UNIT II
Text Assignment: Chapter 5 pp. 190-228
I. Consciousness: our ongoing awareness of our own thoughts, sensations, and feelings
II.. Sleep
1. Sleep is not a single state but involves several types of sleep which can be identified By the EEG
2. Four Stages of Sleep and REM Sleep
(1) Stage 1: initial sleep – lasts about 5 minutes and is associated with deeper more regular breathing and an EEG pattern characterized by waves than are less regular and have lower amplitude. It is very easy to waken a person in Stage 1, but most of the time the person will not think that they have been asleep Also, a person in this stage may experience the Hypnic jerk.
(2) Stage 2: Lasts about 20 minutes. The EEG is characterized by sleep spindles (brief bursts of brain activity) and single, high amplitude waves. It is still fairly easy to awaken a person but there know that they have been asleep
(3) Stage 3 and 4: During both stages 3 and 4, the EEG is characterized by Delta Waves or “Slow Wave” sleep.During stage 3, sdelta waves are present 20% to 50% of the time whereas in Stage 4, Delta waves are over 50%. It is most difficult to awaken a person during Stage 4. During Stage 4, the heart rate and respiration slows down and the blood pressure lowers as does bodily temperature.
(4) REM Sleep (Rapid Eyemovement Sleep): approximately an hour after you go to sleep, ou begin to reverse the sleep cycle, going back from Stage 4, to Stage 3, to Stage 2. Instead of going back to Stage 1, usually REM begins. The EEG is characterized by marked brain wave activity – even more than when you are awake. Breathing and heart rate are fast and irregular. About 70% of the time when persons are awakened during REM, they report dreaming. During the dreams, regardless of content, both men and women show signs of arousal in the genitalia – even if the content of dreams is not sexual. Arousal does not seem to occur if the dreams are very anxiety producing.
IV. Other Aspects of Sleep
1. Infants sleep 13 to 16 hours a night and have a much higher percentage of REM sleep
2. In your 40’s, slow wave sleep decreases and sleep is shallower and more fragmented.
3. Slow wave sleep decreases even more in the older years and the quality of sleep declines
V. Sleep Deprivation
1. Two out of three people sleep less than 8 hours a night and one out of three sleeps less than six hours
2. If persons are deprived of REM sleep one night, they will show REM Rebound the next night
3. Persons who drink heavily to go to sleep or take barbiturates, generally have less REM sleep and tend to wake up after only a few hours
4. When persons with a fairly long history of drinking stop, the will most likely experience vivid dreams during REM for several nights
5. Sleep deprivation affects performance on cognitive tasks (after three nights of restricted sleep) as well as emotional states
6. Approximately 25% of people report that they have fallen asleep at the wheel at least once. Going to sleep at the wheel results in 100,000 car crashes per year.
7. Persons who sleep less than 6 hours per night are more likely to report being impatient, and experience more aggravation and frustration, over minor events
8. Sleep deprivation in the extreme (4 to 11 days of no sleep) show profound psychological changes including hallucinations, feelings of losing control or “going crazy”, anxiety, and paranoia. Changes in temperature, metabolism occur as well as hormonal secretions occur.
VI. Theories of Why we Need Sleep
1. Restorative Theory: the theory that sleep restores the wear and tear on thebodyy that occurs during the day
2. Evolutionary Theory: sleep, in our evolutionary development removes us from predatory animals that are nocturnal – this theory lacks any real supportive evidence
VII. Why do we Dream
1. Freudian Theory: dreams are the royal road to the unconscious. Dreams allow us to fulfill unconscious desires or wishes. Dreams have a manifest content (the obvious content) and a latent content (the symbolic content)
2. Activation-synthesis hypothesis: dreams arise from random burst of nerve cell activity – the brain’s response is to try to make sense of these often unrewlated and random images
3. Solms (1997) study at the London Hospital Medical College: 350 stroke patients – many had changes in the nature of their dreams following their strokes. Patients who damage which disconnecte parts of the frontal cortex from the brainstem had no dreams.
