Month: November 2019

Applying the Conditioning Theories to a Rat

There are specific theories regarding the way living organisms learn and make connections between information. Learning is an important component of life; organisms need to be able to interact with their environment in an effective way. Many psychologists have taken an interest in the concept of learning, devising theories which explain how living organisms learn in their environments.

A psychologist, by the name of Pavlov, discovered a learning theory by the name of Classical Conditioning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism can take two unrelated events and make a connection between them. He carried out this theory through an experiment which utilized dogs. Before conditioning, the dogs made no association between the ringing of a bell and salivating in anticipation of receiving food. Only when food was presented did the dogs start salivating. During conditioning, the bell was rung directly before the dogs were to receive food. The result of the experiment was that the dogs would salivate to the sound of the bell because they would anticipate the food coming.

Thorndike, another psychologist interested in the principles of learning, discovered the Operant Conditioning theory. This theory states that organisms can form associations between behaviors and resulting events. This means that based off of how a behavior is perceived by the environment, an organisms will either continue or discontinue it. The concept of shaping falls under this theory; reinforcers guide behavior closer to the ultimate desired behavior. An example of shaping would be teaching a dog how to roll over; once the dog performs an element of the final product, the individual training it must reward it with something to provide an incentive for them to continue.

I can relate these theories to a specific time in my life when I needed to personally apply them. I took psychology in high school and part of the curriculum included receiving and training a rat through the theories of learning. Once my class reviewed the theories, we received a rat and were instructed to train it in specific stages. We started simple, but by the end of a month we needed to have trained our rat to complete a complicated chain of tricks (climbing a ladder, walking on a tight rope, jumping off of a desk into someone’s hand) in one continuous run.

This is where the learning theories come into play. We were instructed to use clicker training, so our rat could form associations between a sound and a reward (much like classical conditioning). At first, our rat, Maizie, was terrified of this clicker noise. But, we reassured her through giving her food after she heard every click. After a while, she recognized that a click meant that she was about to receive one of her favorite snacks. The key to this was to be consistent, making sure we gave Maizie a treat after every click she heard. This is an example of classical conditioning because prior to conditioning, Maizie was unable to recognize that there was a connection between the click noise and receiving a treat. After conditioning took place, Maizie knew that hearing a click resulted in a treat.

After Maizie made the association between the click and a treat through classical conditioning, we were able to teach her more complex tricks through operant conditioning. We utilized the concept of shaping to teach her how to do things such as stand on her back legs, run through a maze, walk a tight rope, climb up and down a ladder. We did this by rewarding her with a treat after she heard a click when she did something correct. By rewarding her through every step of the process of learning a new trick, she was able to fully complete the task we asked of her.

As you can see, the theories of classical and operant conditioning were utilized in training my rat in my high school psych class. Through these theories, we were able to train Maizie successfully.

Shaping

Blog Post 3

Donald Shaffer

Drs5828@psu.edu

Shaping:

Shaping is the process of using reinforcement to guide behavior closer towards a desired behavior. This process can be applied to many different animals and can lead to some amazing displays. Shaping is a specific branch of operant conditioning, which is the forming of associations between behaviors and resulting events. Shaping also follows the law of effect, which is an operant conditioning term meaning rewarded behavior is likely to reoccur. Thus, shaping uses reinforcers to guide towards a desired behavior. Reinforcers, positive or negative, strength the behavior they follow. Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus, like a treat, while negative reinforcement removes an undesirable stimulus, like removing an uncomfortable collar. This is not to be confused with punishment. Positive punishments add an undesired stimulus while negative punishments remove a desired stimulus. Both positive and negative punishments decrease the behaviors they follow. I took a personal interest in operant conditioning several years ago when I wanted to teach my chinchilla to come to me when I’d open my hands up. I spent a large amount of time researching on how to do this and I came across a process that can be defined as shaping. Over the course of several weeks, I would bring my chinchilla to the ground and let him get comfortable with his surroundings. Next, I would box him in, so he was confined to about a 2 by 2-foot square. Following, I would place a line of his favorite treats leading to my open hands. Once per night I continued doing this with the plan of having my chinchilla naturally run to my hands when I would open them in a begging style (like someone begging for money would but towards the ground). After about 2 weeks of continuously shaping his behavior, I definitely noticed an increase in how comfortable my chinchilla was with me holding him and without a doubt, I was able to pick him up in his cage much faster and easier. However, I was unable to get him to come into my open hands when indicated. Looking back, I should have changed the experiment so that instead of me going through the struggle of getting him out of the cage, and most likely scaring him, I should have placed the treats in the cage and left my open hands on the outside, allowing him to come to me from the very beginning.

