Ch 5: Practical Applications of Classical Conditioning

Phobia

process of overgeneralization in which conditioned fear response to one event has become overgeneralized to other, harmless events; e.g. Little Albert; can develop with only 1 pairing, grow stronger overtime (incubation), don't have to be acquired through explicit conditioning and not everyone develops them

Aversion therapy

reduce attractiveness of desired event by associating it with aversive stimulus; some beh probs stem from overly enticing event; can be used with alcohol, smoking

Wolpe's 3 Stages

1. train in relaxation 2. create hierarchy of imaginary scenes (10-15) 3. pair each scene with relaxation (10-30 sec each) combination of extinction and counterconditioning (Imaginal vs in vivo); good for specific phobia

stimulus-substitution theory

CS acts as substitute for US; believed by Pavlov to assoc diff parts of cortex with diff conditioning

counterconditioning

CS that elicits one type of response is assoc with event that elicits incompatible response; underlying process: *reciprocal inhibition* (1 response inhibits by other)

compensatory-response theory

CS that has been repeatedly associated with primary response (a-process) to a US will eventually elicit compensatory response (b-process); e.g. heroin is US that elicits decrease in blood pressure and decrease in blood pressure is US that elicits increase (homeostasis); drug addiction, drug tolerance

Exposure therapy

combination of flooding and systematic desensitization; in vivo where encouraged to approach as closely as possible and decrease anxiety at each step

preparatory-response theory

purpose of CR is to prepare organism for presentation of US; eg dog salivates to tone to get ready for food

Little Albert

Watson & Rayner; 1920s, 11 mo old infant that showed high emotional stability; establish baseline reactivity and then present many different presentations (dog, rat, rabbit, santa mask, monkey, burning newspaper); loud noise to rat: claim generalize to other items as well; *pseudoconditioning* (not ethical, no documentation)

Factors in Phobic conditioning

-*observational learning*: observing model's behavior facilitates dev of your own (more similar they are or more related you feel) -*temperament*: base level of emotionality/ reactivity, genetic susceptibility [Eysenk: introverts dev more easily] -*preparedness*: genetic predisposition to fear certain types of objects or events more easily -*incubation*: by avoiding stimulus you assoc with fear, strengthen fear resp as result of brief exposures -*US revaluation*: reconsider value of CS and adjust fear resp to reflect new value (obs learn) -*cognitive control*: inability to inhibit intrusion of strong emotional memory (predispose to PTSD: Air Transat Flight 236) -*selective sensitization*: increase in reactivity to fearful stimulus following exposure to unrelated stressful event

Rescorla-Wagner Theory

attempted to explain effect of each conditioning trial on strength, or associative value, of CS in relationship to US; a given US can support only so much conditioning and this amount must be distributed among various CSs that are present; stronger stimuli support more conditioning; after several pairings of compound stimulus, total associative value of it will be 10 and weaken individual stimulus (*overexpectation effect*)

systematic desensitization

behavioral tx involving pairing relaxation with succession of stimuli that elicit stronger levels of fear; ex: Mary Cover Jones: gradual, overtime would give child cookie and move rabbit closer; *Wolpe*: desensitize fear resp in cats thru food/shock; counterconditioning

Flooding

behavioral tx involving prolonged exposure to stimulus (maximal opportunity to extinguish all at once); Imaginal vs in vivo: hard to generalize vs highly aversive

Schiller

non-invasive extinction to disrupt fear (some protein synthesis inhibitors NOT safe or reliable); relies on spontaneous recovery and post-reactivation updating through extinction can rewrite response; acquisition: CS+ (blue square) paired with shock for 38% of trials, CS- (yellow), reminder; change time of extinction; measure skin conductance for spontaneous recovery, and group 1 (10 min) was effective; Specificity: reconsolidation is specific

Kindt

use beta blockers to disrupt fear of spiders, reactivate existing memory (time window: w/in 6 hrs); Propanolol used on spider memory after resensitized; Control: placebo, no reactivation; exp subjectively rate fear lower and go farther in BAT; suggests blocking will lessen anxiety BUT too many fear assoc for some phobias