4. We still do not know why we dream but almost all theorists agree that the day’s events or the neural connections they instigate, affect dreams
VIII. Chemical Changes During Dreams
1. During REM sleep, the brain systems that release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine are activated and motor and visual areas of the brain are activated which may result in dreams of flying, walking, or falling.
IX Circadian Rhythms: daily rhythms associated with light and darkness
1. Circadian Rhythms are regulated by a small structure at the base of the hypothalamus (proximal to the optic chiasma) called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
2. The 24 hour schedule ingrained in us by the daily rotation of the earth appears to be maintained by exposure to light-dark cycles – whether natural or artificial
3. People do not have the same 24 hour schedules – there are morning people and night people
X. Narcolepsy: uncontrollably falling off to sleep
XI. Insomnia
1. Anxiety and depression can both cause chronic insomnia
2. Half of the adults in the US experience occasional insomnia
3. Barbiturates or other sleep suppressants are addictive. Continued use results in increased tolerance and greater sleeping difficulty. Their use suppresses REM sleep
XII. Sleep Apnea: disorder characterized by the cessation of breathing during sleep
1. Snoring can be a sign of Sleep Apnea
2. Sleep Apnea results when the muscles at the base of the throat relax and block the airway. Irregular breathing followed by a temporary cessation of breathing follows
3. Sleep Apnea can be fatal and should not go untreated by a center specializing in sleep disorders
XIII. Improving Sleep
1. Restrict sleeping hours to the same nightly patterns
2. Don’t watch TV or expose yourself to other stimuli in bed. As your text suggests, beds should be for sleeping or sex
3. Avoid caffeine in pop, coffee, or other substances that contain stimulants
4. Possibly consider deep muscle relaxation or meditation
XIV. Other Suggestions for Troubled Sleep
1. Reduce loud colors in room, nightlights, multicolored curtains or wall paper
2. Reduce temperature to 68 degrees (considered the ideal sleeping temperature)
3. Avoid exercise just before bedtime
4. Avoid consuming a lot of fluid
XV. Alcohol Use and Abuse
1. Approximately 40 % of adult Americans drink alcohol, 9% are considered to have either alcohol abuse or dependence, and 5% are considered as heavy drinkers
2. There is increasing evidence that some forms of light drinking – particularly red wine – may have positive cardiovascular effects
3. Effects of alcohol with Increasing Number of Drinks
(1) One or two drinks (depending on many factors such as body weight, previous drinking patterns, food intake, etc.): relaxation, less responsiveness to surrounds, may become talkative and outgoing, less inhibited
(2) Three of four drinks (depending on many factors): self control and restraint are increasing impaired. Motor functions are altered – e.g. awkward walking – possibly a greater likelihood of bumping into things
(3) High doses: diminished sense of cold and pain or discomfort. Dilation of the peripheral blood vessels – the person feels warmer but is losing heat faster. Increased risk of hypothermia and frostbite. Possibly respiratory arrest, coma, or death
4. Alcohol Dependence (physiological addiction): Dependence involves two
primary features:
(1) Tolerance: as one continues to drink fairly heavily over a period of days,
weeks, or months, it will require increasing amounts of alcohol to achieve the
same physical and psychological state – this is referred to as tolerance
(2) Withdrawal: withdrawal often occurs when a person who is physiologically
dependent on alcohol (or other drugs) stops drinking abruptly. Withdrawal may include, heightened anxiety, profuse sweating, hallucinatory experiences, and various sensory sensations such as “crawling of the skin”. Withdrawal can drastically affect electrolytes – particularly potassium – and can lead to cardiac problems. Death may be one consequence of untreated withdrawal
XVI. Behavioral and Physiological effects of Alcohol
1. Disinhibition: alcohol is a depressant which generally depresses neural functioning. However, it can also inhibit the action of inhibitory neurons which causes some neurons to fire that would otherwise be inhibited. This is called disinhibition.
