Download Unit Five - States of Consciousness and Learning

Afternoon Naps
The afternoon siesta has been common in
many cultures around the world, particularly
those in tropical climates.
Wilse Webb and David Dinges report that
the practice wanes with industrialization. In
some cases, governments even outlaw
them.
Surveys of Americans of all ages have found
that they average one or two naps a week;
although about one quarter of people never
nap, one third nap four or five times a week.
• Napping is most common in
groups such as college
students and retirees whose
schedules may provide an
opportunity for napping.
• Historical evidence shows that
da Vinci slept more than 90
minutes a day during 15
minute “catnap” intervals.
Salvador Dali would randomly
fall asleep with a spoon in his
hand. As he slept, the spoon
would fall, waking him up…fully
rejuvenated.
• Are afternoon naps a sign of laziness?
• Research suggests…No.
• The body’s built-in seep-wake cycle seems to
include a major period of sleep at night and a
smaller period in the afternoon.
• For example, volunteers who spent weeks in
an underground room isolated from time and
clocks, seemed to sleep for two periods a
day, one a long period at night and the other
one or two hours in the afternoon.
• On average, the naps began about 12 hours
after the middle of the main period of sleep.
• Other lines of evidence also point to the
need for naps.
• Babies who begin by sleeping
frequently throughout the day usually
develop the habit of a single afternoon
nap just before they gave it up entirely
at school age.
• When do you have the most difficulty
staying awake?
• A survey of young adults showed that
they reported feeling drowsy between 3
and 5pm.
• Interestingly, this time corresponds with a
well-documented drop in people’s
performance and an increase in work and
driving accidents.
• Although some have argued that mid
afternoon drowsiness might be brought on by
a heavy lunch, studies indicate that the dip in
alertness occurs whether or not participants
have eaten.
• Naps seem to sharpen the capacity to give
sustained attention to a task and to make
complicated decisions.
• Improvement in mood is an additional
benefit, particularly in the large number of
people who slept too little at night.
• In the promise of sleep, William
Dement suggests that napping is the
most important and effective tool for
coping with sleep crises.
• He reports that laboratory experiments
at Stanford University show that
selective, strategic naps help to improve
performance.
• The longer the nap, the greater the
benefit.
• A 45 minute nap improved alertness for
6 hours after the nap…
Sleep IQ Quiz
Melatonin
• As our eyes register the fall
of darkness, the pineal
gland increases its
production of melatonin,
which circulates to all parts
of the body and causes the
slowing of biological
activity.
• When light again hits the
retina, neural impulses
signal the pineal gland to
slow melatonin production.
• A review of the research by I. Haimov
and Peretz Lavie indicates that
externally administered melatonin
significantly increases sleep propensity.
• Evidence suggests that relatively small
doses can hasten the onset of sleep
without any short-term negative side
effects.
• Those who take a modest 0.3 mg soon
feel drowsy and, if undisturbed, fall
asleep in about 30 minutes.
• At this dosage, the concentration of
melatonin in the blood rises to a level similar
to that typically found in sleeping young
adults.
• This sleep related level persists for about 6
to 8 hours.
• Older people require even lower doses to fall
asleep since their livers metabolize
melatonin more slowly.
• In contrast to sleep induced by most
drugs, melatonin-induced sleep seems
to be remarkably normal.
• The stages of both REM and non-REM
sleep seem to occur during the regular
periods.
• Most users do not seem to feel drowsy
in the morning and do not report side
effects.
• Melatonin seems to promote sleep at
any time of the day.
• This data suggests that melatonin may be
helpful for those who need to sleep during
the day due to a job (pilots working night
shifts, etc.).
• Reliable information concerning long-term
effects of melatonin administration is lacking
and abnormally high levels of melatonin have
been found in patients who had deficient
levels of gonadatropic and sex hormones.
• For this reason, they caution against
prolonged use of melatonin during puberty, a
period of intensive sexual development.
• Some health stores sell
dosages containing 3mg of
melatonin which is three
times the dose that
promotes normal sleep.
• Too high a level may
possibly cause nightmares,
nighttime headaches, or
even disorientation.
• Because it can constrict
blood vessels, melatonin
may pose a danger to
those with cardiovascular
disease.
• The FDA has not approved melatonin as
a treatment for insomnia.
• However, being a natural substance,
melatonin became available without
testing.
• People can take any dose they like.
• Moreover, the manufacture of
melatonin sold in health stores is not
policed to guarantee purity and thus
should probably be avoided.
Sleep Deprivation Quiz
Am I Sleep Deprived?
• If you answered “true” to three or more of
the 15 items, you are probably not getting
enough sleep!
