Discrimination A main take away is that discrimination is learning speci c because the response is so speci c to a particular CS frequency wavelength feature etc in a way generalization does not behaviorally demonstrate evidence for speci c learning of a unique cue Which one generalization or discrimination is a better strategy for that animal in terms of survival or decision optimization depends on the cost of not learning that speci c cue So for example consider a loud repeating alarm Good generalization of that alarm may lead someone to respond to any loud repeating alarm with alertness and panic Good discrimination of that alarm may lead another person to selectively panic ex only when that alarm sounds like a fire alarm and not when it is a car alarm Which one is the better strategy depends on the context of where that person lives what that person does the threats in the area etc The key here is that subjects will sometimes learn an association specific to the stimulus discrimination Here they learned that 580nm wavelength is predictive of reward and so we see maximum responding to that stimulus We also see some responding to similar stimuli but its primarily concentrated at the target learned stimulus However sometimes the animal might learn that 580nm is what s predictive of reward But when we go to test the level of response to other wavelengths we see that they respond the same way to other wavelengths as they do to 580nm Even though we only taught them that 580nm is what s predictive of reward In this case they have generalized their learning about 580nm to all other wavelengths of light Both have advantages and disadvantages of course Bad generalization would be good discrimination and good generalization would be bad discrimination focusing on what s on this slide should be sufficient Understanding the fundamental concept of these two is key Pavlovian Conditioning This procedure is operationally Pavlovian because the tone food association is independent of anything the dog does Instrumental Conditioning Pressing lever for food reward This procedure is operationally instrumental because the lever press food association depends on the subject interacting with its surroundings Is instrumental conditioning strictly learning by doing In the Skinner box example the rat had to push the lever to get the food But if you are a human you can be told that if you push the lever you can get the food For a human would a situation in which they were told the action and consequence still be instrumental conditioning Or does the subject have to perform the action themself to learn the consequence Yes instrumental and Pavlovian learning is gained directly from experience Learning that relies on language or observation like a human told that their actions will cause something would fall Why isn t the example of rats pressing the lever for food reward invalid due to temporary state From my understanding the professor explained that actions that animals do when they are in a temporary state such as hunger is not considered learning because it is a temporary state Aren t the rats pressing the lever when they are in a temporary state of hunger So why is this considered learning into some different category and is probably governed by different rules Good question When learning is measured using a food dependent task some level of hunger is required or else the animal won t be motivated to do the task concept of learning performance distinction and evidence of learning could also be obscured by the temporary state of satiety Yet it is still important to verify that behavioral change observed in a food dependent lab task is not ONLY due to the animal s temporary state of hunger as this would not qualify as learning like you said So consider this example if a hungry rat is put into a novel box with a lever it would not spontaneously start pressing the lever unless it had learned a lever press is associated with food gain So lever pressing is an example of learning because it does not come about simply due to a temporary state The rat has to learn how the action of pressing on the lever contributes to food gain which is not something the rat would naturally have known no matter how hungry it was when it first saw a lever It would be harder to claim that the rat is learning if you put a hungry rat near a berry bush for example The response of a rat to eat berries off a bush isn t something that a rat has to be taught to do and certainly hunger would be the main driving force behind this Conditioned taste aversion Hedonic shift Learning about illness in humans Chemo causes nausea 1 Food illness develop aversions to food they ate before Causes reduced appetite and poor eating 2 Non flavor CS illness Sights sounds smells people can cause people to associate these things with illness Anticipatory nausea and vomiting highly non adaptive scapegoat effect Problem normal food illness Solution Provide novel CS to substitute for patients usual diet Scapegoat effect A novel food CS becomes a target of CTA while typical diet items do not become associated with the illness What s neutral today may be meaningful in the future Learning normal patterns enables detection of novel changes There is motivational significance What about neutral stimuli elevator in Pritzker Normally short beep long beep Sometimes short beep Prediction is satisfying in itself High order conditioning First order conditioning direct first order response Tone food test Tone CR Second order conditioning Tone food first order association Light tone second order association test Light food Third order conditioning Tone food Light tone Buzzer light test Buzzer CS Second Order Phase 1 tone B food Phase 2 tone A tone B Test tone A Phase 1 tone A tone B Phase 2 tone B food Test tone A Sensory preconditioning Example condition suppression experiment Three groups of rats PP paired paired light shock phase 1 PU paired unpaired U P unpaired paired Sensory preconditioning Identical to second order but phases happen in different order Learning performance distinction Sensory preconditioning provides a strong demonstration of the learning performance distinction A lot of what we learn is fairly neutral so both secondary conditioning and high order conditioning help us understand associations better remember that all associations in all phases are Pavlovian associations rat cannot control when light turns on or when food is administered Excitatory