2. Inhibitory Conflict: when persons are experiencing high conflict, the typically want to act but are restrained from doing so because of morality, cultural sanctions, or personal values. Increasing amounts of alcohol tends to disinhibit responses that normally would be inhibited. This could account for aggressive sexual behavior and other situations where judgment is diminished.
3. Alcohol Myopia: a state of short sightedness in which superficially understood, immediate aspects of experience have a disproportionate influence on behavior and emotion
4. Blackouts: periods of time in which a heavy drinker, usually with alcohol dependence, has no memory of events that occurred while he or she was intoxicated.
5. Malnutrition: alcohol is highly caloric but contains virtually no nutritional value. If consumed in high quantities, it greatly reduces one’s appetite and, after long periods of time, can lead to severe malnutrition which may be associated with cognitive and neurological impairment. A very severe neurological consequence following a long history of pervasive alcohol dependence is called Korsakov’s Syndrome (multiple neuritis, confusion, disorientation, amnesia for recent events, and confabulation and general dementia)
XVII. Stimulant Drugs: Excite the Central Nervous System/Arousal
1. Cocaine: enhanced sense of physical and mental capacity/diminished appetite. Chronic use often results in paranoia, teeth grinding, and visual disturbances such as seeing snow, or feeling insects crawling on skin. Use is associated with pleasurable, euphoric feeling
2. Crack: cocaine in crystalline form usually smoked in a pipe (free-basing). Crack is faster acting and has more intense effects than Cocaine in powder form. Effects last only a few minutes, leading the user to take greater amounts than users of powdered cocaine. Has very high potential for abuse and dependence
3. Amphetamines: synthetic stimulants such as Benzedrine and Dexedrine – usually taken in pill form or injected. User can develop amphetamine psychosis – similar to paranoid schizophrenia. Symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and pronounced paranoia
4. MDMA (ecstasy or “e”): a neurotoxic amphetamine. Even one use can permanently damage neurons that release serotonin – which can affect memory, learning, sleep, and appetite
5. Caffeine: increases alertness, pulse rate, and heart rate. In high amounts, it can produce insomnia, restlessness, and ringing in the ears. There is some increase in tolerance with long-term use. Stopping abruptly after chronic use or even disuse for one morning can lead to headaches as part of a mild withdrawal.
6. Nicotine: can result in increased alertness, relaxation, irritability in addition to serious health consequences
XVIII. Narcotic Analgesics (CNS depressors and Pain Relievers)
1. Included are Heroin, morphine, codeine, Percodan, Demerol – all of which have strong addictive potential
2. Heroin is a derivative of Morphine which is a derivative of Opium which is produced from the Opium Poppy – collectively they are all classed as opiates
3. Effects: slowing of neural activity in the brainstem areas – user of Heroin will typically experience marked pupil constriction, slower breathing, and lethargy. The withdrawal symptoms of chills, hot flashes, restlessness, and discomfort frequently cause continued use
XIX Hallucinogens: Substances that Produce Hallucinations
1. Included are mescaline, Peyote, psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamine (LSD), phencyclidine (PCP), ketamine (special K), and marijuana
2. Flashbacks: hallucinations can occur weeks, even years after a person discontinues an LSD
3. Marijuana, in most cases, does not result in hallucinations or flashbacks. However, perceptual alterations affecting driving and other aspects of performance may be impaired. In the past, questions have arisen regarding a potential amotivational syndrome. There continues to be debate regarding its significance, however, few doubt that heavy use of marijuana is associated with poorer performance in academic settings
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UNIT II
CHAPTER 6: LEARNING
LECTURE 8, Thursday, September 24, 2009
TEXT ASSIGNMENT: Chapter 6: pp. 233-266
Overview of Learning: Classical Conditioning
I. Definition of Learning – a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from
Experience
II. Types of Learning
1. Classical Conditioning
2. Operant Conditioning (sometimes called Instrumental Conditioning)
3. Cognitive and Social Learning
IV. Examples of Classical Conditioning
Conditioned Response = sweaty palms
