Animals in psychological research
Clive R. Hollin in An Introduction to Human–Animal Relationships, 2021
The sequence shown in Figure 1.1 shows the steps in the experiment. The dog's naturally occurring reflex is to salivate when it perceives cues associated with food: there is no learning involved, thus an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) elicits an unconditioned response (UCR). There is, however, no naturally occurring reason why a dog should salivate at the sound of a bell. In the experiment, the food is repeatedly presented together with the sound of the bell so that the dog learns to associate the food and the sound of the bell. In time, the sound of the bell gains the power to elicit salivation. Thus, the bell is a conditioned stimulus (CS) that elicits salivation as a conditioned response (CR). As dogs do not naturally salivate to the sound of a bell this is sometimes also called a conditioned reflex.
MRCPsych Paper A1 Mock Examination 4: Questions
Melvyn WB Zhang, Cyrus SH Ho, Roger Ho, Ian H Treasaden, Basant K Puri in Get Through, 2016
Which of the following is true regarding higher-order conditioning? The onset of the conditioned stimulus precedes the unconditioned stimulus, and the conditioned stimulus continues until the response occurs.The onset of both stimuli is simultaneous, and the conditioned stimulus continues until the response occurs.The conditioned stimulus ends before the onset of the unconditioned stimulus, and the conditioning becomes less effective as the delay between the two increases.The presentation of the conditioned stimulus occurs only after that of the unconditioned stimulus.The conditioned stimulus is paired with a second conditioned stimulus, which, on presentation, by itself elicits the original conditioned response.
Behavior Modification
Eli Ilana in Oral Psychophysiology, 2020
Classical conditioning emphasizes the importance of antecedents — the stimuli that precede behavior.8 Pavlov9 demonstrated the bond between stimulus and response by supplying positive reinforcement to dogs: the way in which an unconditioned stimulus (food) led to an unconditioned response (salivation). He observed that the unconditioned response often occurs in response to other stimuli temporarily associated with the unconditioned stimulus (sound of a bell). From this, he made the observation that a conditioned stimulus (the bell sound) could lead to the same physiological result (salivation), but this time as a learned, conditioned response.
CNS serotonin content mediating food deprivation-enhanced learning is regulated by hemolymph tryptophan concentration and autophagic flux in the pond snail
Published in Nutritional Neuroscience, 2023
Yuki Totani, Junko Nakai, Dai Hatakeyama, Varvara E. Dyakonova, Ken Lukowiak, Etsuro Ito
The pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis is a good model animal for studying changes in nutritional status. The snail can learn and form conditioned taste aversion (CTA) memory [12–14]. CTA is formed when an animal associates the taste of a specific food with a toxic substance, and is thought to be an adaptive survival mechanism to avoid toxic substances before they cause harm [15]. In the case of snails, CTA is established by associating an appetitive stimulus (e.g. sucrose solution) with an aversive stimulus (e.g. KCl solution or electric shock). The appetitive stimulus is a conditioned stimulus (CS), and the aversive stimulus is an unconditioned stimulus (US). Repeated presentation of the CS followed by the US leads to the formation of CTA memory and suppresses CS-induced feeding behavior (Figure 1(A)) [16].
What is the role of placebo in neurotherapeutics?
Published in Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 2022
Elisa Frisaldi, Aziz Shaibani, Marco Trucco, Edoardo Milano, Fabrizio Benedetti
This theory posits the placebo/nocebo effect as the result of Pavlovian conditioning [1]. In this process, the repeated co-occurrence of an unconditioned response to an unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivation after the sight of food) with a conditioned stimulus (e.g. a bell ringing) induces a conditioned response (i.e. salivation that is induced by bell ringing alone). Likewise, aspects of the clinical setting (e.g. taste, color, shape of a pill, as well as white coats or the peculiar hospital smell; see Figure 1) can also act as conditioned stimuli, eliciting a therapeutic response in the absence of an active principle, just because they have been paired with it in the past. In the same way, the conditioned response can be a negative outcome, as in the case of nausea elicited by the sight of the environment where chemotherapy has been administered in the past. Classical conditioning seems to work best where unconscious processes are at play, as in placebo/nocebo effects involving endocrine or immune systems, but it has also been documented in clinical and experimental placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia.
The role of placebo effects in immune-related conditions: mechanisms and clinical considerations
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Immunology, 2018
Rosanne M. Smits, Dieuwke S. Veldhuijzen, Nico M. Wulffraat, Andrea W. M. Evers
Another factor that plays a pivotal role in the placebo effect is the learning mechanism based on classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, multiple presentations of a stimulus can lead to a learned association, resulting in a learned bodily response, similar to Pavlov’s famous salivation experiment [20]. This principle can also be applied in treatment regimens, like a pharmacological agent paired with contextual cues such as the color, smell or taste of a capsule, or other features in clinical context, which result in a learned association and eventually cause for comparable drug effects induced by these cues. This learned association between a pharmacological agent and a contextual cue is termed pharmacotherapeutic conditioning (see Figure 2) [21]. By utilizing these placebo effects through classical conditioning, promising treatment outcomes have been found in studies on pain [22] and neuroendocrine- and immune-related outcomes [23,24,25]. Evidence for the ability to learn an immunologic response was demonstrated in several experiments involving validated conditioning paradigms in both animal and human studies. These studies demonstrated that immunological outcomes can be induced by learned associations and furthermore showed several prerequisites in order for a learned immune response to occur, which is very insightful for possible clinical applications in drug regimens and will be further discussed below.
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