Blog Post 3—–Classical conditioning

I have a friend who is very “boring”. Each time he saw me he would put his hand in front of my face and make a finger snap for greeting. I would close my eyes because of the stimuli of finger snap ( I believe everyone would have the same reaction physiologically). I did not know exactly how many times  he did that to me, but it was really  many times. One day, we met each other again. He put his hand in front of my face again. His purpose at the time was to show me his new ring, did not plan to make finger snap to me. However, I closed my eyes without any control as soon as he placed his hand in front of my face. He laughed at me and said:” Why do you close your eyes? Look at my new ring!” I opened my eyes and felt really surprised about such reaction.

The example above can be explained by a psychology concept called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a form of learning whereby a conditional stimuli (CS) becomes associated with an unrelated unconditional stimuli (US) in order to produce a behavioral response called conditional response (CR), which is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. US is usually biological stimuli and can lead to unconditional response (UR). A famous experiment is called Pavlov’s dog. Here is a link for the video of his experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI&feature=youtu.be

In my experience above, the CS is finger snap, because it is the original stimuli that will cause me, a normal person, to close eyes. US is my friend putting his hand in front of my face, which is a unrelated stimuli for my reaction of closing eyes. CR is closing eyes, because it is the reaction I will have due to conditional stimuli. UR is also closing eyes, because it is the reaction I have due to the combination of CS and US, and finally react that way simply due to US. I will never close eyes due to my friend putting his hand up if he never made finger snap to me.

Definition refers to: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/classical-conditioning/

Classical Conditioning

We as humans  learn by making associations.  Our minds connect events that happen in a sequence.  Classical Conditioning is a process where a human or animal learns by associating stimuli.  In classical conditioning there is a US (unconditioned stimulus) NS (neutral stimulus) CS (conditioned stimulus) UC (unconditioned response) and CR (conditioned response.  For classical conditioning to occur, the neutral stimulus must come before the unconditioned response because it has to predict something happening.  Acquisition is associating a neutral stimulus with a unconditioned response.  An example of classical conditioning Pavlov’s Experiment which consisted of  training a dog to salivate to the sound of a bell (tone).  Extinction is diminishing of a conditioned response; this happens when the US no longer follows the CS.  Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a distinguished response after a break.  We can all relate to classical conditioning; I will give an example of how I personally relate.

All-Star Cheer competitions are very loud an noisy which can make someone anxious.  Always wearing your uniform when you feel this emotions make me associate the uniform with anxious feelings.  In the morning of the competition when I put on the uniform it would make me feel anxiety and have an accelerated heart rate.

US – loud noise at cheer competitions

US – accelerated heart rate and anxiety

CS – putting on my cheer uniform that morning

CR- accelerated heart rate and anxiety

 

Pocket Change and Classical Conditioning

My dad has had a job in the city since my brother and I were little, so he takes the train to work everyday and needs change to pay the meter to park his car at the train station. He would arrive home from work at about 5:30pm everyday, and there is a bell on the mudroom door that rings when it’s swung open, so when my brother and I were little, we would hear the bell and know dad was home. At one point, my dad began giving us the change left in his pocket from the parking meter for us to put in our piggy banks. We loved getting change for our piggy banks because that meant that we would eventually be able to take it to the bank and put it in a machine that would spit out cash. Soon enough, every time my brother and I heard the bell from the door swinging open, we equated that to dad giving us change for our piggy banks. We would run out to the kitchen were he came in from the mudroom to collect our change, even if it wasn’t actually dad or he didn’t have change. This is an example of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a phenomenon that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired and the response elected by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone. The ring of the bell by the door swinging caused my brother and I to run into the kitchen thinking we were getting change for our piggy banks, no matter if that was actually the case or not. The idea of classical conditioning was mostly developed by Ivan Pavlov, who did experiments on the physiology of digestion in dogs. Dogs would salivate simply from seeing the technician who typically fed them, rather than just from food itself. Just like the dogs in Pavlov’s experiment, my brother and I would get excited at the sound of the bell ringing, rather than just the change we would receive for our piggy banks, indicating classical conditioning.