• Psychologist James Maas notes that the effect
of sleep loss is cumulative.
• Each person maintains a personal “sleep
bank” account.
• The sleep we get is a deposit into the
account, and every hour of wakefulness is a
withdrawal or debt.
• A one hour sleep loss every night for a week,
he argues, is the equivalent of pulling an “all
nighter.”
• When we do not get enough sleep we pay
the price in terms of our productivity
throughout the day.
• Data suggests that if all distractions are
removed, people sleep on average from 9-10
hours a day.
• Even when placed in a situation with 14 or
more hours of consecutive darkness, people
will only sleep or 9-10 hours.
Sleep Disorders
• Narcolepsy or “sleep attacks.”
• Sleepy all the time, narcoleptics find
that they often fall asleep without
realizing it.
• William Dement reports a case of a
narcoleptic woman who once fell
asleep 20 feet under water while
scuba diving, and another of a
fireman who had an attack while
climbing a ladder into a burning
building.
• In fact…Falling asleep in the middle
of “love making” is not unusual for
narcoleptics.
• ….Ewwwww…..
• The most dramatic form of the
syndrome is called “cataplaxy” – attacks
of muscle weakness and near-total
paralysis.
• The sleep attack is often triggered by
the intense emotion associated with
stress, laughter, anger, or surprise.
• Sleep attacks generally last less than 5
minutes but may last up to 20 minutes.
• At present, there is no cure for
narcolepsy.
Rusty the Narcoleptic Dog
• Sleep Apnea.
• Apnea literally means “cessation of
respiration.”
• It is a serious and potentially life-threatening
disorder.
• In apnea the change from wakefulness to
sleep causes the central nervous system to
cease functioning.
• There are two forms of apnea: in central
sleep apnea, after the individual falls asleep,
the diaphragm stops moving because the
brain no longer sends impulses to control it.
• In upper-airway sleep apnea, breathing is
blocked by the loss of muscle tone in the
tongue, throat, and larynx.
• Intermittent loud snoring frequently
accompanies the disorder as the individual
struggles to fill their lungs with air.
• In addition, elevated blood pressure may
occur, placing additional strain on the heart.
• After about 60 to 100 seconds of sleep, the
person awakens and takes a series of choking
breaths.
• As a rule, the arousal lasts a few seconds as
the blood gases quickly normalize and the
individual returns to sleep.
• This cycle repeats itself throughout the night.
These individuals are oblivious to the fact that
they cannot breathe and sleep at the same
time.
• There are others however, who do not return
to sleep and fall into periods of prolonged
insomnia.
• Help? Air masks, chin straps, tongue
surgery…
• Sleepwalking and Night Terrors!
• These disorders occur primarily in children
and typically disappear by adolescence.
However, they can continue into adulthood.
• Parents who worry about the psychological
significance of this probably suffer more tan
their children, who typically wake up the next
morning unaware that anything unusual has
happened.
• Laboratory studies indicate that these
episodes occur in the first deep stage 4 sleep
of the night and are generally associated with
intense body movements.
• Brain wave recordings indicate that both
sleepwalkers and night terror victims are
passing back and forth rapidly between sleep
and wakefulness.
• Sleepwalking often occurs when people are
very sleep deprived.
• The night terror is typically accompanied by a
blood-curdling scream that brings parents
rushing to the child’s bed.
• The dazed and groggy child cannot report
what is wrong. Typically, the child falls back
to sleep more quickly than the parents and is
normal the next day.
• These non-REM sleep disorders tend to
run in families.
Night Terrors
• Insomnia.
• In the National Sleep Foundation
“2005 Sleep in America” poll, 54
percent of respondents reported
that, within the past year, they had
experienced at least one symptom
of insomnia at least a few nights a
week, and 33 percent said that they
had experienced at least one
symptom every night or every other
night.
• The more common symptoms of
insomnia include waking up feeling
un refreshed (28 percent) and
frequently waking up a lot during
the night (32 percent.)
• Less frequently reported symptoms are
difficulty falling asleep (21 percent) and
waking up to early and not being able to go
back to sleep (21 percent).
• When insomnia occurs most nights for more
than three or four weeks, it is considered
chronic.
• Chronic anxiety, depression, situational
stress, and stimulus overload are among the
important psychological causes of insomnia
that account for about 50 percent of people
with the disorder.
• Drugs, including caffeine, alcohol, and
nicotine, account for another 10 percent
of all cases.
• Decongestants and medicine prescribed
for asthma account for another 10
percent.
• Another 30 percent of insomnia cases
occur for no apparent reason.
