Questions Chapter 10
What are some problems with the avoidance theory of punishment?
1) All theoretical problems that have burdened analysis of avoidance behavior become problems here 2) critical elements are not stated in a way that makes them easy to disprove
What are two noteworthy aspects of the two-process theory?
1) classical and instrumental processes depend on one another 2) it explains avoidance behavior in terms of escape from fear as opposed to the prevention of shock
What are the two mechanisms involved in the two-process theory of avoidance?
1) conditioning of fear to the warning signal or CS 2) instrumental reinforcement of the avoidance response by termination of the warning signal and consequent fear reduction
Why can blocking access to the avoidance response facilitate extinction?
1) permits the return of fear and therefore makes fear more accessible to extinction 2) makes it clear that failure to perform the avoidance response is no longer dangerous
How are lab studies of punishment set up?
1) preliminary phase of positive reinforcement of target response 2) punishment procedure superimposed on schedule of positive reinforcement
What is the degree of suppression in punishment procedures determined by?
1) variables related to the presentation of an aversive stimulus 2) variables related to the availability of positive reinforcement
What are different degrees of predatory imminence associated with?
A corresponding cascade of neurobiological states
What is the difference between active and passive avoidance?
Active - safety is achieved by doing something in avoidance Passive - safety is achieved by doing nothing in punishment
What does the avoidance theory of punishment suggest?
All changes produced by aversive instrumental conditioning can be explained by similar avoidance learning mechanisms
Which two procedures have been extensively investigated in studies of aversive control?
Aviodance and Punishment
Why can punishment only be observed with responses that are likely to occur in the first place?
Because it involves the suppression of behaivor
What conflict does the lab set up for punishment create?
Conflict between responding to obtain positive reinforcement and withholding to avoid punishment
What is expectancy theory of avoidance useful in?
Dealing with the cognitive aspects of human avoidance behavior
What does the predatory imminence hypothesis assume? (Not what is it, but what does it assume)
Defensive behaviors initially occur as unconditioned responding
What are the effects of schedules of punishment?
Degree of response suppression produced by punishment depends on the portion of responses that are punished
What are the effects of schedules of positive reinforcement on punishment?
Effects of punishment always depend on the reinforcer that maintains the target response (cocaine over sucrose)
What does the expectancy theory of avoidance say?
Encounters with aversive events trigger a conscious process of threat appraisal that generates expectations of future threat (or lack of threat) based on cues and responses
Which procedure is predicted from the two-process theory?
Escape from fear (EFF) procedure
What are some SSDRs?
Fighting, freezing, fleeing, thigmotaxis (approaching walls), defensive burying, seeking out dark areas
What is the avoidance theory of punishment?
Follows two-process theory of avoidance. Organisms learn to escape from the conditioned aversive stimuli related to punished response by engaging in some other behavior that is incompatible with punished activity
What is Safety Signal hypothesis useful in explaining?
Free operant avoidance learning and the role of response-feedback stimuli in avoidance conditioning
What must an avoidance mechanism do in order to be useful under natural conditions?
Generate successful avoidance responses quickly (ex: if it doesn't, the rat will be eaten by the hawk and won't be able to learn bc it will be dead)
What is the fundamental question in the study of avoidance?
How can the absence of something provide reinforcement for instrumental behavior?
What determines how organisms will respond to punishment?
How organisms respond during initial exposure? - mild punishment followed by gradual increase = much less suppression of behavior - intense punishment followed by mild = severe suppression of behavior persists
Why can discriminative punishment be problematic?
In many situations the person administering the punishment is a discriminative stimulus, so behavior can return without that person
What is a major prediction about SSDRs as it pertains to learning avoidance responses?
Instrumental responses that are similar to SSDRs will be learned more easily in avoidance experiments than responses unrelated to SSDRs
Why is it important that predatory imminence does not have an instrumental conditioning component?
It involves the innate coping mechanisms that come to play whenever the defensive behavior system is activated, and determines the outcome of conditioning procedures
What is the role of classical conditioning in the two-process theory
It is an establishing operation
What is the final result of both avoidance and punishment?
Less contact with the aversive stimulus or longer periods of safety
What are the effects of delay of punishment?
Less suppression of behavior when delay of punishment is increased
What leads to more successful extinction of avoidance responding? What is it contingent upon?
Longer exposures to the CS without the US. Contingent upon participants being unable to terminate the CS prematurely
What is successful avoidance behavior associated with?
Low levels of fear and low expectations of danger
What is the effect of a shorter and lower intensity aversive stimulus?
Moderate suppression of responding; responding often recovers as participants habituated to stimulus
What is the effect of a longer and more intense aversive stimulus?
More effective in punishing responding
What is the difference between one and two way shuttle avoidance and which is easier to learn?
One-way: experimenter puts animal back in one side every time so they always go one way Two-way: animal goes one way for one trial and then back the other way for the next. One-way is easier to learn
What does the expectancy theory of avoidance acknowledge? What does it treat as the primary cause of avoidance behavior?
Pavlovian and instrumental components of avoidance; the cognitive expectancies that these components generate
What is a convenient aversive stimulus for human studies?
Point loss
What are the effects of the availability of alternative reinforced responses?
Punishment has dramatically different outcomes depending on whether the individual is able to obtain reinforcement by engaging in some other activity; availability of an alternative response for obtaining positive reinforcement greatly increases suppressive effects of punishment
What are the effects of punishment being a signal for the availability of positive reinforcement?
Punishment will increase responding instead of decrease it bc positive reinforcement is available only when the instrumental response is also punished.
What is the safety signal hypothesis?
Safety signals that accompany avoidance responses may provide positive reinforcement for avoidance behavior
What is the conditioned emotional response theory of punishment?
Says punishment suppresses behavior through the same mechanisms that produces conditioned suppression; various stimuli an individual experiences just before making punished response serve as the CS for impending delivery of punishment
What are the effects of response-contingent vs response-independent aversive stimulation?
Significantly more suppression of behavior with response-contingent (when aversive stimulus is triggered by instrumental response) than with aversive stimulus independent of behavior
What can happen if punishment is misapplied?
Suppression of behavior may be incomplete, responding may recover, and procedure may have unintended consequences
What is the independent measurement of fear during acquisition of avoidance behavior based on?
The assumption that if fear motivates avoidance responding and fear reduction is reinforcing, the conditioning of fear and conditioning of instrumental avoidance should go hand in hand
What determines which SSDR will occur?
The configuration of the environmen
What role does classical conditioning play in avoidance learning?
The importance of the warning signal and the relation of the warning signal to the US and the instrumental response
What is the two-process theory of avoidance uniquely suited to explain?
The results of escape from fear experiments
When behaviors are elicited by a CS after being paired with an aversive event, what does the defensive response depend on?
The temporal relation of the CS to the unconditioned aversive stimulus
What is the negative law of effect?
Thorndike suggested it is opposite but comparable to law of effect. It's basically been proven wrong, tho.
What can be the results of appropriate punishment?
Total suppression of responding in just one or two trials
What does predatory imminence provide the most useful account of?
What happens during the early stages of avoidance learning
What does the ending of a discriminated avoidance trial depend on?
What the participant does (avoidance v. Escape trials)