Estudios neurobiológicos de condicionamiento clásico en invertebrados [Neurobiological studies of classical conditioning in invertebrates] (original) (raw)

Biological constraints on instrumental and classical conditioning: Retrospect and prospect

Animal Learning & Behavior, 1983

The adequacy of traditional approaches to the study of animal learning to account fully for learning phenomena has been seriously questioned during the past decade. Critics of traditional analyses advocated a biological orientation to the interpretation of associative processes and introduced a variety of concepts intended to provide a new framework for the study of animal learning. This promise of a reorientation of the field has not been realized. The concepts of biological constraints, adaptive specializations, and situation specificity of learning have had a less profound influence on the general process approach to instrumental and classical conditioning than anticipated. The present paper makes explicit the conceptual bases of the original biological approaches to learning, identifies reasons why they failed to change fundamentally the study of instrumental and classical conditioning, and proposes an alternative approach to the use of ecological and evolutionary principles in studies of conditioning. We suggest a renewed comparative approach to the study of learning phenomena that avoids many of the difficulties inherent in earlier formulations by providing (1) a strategy for the discovery of adaptive specializations in learning, (2) an ecological framework for the discussion of these adaptive specializations, and (3) a renewed emphasis on the study of species differences in learning.

Biological Constraints on Instrumental and Classical Conditioning: Implications for General Process Theory

Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 1983

The adequacy of traditional approaches to the study of animal learning to account fully for learning phenomena has been seriously questioned during the past decade. Critics of traditional analyses advocated a biological orientation to the interpretation of associative processes and introduced a variety of concepts intended to provide a new framework for the study of animal learning. This promise of a reorientation of the field has not been realized. The concepts of biological constraints, adaptive specializations, and situation specificity of learning have had a less profound influence on the general process approach to instrumental and classical conditioning than anticipated. The present paper makes explicit the conceptual bases of the original biological approaches to learning, identifies reasons why they failed to change fundamentally the study of instrumental and classical conditioning, and proposes an alternative approach to the use of ecological and evolutionary principles in studies of conditioning. We suggest a renewed comparative approach to the study of learning phenomena that avoids many of the difficulties inherent in earlier formulations by providing (1) a strategy for the discovery of adaptive specializations in learning, (2) an ecological framework for the discussion of these adaptive specializations, and (3) a renewed emphasis on the study of species differences in learning.

Pavlovian compound conditioning in the rabbit

Learning and Motivation, 1975

Two experiments are reported on eyelid conditioning in the rabbit involving compounds of isolable CSs. In Experiment 1 it was demonstrated that subjects could be trained to respond discriminatively on the basis of specific configurations when no other reliable component cues were available. In Experiment 11, a novel test procedure failed to provide further evidence that subjects utilized specific configurational cues when reliable isolable components were available. The findings were discussed in terms of the assumption that any stimulus compound involves both isolable and configurational components with the former being more "salient" than the latter. Many studies in classical (Pavlovian) conditioning have used conditioned stimuli (CS) formed from two or more isolable components, i.e., so-called "compound stimuli." In such cases there have been two rather different views of the effective stimulus. Generally, stimulus selection theories (e.g., Mackintosh, 1965; Sutherland, 1964: Wagner, 1969) assume that when the subject is reinforced in the presence of a compound stimulus (AB) the subject will learn to respond to cue A and/or to cue B, but the theories usually ignore the possibility that the subject may also learn to respond to the unique combination ("configuration") of A and B. Rescorla and Wagner (1972), for example, assumed that the tendency to respond to AB is a simple summation of the acquired tendency to respond to A and the acquired tendency to respond to B. In contrast, a number of investigators (e.g., Razran, 1965; Toporkova, 1961; Wickens, Wickens & Nield, 1965) have suggested that learning to respond to the specific cue configuration involved in the CS, rather than to the isolable components, may be the more typical result of compound conditioning especially after extended training. This supposition has been partly based upon early Eastern European investigators (e.g., Platonov, 19 12, in Razran, 1965). difficult to evaluate in relationship to experimental This report is based on a dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of Yale University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree,

Classical and instrumental conditioning: From laboratory phenomena to integrated mechanisms for adaptation

2000

Traditionally classical and instrumental conditioning have been studied in laboratory conditions in great detail but without trying to explain their role in organisms' adaptation. For example, little has been done to clarify how classical and instrumental conditioning mechanisms work together in an integrated fashion to enhance organisms' survival and reproductive chances. In this paper we argue that the adaptive role of classical and instrumental conditioning should be analysed in order to understand their ultimate meaning. One way to do so is to do simulations that on one side explicitly consider their adaptive function and on the other match at least some of the empirical data collected in the laboratory. We describe some simulations in which an organism learns to search for food in an attempt to clarify the role that some aspects of classical and instrumental conditioning may play in the development of this adaptive behaviour. We show how these two mechanisms work in an integrated fashion and how the model is validated by some psychological and neurophysiological data coming from the laboratory.