Conditioned Response = smiling or perhaps, grimacing
Conditioned Response = nausea
Conditioned response = cat comes running
Conditioned response = Unlikely to be a weakened immune system, but if we are to believe rat research, it is possible. When rats are given a sweet substance paired with injections of an immune suppressor, later when only taking only the sweet substance, their immune system weakens (without the immune suppressing injections)
V. Classical Conditioning – Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with meat powder paired with a
tone
1. Pavlov was most interested in the digestive system. Most of his research on the digestive system was between 1891 and 1900. In 1903, he presented a paper at the international Medical Congress in Madrid called “The Experimental Psychology and Psychopathology of Animals” in which he defined Conditioned reflexes. In 1904, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
2. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS or US)– the stimulus to which the organism responses without obvious evidence of prior learning
3. Unconditioned Response (UCR or UR)– the organism’s response to the Unconditioned Stimulus
4. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – the stimulus, which when paired with the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS), will eventually elicit the same or similar response as the UCS
5. Conditioned Responses (CR) – the response which is eventually elicited by the Conditioned Stimulus (CS) after it is paired with the Unconditioned Stimmulus (UCS)
VI. Pavlov’s Observations about Classical Conditioning in the dog
VII. Classical Conditioning: Conditioned Emotional Response
1. Avoidance Learning: A classical conditioning procedure in which the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) is always aversive or unpleasant. When a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) is paired with the Unconditioned stimulus, the organism may learn to avoid the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS). For example, a cat learns to jump over a bar to the sound of a tone (Conditioned stimulus) to avoid getting a shock (Unconditioned Stimulus) on a floor consisting of an electrified grid. This particular type of procedure is called Avoidance Escape Conditioning.
2. Conditioned Emotional Response (CER) and Phobias: a Conditioned Emotional Response involves an emotionally charged Conditioned Response elicited by a previously neutral stimulus. A phobia, for convenience, is defined as an extremely strong, irrational fear. Most of our fears probably involve Conditioned Emotional Responses (CERs). One belief in the early 1900’s was that people have an instinctual fear of fur or furry creatures. Example: Watson and Raynor’s (1920) experiment with Little Albert, an eleven-month-old human infant. A loud Sound caused by a hammer striking a steel bar (Unconditioned Stimulus) was paired with the visual sight of a rat (conditioned Stimulus). Even though little Albert was not initially afraid of the rat, after five to seven pairings of the UCS and CS, the infant became very fearful of the rat whenever it was presented and, presumably to other furry objects as well (Stimulus Generalization). This experiment would not be performed today because of ethical reasons.
3. Biological Preparedness: a built-in readiness for certain Conditioned Stimuli to elicit particular Conditioned Responses so that less learning is necessary to produce a particular Conditioned Response. For example, it may be easier to condition a fear of snakes or spiders than a fear of birds or turtles.
4. Contrapreparedness: a built-in disinclination or inability for certain conditioned stimuli to elicit particular responses. For example, it may be very difficult to condition a fear of flowers. Bregman (1934) could not replicate Watson and Raynor’s little Albert experiment when she used wooden blocks or pieces of cloth as Conditioned Stimuli. Your text uses an example of a ten-year-old child whose father stopped the car so she could relieve herself in a ditch. As she got out of the car, she saw a snake and her brother accidentally slammed the car door on her hand. She developed a fear of snakes but not of car doors (which actually elicited the pain).
1. Extinction: Extinction occurs when you no longer pair the Unconditioned Stimulus with the Conditioned stimulus and the organism gradually ceases to respond to the Conditioned Stimulus. For example, if Watson and Raynor kept presenting a rat to Little Albert but no longer paired it with a loud sound, Little Albert’s fear would eventually diminish or seemingly disappear.