Treating Insomnia
• Subjects who are having trouble falling
asleep are asked to use these strategies
(suggested by Dr. Gregg Jacobs):
– 1. Sleep Restriction: Do not spend more
than 7 hours in bed or stay in bed more
than an hour beyond your average
sleeping time. Avoid naps, and arise at the
same time every morning…Including
weekends.
– 2. Stimulus control: Go to bed only when
sleepy, and use the bed only for sleep or
relaxing activities. If you cannot fall asleep
within 20 minutes, stop trying and go do
something relaxing until you feel sleepy
again.
– 3. Relaxation response training: Use
soothing visual imagery, rhythmic
breathing, and muscle relaxation to calm
yourself, at first in the daytime, and then
before you sleep.
• Before treatment, subjects needed an
average of 80 minutes to fall asleep. They
also reported higher levels of anxiety and
depression when compared to a control
group.
• After 10 weeks of the treatment, it took the
subjects an average of 19 minutes to fall
asleep, and their total sleep increased by
about an hour.
• Anxiety and depression were also greatly
reduced.
• Perhaps most importantly, these gains were
evident a full 6 months after treatment.
Remembering Night Dreams
• Of the more than 1000 Psychology Today
readers who responded to a questionnaire,
an overwhelming 95 percent said they
remember some of their dreams and 68
percent reported having a recurring dream.
• 39 percent of the respondents claimed to be
able to “control the course of their dreams.”
• The most frequently mentioned theme was
“falling” or being “chased,” but only 28
percent said they had ever died in a dream.
• 45 percent of readers had dreams
about celebrities…
• What do college students dram about?
• Psychologists Hall and Van de Castle
analyzed the reports of 1650 dreams by
college students and found that most
dreams were rather commonplace.
• They occur in familiar settings, and the
dreamers are usually in the company of
someone they know.
• Aggressive encounters are slightly more
common than friendly ones.
• Misfortune and failure occur more often than
success.
• Apprehension is the most common emotion.
• Sexual content was reported in only 12
percent of the dreams of males and 4 percent
of the dreams of females on average.
• Interestingly, in studies of American,
Argentinean, and Brazilian individuals, it was
found that Brazilians tend to have more
emotional and sexual dreams. Argentineans
dream more about aggression, and
Americans (U.S.) tend t have different
dreams depending on where they live.
Hypnosis as Heightened Suggestibility
• Can I borrow someone’s left shoe?
• Can I borrow a watch from someone?
• Would someone let me borrow their cell
phone?
• And…Could I please borrow a wallet and/or a
purse?
• Does anyone have a $10 or $20 bill I could
borrow?
• ….
• Why did you just give me these things?
Would you have given these items to a
stranger?
• The power of hypnotism lies
not in the hypnotist but in the
person’s openness to
suggestion.
• Most of us are more
suggestible than we think,
even during normal waking
consciousness.
• Stage hypnotists make ready
use of this fact when they
suggest to their audience that
they will begin to experience
itching sensations on various
parts of their body…On their
head…arms…backs…legs.
•  scratch…scratch…
• Before long…many in the
audience usually follow suit.
• Hold your hands in fists in front of you about
18 inches apart with your index fingers
pointing towards each other!
• DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!!
• Ok…
• Your hands are becoming very weary in this
position.
• Perhaps, shaking just a bit, so your fingertips
are not pointing precisely together.
• Now…Bring your fingertips together quickly in
one motion…
• Did you miss? I wonder why…See the yellow
sentence…
•
•
•
•
This is fun!
Imagine you are cutting a lemon.
Do it! Don’t be a loser…
Ok…The lemon is
large…sour…bitter…so full of lemon
juice that it rips over your fingers and
falls to the floor…
• Now, imagine slowly sucking the juice
from that lemon…
• Haha…this is so easy…
• So what exactly is hypnosis?
• Hypnosis: A state of consciousness resulting from a
narrowed focus of attention and characterized by
heightened suggestibility.
• Hmmm, how does it work?
• Well, at all times certain thoughts and sensations are
filtered out of our awareness.
• For Example; as you read this sentence, you were
probably not aware of the position of your feet until I
called attention to that. By mentioning the position
of your feet, your attention has not shifted to your
feet – an area of the body that seconds before was
outside of your consciousness…
• Hypnosis shifts our perceptions in the same way.
• PS…Your feet look really funny right no. Just
saying…
Creative Imagination Scale
Arm heaviness and mind-body relaxation
tests
TRG 7-18,19
Using Hypnosis on…Pain?
• Victor Rausch entered a hypnotic trance by
focusing on Chopin’s Lush Nocturne in EFlat, as it was played in the movie “the Eddy
Duchin Story”.
• Rausch visualized scenes from the movie
and wrapped his mind in appealing
thoughts.
