Spontaneous Recovery and Other Sources of Relapse
Extinction is subject to savings, that is, influences from previous learning that persist and interfere with the permanent uncoupling of the associative link between the CS and US Kehoe and Macrae, 1997 . Despite many previous extinction trials, the CS may spontaneously recover and elicit the previously extinguished CR. In practice, the extinction process serves only to reduce the future occurrence of the CR, not eliminate it. The persistence of classically conditioned behavior is particularly...
Differences Between Classical and Instrumental Conditioning
The dog's ability to learn as the result of experience is a key factor ensuring its adaptive success. in addition to the associative, information-producing functions provided by classical conditioning, dogs also depend on various instrumental or operant means to secure control over the social and physical environment. Through the combined efficacy of classical and instrumental learning processes, dogs can reliably predict and control the occurrence of biologically significant events. Classical...
T I I I I I I I I 1
.1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 1.0 p reinforcer no response Fig. 7.2. Diagram showing various general contingency relations between the reinforcer and the occurrence or nonoccurrence of the instrumental response. After Seligman et al. 1971 . forcer-response contingency. Figure 7.2 illustrates various contingency relations between the reinforcer and response, ranging from a situation in which the reinforcer is certain to follow the response each time it occurs continuous reinforcement , to...
Common Examples of Classical Conditioning
A few everyday examples of classical conditioning will hopefully serve to illustrate how the process works. Most dogs respond readily to the sound of a doorbell ringing. For the first few times, however, the bell would probably produce little effect in a dog other than an orienting response and some curiosity. After several repetitions, though, in which the bell signals the arrival of someone at the door, the dog may begin to respond to the bell in anticipation of meeting the visitor at the...
Behavioral Contrast and Momentum
Behavioral contrast matching and momentum exercise powerful indirect influences on the overall effects of training, its transfer, and degree of permanence Chance, 1998 Nevin, 1998 . Behavioral contrast refers to the tendency of a target behavior undergoing reinforcement in one situation to occur less often in other situations where reinforcement is less likely to occur. Conversely, in comparison to baseline levels present prior to the onset of training, a behavior undergoing punishment in one...
Info Ffb
Fig. 9.5. Problematical or insolvable conflict occurs in one of two general ways 1 when events are highly predictable but not adequately under the animal's control when they happen to occur P C , or 2 when the animal has a high degree of control over the event but cannot predict when it is going to happen P C . When respondent and operant events are either both unpredictable and uncontrollable P C or highly predictable and controllable P C , the result is helplessness, on the one hand, and...
Vision
Much of the close social exchange that occurs between dogs and people depends on the vi sual recognition of subtle gestures and postural signals. This visual information provides a sensory foundation for socially significant communication and harmonious interaction. Another important function of sight is to scan the environment for biologically important changes in the dog's surroundings not detected by the other senses. The dog's eye is structured so that reflected light energy can be...
Origins and Domestication
For thousands of years man has been virtually, though unconsciously, performing what evolutionists may regard as a gigantic experiment upon the potency of individual experience accumulated by heredity and now there stands before us this most wonderful monument of his labours the culmination of his experiment in the transformed psychology of the dog. George Romanes, Animal Intelligence 1888 Domestication Processes and Definitions Interspecific Cooperation Mutualism Terms and Definitions Wild,...
Habituation and Sensitization
Habituation is a nonassociative learning phenomenon that is often confused with extinction. Extinction results when the CS fails to predict the occurrence of the associated US, that is, the CS no longer elicits the CR. In contrast, habituation occurs when the US is repeatedly presented until the associated UR is no longer elicited. For instance, the occurrence of a strange loud noise will evoke a vig orous orienting response from most dogs. However, if the noise is repeated many times, dogs may...
A Brief Critique of Traditional Learning Theory
The principles of learning theory have been derived from the experimental study of behavior. This research has been based on a small set of empirical assumptions and beliefs. Perhaps the most central and pervasive of them is the law of effect, that is, behavior is modified by its consequences. If a behavior is rendered more likely to occur in the future as the result of its consequences, it is said to have undergone reinforcement. Reinforcement is divided into two categories depending on...