2. Spontaneous Recovery: in the above example, if you extinguished Little Albert’s fear to the rat by no longer pairing it with the loud noise, then waited a few hours and presented only the rat again, Little Albert would probably show at least some fearfulness – in other words, after a rest, he recovered at least some of his fear to the rat (Spontaneous Recovery). In spontaneous recovery, the fear is typically not as great as the fear shown prior to extinction.
IX. Classical Conditioning Continued
X. Classical Conditioning Applied (examples)
1. Drug overdose – if you take a drug in the same place consistently, the body may be conditioned to respond to familiar stimuli to counteract the effects. If taken elsewhere, the stimuli may not be present and there will be less body mobilization to offset the effects of the drugs
2. Smoking: there are many conditioned stimuli can become associated with smoking. Some of the more common ones are: after eating, after sex, while consuming coffee or alcohol, a bar room environment, virtually any anxiety provoking situation, other people lighting up, etc,
3. Systematic Desensitization: progressive gradual exposure to the conditioned stimulus without aversive consequences until the fear is extinguished. Example: treatment of snake phobia by gradual exposure to the feared stimulus
4. The use of Sex as conditioned stimuli in ads. Example: The Hardy Western Burger and a sexy woman riding the bull
5. Conditioning the immune system: research with rats indicates that when an immune suppressing drug is injected is paired with sweetened water, the rats showed a weakening of the immune system each time they consumed the sweetened water even after the injections were discontinued. Some died, presumably as a consequence of a severely weakened immune system.
Operant Conditioning
I. Types of Learning: Operant Conditioning (sometimes referred to as Instrumental
Learning) In general operant conditioning techniques produce far more
complicated behaviors than Classical Conditioning.
1. B. F. Skinner: the most prominent proponent of Behaviorism since John B. Watson.
2. Skinner designed the Skinner Box which has been used extensively to study the effects of different procedures of reinforcement (schedules of reinforcement)
3. Reinforcement: anything that tends to increase the probability of a response’s recurrence
4. Positive Reinforcement: a reward is presented immediately following a response and increases the likelihood of its recurrence
5. Negative Reinforcement: is the removal of an unpleasant stimulus following a desired response that increases the probability of the response’s recurrence. For example, a loud whistle is usually aversive to cats. Whatever the cat does that leads to cessation of the unpleasant noise is likely to reoccur.
6. Both positive and negative reinforcement result in an increase in nt5yhe probability of a response occurring.
7. Punishment: unlike positive and negative reinforcers, punishment tends to decrease the probability of a response’s recurrence
8. Positive Punishment: occurs when a behavior leads to an undesired consequence , thereby decreasing the probability that that the behavior will occur again (E.g., squirting water on a cat digging in a plant should decrease the probability that the behavior will occur again).
9. Negative Punishment: the removal of a pleasant event or circumstance following a behavior that decreases the probability that the behavior will occur again (e.g., a person ceases to laugh when you tell dumb jokes – if a person’s laughter is something you want to maintain then you will probably tell fewer dumb jokes)
11. Primary and Secondary Reinforcers
1. Primary Reinforcers: those reinforcers, which seem to elicit responses without obvious evidence of prior learning. Usually they are related to basic processes such as food, water, or relief from pain
2. Secondary reinforcers: those reinforcers, which acquire reinforcing properties as a result of being consistently associated with primary reinforcers. Example: in the 1930’s a chimpanzee (Wolfe and Cowles) was given poker chips consistently with food. After awhile, the poker chips could be used to teach the chimp new responses. Other examples of secondary reinforcers are praise, money – anything that beco0mes a reinforcer that does not satisfy basic biological needs and presumably become reinforcers as a result of prior learning experiences
III. Schedules of Reinforcement
1. Intermittent Reinforcement or Partial Reinforcement: all of the Schedules of Reinforcement involve Intermittent Reinforcement - reinforcement every now and then (Partial Reinforcement) rather than Continuous Reinforcement. In Continuous Reinforcement, the animal receives a reward after every response
2. Interval schedules: involve the passage of time before a reinforcer is given