A review of the empirical laws of basic learning in Pavlovian conditioning

International journal of comparative …, 2004

Contemporary learning research has provided multiple paradigms that have benefited not only researchers in the field, but also applied theorists and practitioners. However, the emphasis on theory development has made the learning literature almost impenetrable to nonexperts. In the present paper, we attempt to summarize not the different theoretical perspectives that have been proposed to explain different instances of learning, but the empirical relationships that testing of such theories has uncovered. Because the empirical relationships we summarize here hold across preparations and species, we suggest that such relationships should be understood as the empirical laws of basic learning. The focus of our review is the Pavlovian conditioning tradition, but most of these relationships also apply to instrumental learning and causality learning. We hope that the relatively novel organization we present here helps researchers and practitioners to directly incorporate these empirical principles into their current theoretical framework, whatever it may be.

Conditioned inhibition, inhibitory learning, response inhibition, and inhibitory control: Outlining a conceptual clarification

2022

Inhibition can be defined as a phenomenon in which an agent prevents or suppresses a behavioral state that would otherwise occur. Associative learning studies have extensively examined how experiences shape the acquisition of inhibitory behavioral tendencies across many species and situations. Associative inhibitory phenomena can be studied at various levels of analysis. One could focus on the trajectory of behavioral change involved in learning from negative statistical associations between discrete events (inhibitory learning). Alternatively, one could be interested in the effects of accumulated experience with those negative associations (conditioned inhibition). One could rather be interested in how organisms implement what they learn through experiences involving negative associations (response inhibition). Yet one could inquire into how the capacity of learning negative associations and performing accordingly varies between individuals and along time for the same individual (inhibitory control). This paper presents a tentative taxonomy addressing different levels of analysis of associative inhibitory phenomena by using different terms for each. In addition, recent evidence and certain unresolved issues at each level are thoroughly scrutinized and contrasted with prior findings. The empirical and theoretical advances made by modeling inhibition as an associative learning phenomenon have provided scaffolds for the current knowledge and emerging accounts of the topic. Some of those emerging accounts have the potential to bridge different levels of analysis and foster "cross-pollination" of ideas among broad fields beyond associative learning.

Application of a Prediction Error Theory to Pavlovian Conditioning in an Insect

Frontiers in psychology, 2018

Elucidation of the conditions in which associative learning occurs is a critical issue in neuroscience and comparative psychology. In Pavlovian conditioning in mammals, it is thought that the discrepancy, or error, between the actual reward and the predicted reward determines whether learning occurs. This theory stems from the finding of Kamin's blocking effect, in which after pairing of a stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (US), conditioning of a second stimulus is blocked when the two stimuli are presented in compound and paired with the same US. Whether this theory is applicable to any species of invertebrates, however, has remained unknown. We first showed blocking and one-trial blocking of Pavlovian conditioning in the cricket , which supported the Rescorla-Wagner model but not attentional theories, the major competitive error-correction learning theories to account for blocking. To match the prediction error theory, a neural circuit model was proposed, and prediction ...

Once in contact always in contact: Evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction

Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1988

The present study aimed at obtaining some further support for the hypothesis of a distinction between two basically different kinds of learning in a Pavlovian conditioning preparation: signal-learning and affective-evaluative learning (Baeyens el al., 1988a.b;. In this respect, we conducted an experiment to verify the Martin (1983.1987) hypothesis that, unlike signal-learning, evaluative conditioning should be resistant to extinction. Mere contingent presentation of neutral with (dis)liked stimuli was sufficient to change the affective-evaluative tone of the originally neutral stimuli in a (negative) positive direction (~~0.0001). A subsequent extinction procedure did not have any influence on the acquired evaluative value of the originally neutral stimuli (+O.OOOl). A follow-up study demonstrated that the evaluative discriminations were still present two months after the acquisition and extinction manipulations @<O.OOOl). These findings provide full support for the resistance to extinction hypothesis. At a theoretical level, this is considered to be further evidence for the hypothesis that evaluative conditioning is not mediated by the acquisition of propositional-declarative knowledge about stimulus contingencies. Finally, we suggest an intriguing analogy between the evaluative conditioning phenomenon and the 'laws of sympathetic magic' (Rozin ef nl.. 1986).

The CS- effect in simple conditioning and stimulus selection during development

Learning Behavior, 1989

Changes in affect toward a particular stimulus can take place very rapidly through Pavlovian conditioning, if presentation of the conditioned stimulus (CS+) paired with the unconditioned stimulus <US) is accompanied by presentation ofa "CS-," another value of the same dimension as the CS + but not paired with a US. This effect has considerable generality. It has been observed in terms of both olfactory and visual CSs, in terms of appetitive as well as aversive conditioning, and for adult as well as infant rats, The CS-effect has seemed especially important for infants, which may be related to the general tendency for infants to exhibit less stimulus selection than older animals. Finally, the CS -effect has enabled the development of a simple test of shortterm retention that can quite effectively assess memory for either incidental or target events. These tests so far have indicated a clear ontogenetic decrease in rate of forgetting over short intervals, corresponding to the well-known development-related decrease in forgetting over long intervals (infantile amnesia). The tests also have shown that short-term forgetting ofintentional and target events is surprisingly similar, with some indication of more rapid forgetting for the incidental events. Alternative interpretations of the CS -effect and some preliminary tests of these interpretations are discussed,