Paedomorphosis
Many of the changes occurring as a result of domestication appear to involve the prolongation of puppylike or juvenile characteristics into adulthood. The overall outcome is a neotenization of the wild prototype a process in which maturity is developmentally delayed and growth rates altered Fox, 1967 . In many ways, an adult dog behaves and looks like a juvenile wolf. All of these characteristics soft coat, curled tail, skinfolds, floppy ears, and short legs give the domestic dog a puppylike...
Dogs Selective Association Food Psychology
Amsel A 1971 . Frustration, persistence, and regression. In HD Kimmel Ed , Experimental Psychopathology Recent Research and Theory. New York Academic. Aristotle 1985 . Nicomachean Ethics, T Irwin Trans . Indianapolis, IN Hackett. Azrin NH and Holz WC 1966 . Punishment. In WK Honig Ed , Operant Behavior Areas of Research and Application. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall. Azrin NH, Hutchinson RR, and Kake DF 1967 . Attack, avoidance, and escape reactions to aver-sive shock. J Exp Anal Behav, 10...
Olfaction
The dog's sense of smell has attracted a great deal of enthusiastic attention from both applied and scientific quarters but has only slowly received appropriate experimental study. Historically, almost supernatural capabilities were attributed to a dog's nose, often resulting in the promulgation of some rather fantastic and insupportable claims about canine olfactory abilities. In addition, many equally incredible theories have been posited regarding the way in which a dog's olfactory apparatus...
Archeological Record
Despite the difficulties, discovering when and how this enduring relationship first appeared are questions of tremendous scientific interest and importance. Authorities differ with respect to the exact historical moment or time frame, but many prehistoric sites show that a close association between humans and dogs has existed continuously for many thousands of years. Although a loose symbiotic mutualism probably existed long beforehand, the earliest archeological evidence of a true domestic dog...
Canis L Upis
Herding Dogs Terriers . European Toy Dogs Herding Dogs Terriers . European Toy Dogs Great Dane St. Bernard Newfoundland Bulldog Borzoi Saluki Afghan Deer Hounds Dingo Pariah Dogs Fig. 1.3. Various subspecies of the wolf are believed to have contributed to the genome of the domestic dog. According to one theory, the dog was independently domesticated in various parts of the world, with no single site of origin. Although grouped as though from discrete origins, the breeds included here have...
Audition
The dog's ear is composed of an outer ear pinna , auditory canal, and various structures designed to convert sound waves into auditory information. The pinna gathers and directs sound into the auditory canal, where it is carried to the tympanic membrane or eardrum. The eardrum is an extremely sensitive and elastic membrane reacting to the slightest vibrations on its surface movement of less than one-tenth the diameter of a hydrogen atom can produce an audible sensation Thompson, 1993 . The...
Predictable
Fig. 9.5. Problematical or insolvable conflict occurs in one of two general ways 1 when events are highly predictable but not adequately under the animal's control when they happen to occur P C , or 2 when the animal has a high degree of control over the event but cannot predict when it is going to happen P C . When respondent and operant events are either both unpredictable and uncontrollable P C or highly predictable and controllable P C , the result is helplessness, on the one hand, and...
Misuse and Abuse of Punishment
Punishment and other forms of aversive control e.g., aversive counterconditioning and negative reinforcement can be humane and effective behavioral tools in the hands of competent trainers, but noncontingent after the event punishment and excessive physical punishment or brutalization e.g., beating, hanging, or kicking have no legitimate place in the armamentarium of professional trainers. That such methods exist today and are employed in the name of dog training is a blemish on the profession....
Learning to Adjust and Control
The foregoing discussion has emphasized the role of early socialization and attachment in the ontogeny of puppies. Puppies that fail to receive sufficient contact during the critical period of socialization may exhibit lasting deficits in their social responsiveness and general trainability. To gain the most benefit from the least effort and investment of time, it has been demonstrated that timing is of vital importance. In fact, it has been estimated that as little as 20 minutes of social...
Classical Conditioning and Fear
Voluntary Versus Involuntary Behavior Behavior can be roughly divided into two broad categories voluntary goal directed and involuntary reflexive . This division is not arbitrary but is based on the two fundamental ways behavior is modified. Voluntary behavior is highly goal directed and influenced by the consequences it produces. involuntary behavior, on the other hand, is largely composed of automatic mechanisms operating outside of a dog's volition and ability to choose. in the case of...
