Compensatory reaction – The conditioned response works opposing the unconditioned response • When diabetics receive insulin shots, their bodies react to the CS of the needle and the injection process by raising its blood sugar level. • The same will occur in drug addicts – the drug heroin induces feelings of euphoria, relaxation, and relief from pain. Therefore the CS of the drug needle and the usual injection procedures can cause the body to ache, to become restless, and depressed.

19. This requires the addict to raise the dose of the injection to attain the same effect each time they inject. • However, in the absence of the usual CS, the body will not compensate and the same dosage will be fatal.

20. Journal • What makes horror movies so frightening? • Explain how they work (sights and sounds) to make changes occur to your body and behaviour.

21. Instrumental Conditioning • Studies in Instrumental Conditioning began before Pavlov with the development of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin – were we just a type of ape? Or was mankind special in some way?

22. E.L. Thorndike • E.L. Thorndike became one of the most important figures in the history of science with his work with problem solving and animals.

23. Thorndike placed a cat in the cage and observed how the cat learned to escape. The cat was then put back in the cage and Thorndike timed how long it would take for the cat to master the solution to the box (his chosen measure of learning). • Thorndike plotted a learning curve for the cat’s speed of success.

24. The learning curve • What would be expected to happen IF the cat was intelligent? • The cat would learn quickly – sudden insight • What would be expected to happen IF the cat was NOT intelligent? • The cat would learn gradually – trial and error

25. The Law of Effect • Based on his results, Thorndike proposed his Law of Effect: • “The consequences of a response determine whether the tendency to perform it is strengthened or weakened. If the response is followed by a satisfying event (e.g., access to food), it will be strengthened; of the response is not followed by a satisfying event, it will be weakened.”

26. When introduced to a new environment, a subject will produce infinite random behaviours. As some behaviours lead to success and others to failure, certain behaviour patterns will dominate and others become extinguished. Note the absence of reason or intelligence.

27. B.F. Skinner • Most of the early research on instrumental learning was performed by B. F. Skinner. Skinner proposed that instrumental learning and classical conditioning were fundamentally different processes.

28. Classical vs. Instrumental Conditioning • Because the response precedes the reinforcement, rather than follows it. • Because the response is voluntary, it must be selected from an infinite number of possible actions.

29. Operant Conditioning • Instrumental Conditioning – also called Operant Conditioning – The learning process through which the consequence of an operant response affects the likelihood that the response will be produced again in the future.

30. Skinner Box • Skinner devised a box in which a mechanism can be operated to produce a reinforcer. The animal can be left in the box to respond however it chooses. Skinner measured the number of responses as an indication of learning.

31. Man vs. Animal • Skinner argued that everything we do can be attributed to this process of reinforcement whether we are aware of the consequences of our actions or not.

32. Skinner identified three consequences for behaviour: • 1) Positive Reinforcement - Any stimulus that increases the probability of a behaviour • 2) Negative Reinforcement - Any stimulus whose removal increases the probability of a behaviour. • 3) Punishment - Any stimulus whose presence (or absence in negative reinforcement) decreases the probability of behaviour. • Skinner thought that punishment was the least effective of the 3 possible consequences for learning.

33. Shaping – reinforcing behaviours that are increasingly similar to the desired responses.

34. 2 important facts: • The larger the reinforcer, the more rapid the extinction. • The greater the number of training trials, the more rapid the extinction.

35. Reinforcement schedules • Continuous Reinforcement: every response is reinforced • Partial Reinforcement: only some responses are reinforced. • Learning is faster with continuous reinforcement but extinction takes longer with partial reinforcement.

36. Four basic schedules of partial reinforcement • Ratio schedules: reinforcer given after some number of responses. • Interval schedules: reinforcer given after some time period. • Fixed: the number of responses or time period is held constant. • Variable: the number of responses or the time period is varied.

37. Resulting behaviour • Fixed-Ratio: bursts of responses. • Variable-Ratio: high, steady rate of responding. (Slot machines work on a V-R schedule). • Fixed-Interval: pauses with accelerating responses as the time approaches. • Variable-Interval: after training, a slow, steady pattern of responses is usually seen.

38. Cognitive Learning • Opposing the mechanical view of learning and emotions depicted by Skinner, Thorndike and Pavlov were other scientists who believed that there was more going on than simple trial and error; they felt that even the simplest animals were forming knowledge.

39. Edward Tolman • Edward Tolman believed that animals were acquiring knowledge about their surroundings he called cognitions. • He found that rats being transported around his laboratory were showing evidence that they had learned something about the space in later tests.

40. Test subjects were forming relationships between the CS and US based on 2 factors: • Contiguity – togetherness in time; studies showed that there was an optimum amount of time that should pass between the CS and the US for conditioning. • Contingency – the occurrence of the US depends on the CS; there are a multitude of stimuli that occur before the US that could also be interpreted as the CS. Subjects learned which of these stimuli signalled the coming of the US by experiencing the absence of the CS and the corresponding absence of the US.

41. These studies indicated that the animals were reasoning that the CS was a probable indicator of the US more than other stimuli occurring in the environment at the time.

42. Fear vs. Anxiety • When these ideas are applied to negative stimuli (electric shocks) they highlight the difference between fear and anxiety. • When a tone precedes an electric shock 60% of trials, subjects would react to the tone with tension and response suppression - fear. • When there was no stimuli that would predict that a shock was coming reliably, the animal constantly shows fear and suffers long term physiological consequences – anxiety

43. Response Control • Subjects that were tested in conditions where they could respond to avoid their negative stimuli developed response control • Infants who can control the movement of their crib mobiles show more interest in them.

44. Subjects tested in conditions where they could not respond to avoid negative stimuli displayed learned helplessness – an acquired sense that environmental control is not possible so no efforts are made.

45. Two groups of dogs were strapped into hammocks and subjected to electric shocks after the presentation of a 3 second tone. The dogs in group A were given to ability to avoid these shocks by pressing a level with their nose. The shocks of the two groups were linked, if the dogs in group A avoided the shock, so would their partners in B. Each group of dogs received the same level of shocks but only the dogs in group A could control them.

46. When the dogs were then placed in a shuttle box (a cage divided in half by a low partition) A tone would precede a shock through the floor of the cage. The dogs from group A quickly learned to jump the divider at the tone to avoid the shock; the dogs in group B simply laid down on the floor of the cage and took the shocks.

47. Learned helplessness has been linked to depression because they both carry the same symptoms (suppressed immune systems, weight loss, excessive sleep, etc.)

48. Motivation • Motivation – the needs, wants, interests, and desires that propel people in certain directions

49. Humans display a huge range of goal-directed behaviour. These behaviours can be highly complex and their dynamics known only to the agent • These can be divided into two main categories: • Biological motives – originate in bodily needs such as hunger or excretion. • Social motives – originate in social experiences such as achievement

50. Biological Motives • Hunger • Thirst • Sex • Temperature • Excretion • Sleep • Activity • Aggression