a. Fixed Interval Schedule of Reinforcement: a rat is in a Skinner box and is given a reward for pressing the bar for the first responses after A fixed period of time – for example, after every two minutes
b. Variable Interval Schedule of Reinforcement: A rat is given a reward for each bar press after varying intervals of time – for example, the first bar press after 3 minutes, after one minute, after 4 minutes, after 2 minutes, etc
3. Ratio Schedules of Reinforcement: time is irrelevant – the rat is given a reinforcer after he or she makes so many bar presses
a. Fixed Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement: the rat is given a reinforcer for pressing the bar after a fixed number of responses (bar presses) – for example after every three bar presses
b. Variable Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement: the rat is given a reinforcer after varying number of responses (bar presses) – for example, after the rat presses the bar 6 times, 3 times, 8 times, 4 times, etc
IV. Learning and Extinction as a Function of the Different Schedules of
Reinforcement
V. Important Questions Regarding Schedules of Reinforcement and Extinction
1. If you want the animal or person to continue making responses over the longest period of time after you discontinue reinforcement, which Schedule would you use? Answer: Variable Interval
2. Of you want the animal or person to make the highest number of responses after you discontinue reinforcement, which schedule would you use? Answer: Variable Ratio
VI. Shaping: “the gradual process of reinforcing an organism for behavior that gets closer
and closer to the behavior you ultimately want to produce”
1. Method of Successive Approximations: You reinforce each smaller behavior that successively approximates the desired pattern of behavior you want the person or other animal to show
2. Keller and Marion Breland’s application of B. F. Skinner’s behavioral principles (both Breland’s received their masters degrees with Skinner as their major professor). The Breland’s trained animals for TV commercials and opened an IQ Zoo in Little Rock Arkansas to demonstrate complicated behavioral patterns that could be brought about by Shaping and the Method of Successive Approximations
3. Classroom example: training a rabbit to put three coins in a bank
VII. Are Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning merely Two names for the same
process? (see Table 4.1 on page 152 of your text)
1. Preliminary evidence such that Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning involve different systems of the brain and probably different neurotransmitters
2. The tentative conclusion is that the two forms of conditioning are not simply variations of the same process, but are distinctively different forms of learning
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UNIT II
CHAPTER 6
Lecture 9: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Text Assignment: Chapter 6 pp. 267-273
Cognitive and Social Learning
I .Cognitive Learning: the acquisition of information that is not immediately acted
on but stored for later use.
1. Latent Learning: learning that occurs without behavioral signs – learning by
exposure to stimuli without rewards
2. Cognitive Maps: Tolman’s research in the 1930’s: Tolman found that rats allowed to explore a maze without a food reward learned the maze more quickly when reward was present than rats who had no experience in the maze
II. Insight Learning: consists of suddenly grasping what something means and
incorporating that new knowledge into old knowledge
1. Wolfgang Kohler’s research: chimpanzee’s learned to retrieve the longer of two sticks with the shorter one, then used the longer one to obtain fruit (bananas)
2. In a second study Woflgang found that chimps would learn to stack boxes , then obtain fruit that was otherwise out of reach
3. The Aha Experience: Kohler explained the behavior of chimps in the above situation as an emotional one in which the suddenly “caught on” after being frustrated with other attempts in to obtain the reward
4. Insight Learning used to be an argument that the Gestalt Psychologists used to refute Behaviorism, which essentially maintained that learning is an incremental process (example of a Behaviorists explanation of the “Aha experience”: the cat “catching on” after the fourth day during avoidance escape conditioning – what seems to be suddenly catching on is probably incremental without a steep jump in the learning curve.
III. Observational Learning: when there is no apparent reinforcement and learning
results simply from watching the behavior of others
IV. Modeling: Learning by observing the behavior of others and listening to what
they say
(a) a good looking model
(b) a model with high status
(c) a model that is perceived as socially powerful