Learning to Compete and Cope
With the close of the socialization period, dogs enter into a long period of juvenile development and progressive independence. The remainder of the chapter addresses the emergence of a number of prominent onto-genetic changes presaging adult social behavior and environmental adjustment. The developments between weeks 1 2 and 21 are associated with the integration of all major behavioral functional systems, maturing sensory abilities, and learning Fig. 2.7 . A dog's tendency to form lasting...
Gantt Schizokinesis Autokinesis and Effect of Person
W. Horsley Gantt 1944 viewed Pavlov's discovery of experimental neurosis as a useful animal model for understanding human psy-chopathology. As a result, he performed a series of longitudinal studies of experimentally induced neurosis in dogs. One of the dogs he studied Nick was observed for over 1 2 years. His methods for inducing neurosis were similar to those used in Pavlov's laboratory. In addition, he studied the effect of strong emotional stimuli on conditioned behavior and the development...
Learning and Behavioral Disturbances 1
One can conceive in all likelihood that, if these dogs which became ill could look back and tell what they had experienced on that occasion, they would not add a single thing to that which one would conjecture about their condition. All would declare that on every one of the occasions mentioned they were put through a difficult test, a hard situation. Some would report that they felt frequently unable to refrain from doing that which was forbidden and then they felt punished for doing it in one...
Generalization and Discrimination
An important property of the CS and CR is known as generalization. Stimulus generalization and response generalization provide the Fig. 6.12. Diagram of second-order conditioning. CS, conditioned stimulus US, unconditioned stimulus. means whereby information derived from one situation is made useful in others that are not exactly the same. Under natural conditions, animals are rarely exposed to identical stimulus events or situations thus, the ability to generalize is a vital adaptation. Dogs...
Tolmans Expectancy Theory
Edward C. Tolman 1934 adhered to many of the fundamental tenets of behaviorism but also introduced several new perspectives into the study of behavior and learning some of which were highly controversial and inconsistent with the behaviorist platform. Tolman viewed the study of behavior both as an experimental process fact finding, hypothesizing, and falsifying but also emphasized an interpretative component that evaluated the meaning or purposiveness of the behavior being studied. Most...
Neurobiology of Aggression Hypothalamus
Many studies have demonstrated that the hypothalamus plays an important role in the expression of aggression. Two broad categories of aggressive behavior have been observed in the laboratory during intracranial stimulation 1 quiet attack predatory behavior and 2 affective aggression defensive and offensive displays Fig. 3.7 . Electrical stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus results in the evocation of various predatory displays, including stalking, pouncing, and biting sequences. Quiet attack...
The Dingo A Prototypical Dog
An excellent source of ethnographic evidence outlining the general course of early domestication can be found in the enduring relationship between the Aborigines of Australia and dingoes. This symbiotic dyad provides a valuable anthropological picture of what life between primitive humans and early canids may have been like during the earliest incipient stages of domestication. In most details, dingoes differ only slightly from Asian wolves Canis lupuspallipes , except for modest behavioral and...
Info Myz
though coyotes can interbreed successfully with dogs and produce fertile offspring, the coyote is eliminated as a significant contributor to the dog's evolution by virtue of geographical considerations. Any possible role the coyote may have played in the origin of the dog is negated by the fact that its range is limited to North America and it is not found in any of those areas associated with the dog's earliest appearance. The DNA sequencing of the dog's genotype differs from the wolf's by...
CS Ytg
Fig. 6.8. Matrix showing the four basic types of classical conditioning. CS, conditioned stimulus. Fig. 6.8. Matrix showing the four basic types of classical conditioning. CS, conditioned stimulus. takes place, the clicker which had not been previously paired with the US spontaneously acquires associative strength derived through its previous presentation with the word cue Good. This phenomenon readily occurs even in cases where the delay between the two preconditioning stimuli is as long as 4...
Neurobiology of Attachment and Separation Distress
MacLean 1985 has proposed that the neural substrates mediating separation distress, maternal care, and play belong to the same paleomammalian portion of the limbic system. According to his theory, these social behavior tendencies are all elaborated within the cingulate cortex and related neural structures. He has argued that the separation call or distress vocalization is the mammal's earliest and most basic vocalization pattern. More primitive forms of animal life e.g., reptiles lacking a...
Behavioral Effects of Domestication
Although dogs share a great many behavioral characteristics with wolves, the former have undergone a tremendous transformation in the direction of enhanced docility and affectionate dependency as well as many other behavioral changes Table 1.2 . Price has argued that these changes are probably not due to a permanent loss of behavior, but rather reflect quantitative alterations lowering or raising of response thresholds mediating the expression of species-typical behavior With respect to...
The Critical or Sensitive Period Hypothesis
During development and growth, dogs undergo a process of progressive biological organization and simultaneous behavioral differentiation. This ontogenesis is marked by several more or less distinct sensitive or critical periods for the development of various psychosocial functions. The onset and offset of these stages of development are biologically defined, making the animal susceptible to the crucial experience or its absence for a limited period. Within these sensitive stages, a short...
Conflict and Neurosis
The experimental study and description of conflict was an important area of research for Neal E. Miller. Conflict occurs when incompatible responses compete simultaneously for expression, resulting in varying degrees of behavioral disturbance Conflicts can distract, delay, and fatigue the individual and force him to make maladaptive compromise responses. in fact, clinical studies demonstrate that severe conflict is one of the crucial factors in functional disorders of personality Miller, 1971 3...
Biological and Dispositional Constraints on Learning 1
At every moment an animal's sense organs are being bombarded by physical energy in many forms. To this chiaroscuro it responds selectively. The selectivity in its responsiveness must influence what it can learn. R. A. Hinde and J. Stevenson-Hinde Constraints on Learning 1973 Instincts, Fixed Action Patterns, and Functional Systems Instinctual Learning Dancing Bees Digging Wasps Preparedness and Selective Association Sensory Preparedness Cognitive Preparedness Prepared Connections Taste Aversion...
Reflexive Organization
Much of a dog's behavior is under the reflexive control of involuntary mechanisms. As discussed in Chapter 2, neonatal puppies exhibit a great variety of reflexes that are predominately geared to maintaining contact with the mother to secure basic survival needs. These early neonatal reflexes gradually disappear and are replaced by more centrally controlled behaviors as puppies mature. Neonatal reflexive behavior has been carefully studied and cataloged Fox, 1964 . Understanding how the body's...
How to Use Timeout Bridging
The effective use of TO requires that the behavior modifier adhere closely to several procedural constraints. Foremost among these considerations is the need for the TO to be well timed and bridged with the occurrence of the unwanted behavior. For TO to be effective, a direct connection must be established and maintained between the occurrence of the target behavior and the TO consequence. This is accomplished by immediately following the unwanted behavior with a conditioned punisher e.g.,...
Nature Versus Nurture
The relative importance of biology nature versus experience nurture for the organization of behavior is the central issue fueling the nature-nurture controversy. This circular and somewhat self-serving dispute is maintained, on the one hand, by proponents of nature often ethologists , who emphasize the importance of evolution and phylogenesis. On the other hand, proponents of nurture usually behaviorists underscore the ultimate importance of experience and learning. Obviously, both sides of the...
HigherOrder Classes of Behavior
The simple instrumental paradigm of learning discussed above is frequently insufficient in terms of explanatory value and practical control when applied to complex naturalistic situations. Estes drew attention to the important role of higher-order routines and classes of behavior in an effort to account for such problems with reinforcement theory. He notes that the frequency with which animals and men in nonlaboratory situations repeat punished acts and fail to repeat rewarded ones is so great...
Training and Stimulus Control
An important aspect of dog training involves bringing learned behavior under the control of cues and commands or what learning theorists call discriminative stimuli. Essentially, stimulus control refers to a process whereby a learned response is rendered more probable in the presence of some arbitrary stimulus. For example, once a dog has learned that some instrumental response is regularly associated with a specific outcome, the response-outcome relationship can be readily associated with a...
Frustration and Neurosis The Theories of Maier and Amsel
Maier's Frustrative Theory of Abnormal Fixations and Compulsions Masserman viewed the causes of neurosis from the perspective of conflict or the evocation of pathological fear and anxiety. He did not examine explicitly the implicit role of frustration. Norman R. F. Maier 1961 performed a series of experiments with rats to explore the effect of frustration on the development of neurotic behavior. Simply stated, Maier's studies involved training rats to perform a visual discrimination between two...
Abusive Punishment The Need for Universal Condemnation
The use of corporal punishment to control dog behavior is very problematical and should be avoided. Not only are such methods dangerous for inexperienced owners to employ, they are probably ineffective certainly in the sense of lasting and generalized behavioral control and are fraught with potentially serious side effects. Physical punishment of aggressive behavior can easily result in an escalation of aggression or produce a more severe and difficult problem to control. For example, although...
Extrasensory Perception
Do dogs possess a sixth sense Many authors writing to a popular audience, among them trainers, veterinarians, and behavioral consultants, have suggested that dogs may use information derived from sources other than the normal senses Fox, 1972, 1981 Wood-house, 1982 Vine, 1983 Campbell, 1986 . These beliefs have been reinforced in the public's mind by animal psychics claiming to communicate with dogs telepathically and to perform extraordinary feats, ranging from locating lost pets both dead and...
Terms and Definitions Wild Domestic and Feral
Reports following a recent fatal wolf-dog attack exemplify some of the confused ways in which terms like domestic, wild, and tame are used. The victim, a 39-year-old mother of two, was mauled and killed as her children looked on near their Colorado home. Several authorities were asked to comment on the unusual attack. It was the first documented case in which a wolf hybrid had killed an adult person. A police detective investigating the incident said, They wolf hybrids may be domesticated, but...
Excitatory Conditioning
Shock Response Partial Response NoResponse No Stimulus Fig. 6.12. Diagram of second-order conditioning. CS, conditioned stimulus US, unconditioned stimulus. first-order conditioning, higher-order conditioning is relatively weak. Pavlov was not able to establish appetitive excitatory conditioning beyond the second order, although aversive excitatory conditioning was taken to the third order when shock was employed as the original US 1927 1960 . Although the existence of higher-order conditioning...
HigherOrder Conditioning
Once a CS has been established, it can be used to condition other stimuli to elicit the CR. This is accomplished by pairing the new stimulus with the CS but omitting the presentation of the US Fig. 6.12 . The previously conditioned stimulus takes the place of the US in this arrangement. In comparison to the associative strength acquired through Fig. 6.10. The absence of conditioning in the case of the light stimulus CS1 suggests that the tone CS2 has a greater salience and overshadows the light...
Instrumental Learning
Differences Between Classical and Instrumental Conditioning 234 Theoretical Perspectives 236 Thorndike's Connectionism 236 Guthrie's Learning Theory and Behavior Modification 237 B. F. Skinner and the Analysis of Behavior 243 Basic Concepts and Principles of Instrumental Learning 245 Motivation, Learning, and Performance 249 Antecedent Control Establishing Operations and Discriminative Stimuli 250 Premack Principle The Relativity of Reinforcement 251 Learning and the Control of the Environment...
Liddell The Cornell Experiments
Howard S. Liddell 1954, 1956 studied experimental neurosis in farm animals, especially sheep and goats. Liddell's experiments involved exposing these animals to repeated simple and difficult discrimination tasks involving various stimuli and mild shocks while they were restrained in a Pavlovian frame and harness. The level of shock used by Liddell was very weak barely perceptible to a finger moistened with salt water but sufficient to elicit a vigorous unconditioned withdrawal response in the...
Neonatal Period Birth to Days
Just before birth, hormonal changes occur that cause puppies to undergo sexual dimorphism. Male puppies are exposed to a surge of testosterone, forming the foundation for malelike behavior later in life. Prenatal androgen secretions are believed to play a role in the formation of hardwired neural tracts associated with maleness. Some evidence suggests that female puppies may be affected by this androgenizing effect as well Knol and Eg-berink-Alink, 1989 . Female mice embryos located between...
Gustation
The ability to taste depends on the activation of gustatory receptor cells concentrated in the taste buds. The taste buds are found in various papillae foliate, fungiform, and circum-vallate to name the most common that are distributed over the surface of the dog's tongue. Taste buds contained in the fungi-form papillae are located on the anterior two-thirds of the tongue and transmit gustatory information via the chorda tympani, a branch of the facial nerve seventh cranial nerve . The...
Cerebral Cortex
The cortex, which is the outermost and latest development in the evolution of the vertebrate brain, is believed to be the central site of consciousness and intelligence, performing the most complex associative and mnemonic functions. The gray matter the fissured and convoluted outer surface is largely composed of neuron cell bodies stacked approximately 3 mm thick. Underlying the cortex is a white medullary structure composed of myelinated axonal fibers that communicate with different parts of...