• Rausch’s blood pressure and pulse
remained steady for 75 minutes.
• During this 75 minutes, Rausch was
undergoing a gallbladder operation!
• He had refused the anesthetic, and during
the surgery, he swears he felt no pain – Just
a little “tugging.” He even talked and joked
with the surgical team during the
procedure.
• After the surgery, he stood up and walked
down the hall, riding the elevator to his
hospital room.
• Surgery without anesthesia
may sound like a trick, but
such operations have been
performed by hypnotizing the
patient.
• Although hypnosis still
conjures up images of a
circus magician saying, “you
are getting sleepy, very
sleepy…,” researchers are
learning more about this
mind-body connection.
• Doctors and therapists use
hypnosis to help people quit
smoking, lose weight,
manage stress, overcome
phobias, and diminish pain.
• Psychologist David Patterson has found that
hypnosis can be used to treat acute pain.
• Acute pain is usually caused by trauma or
medical procedures, often responds well to
pain medications, and is of shorter duration
but greater intensity than chronic pain, which
usually lasts at least six months and responds
poorly to pain medications.
• In seventeen studies of acute pain , hypnosis
faired very well in comparison with pain
medication. In twelve studies of hypnosis
use on chronic pain, the hypnosis seemed to
help, but not any differently than simple
relaxation techniques.
• In short, acute pain seems far more
susceptible to hypnotic intervention than
chronic pain.
• Hypnotic suggestion for acute pain focuses on
the sensation itself.
• For example, before a medical procedure
patients are given suggestions that they will
experience various perceptions that are
congruent with increased pain control and
well –being, such as numbing relaxation, and
sense of control.
• Using hypnosis for chronic pain is much more
difficult as the pain lasts much longer and is
much harder to “move outside of your focus.”
• Research suggests that this is far less
effective.
The LSD Experience
• The best known, most
extensively studied, and most
potent hallucinogen is LSD
(lysergic acid diethylamide).
• LSD: A potent psychedelic
drug that produces distortions
of perception and thought.
• Other names for LSD: Acid,
Dots, Blotter, Mellow Yellow.
• In fact, LSD is one of the
most powerful drugs there
are.
• LSD is a synthetic substance.
• A dose of a few millionths of a
gram has a noticeable effect;
an average dose of 100 to 300
micrograms produces an
experiential state, called a
“trip,” that lasts from 6 to 14
hours.
• To control such small doses,
the producers of LSD usually
dissolve the drug into small
pieces of paper called
“stamps” or small sugar cubes
called “dots.”
• During an LSD trip, a person can experience
any number of perceptions, often quite
intense and rapidly changing.
• The person’s expectations, beliefs, mood, and
the circumstances under which he or she took
the “acid” can effect the experience,
sometimes making it terrifying.
• Perceptual hallucinations are very common
with the use of LSD.
• Users may experience hallucinatory
progressions in which simple geometric forms
evolve into surrealistic impossibilities.
• Vision seems to be the sense most affected
by the drug.
• Although there is a feeling of perceptual
sharpness, illusions develop as both people
and objects in the immediate environment
seem to change shape and color, walls and
other objects become wavy, and bizarre
shapes and designs that have no basis in
reality appear to the user.
• Some individuals are unable to distinguish
between past, present, and future.
• Proponents of the drug felt like it “opened”
the mind, allowed personal insight, allowed
one to understand their “place in the
universe,” and enhanced creativity.
• Critics have noted that the drug disrupts the
balance between intuition and analytic
thinking tat is required for creativity.
Moreover, it affects your motor abilities.
• The experience is also accompanied by an
elevated heart rate, body temperature, and
blood pressure, and faster, more erratic
breathing.
• Some experiences, referred to as “bad trips”
can be very traumatic.
• Hallucinations, even of ones own body image,
can be grotesque and threatening.
• People may feel completely out of control,
believe they can fly, walk on water, or
perform some other amazing feat.
• There may be a feeling of paranoia and a fear
not only of strangers, but of relatives as well.
• Depression and acute anxiety can and often
do lead to dangerous acts, the most extreme
being suicide.
LSD British Soldier Test
Marijuana….
• And in case you are confused: grass,
pot, weed, chronic, bud, dope, ganja,
herb, homegrown, indo, hydro, shake,
Mary Jane…
• Used as an intoxicant among Eastern
cultures, marijuana is legally and
morally acceptable in some societies,
where as alcohol is not.
• The sale and possession of marijuana is
against the law in most of the United
States.
• Before 1960, marijuana use in the
United States was common only among
members of certain subcultures.
Marijuana use increased through the
60’s and 70’s, but then suffered a
significant decline.
• So what is marijuana?
• Marijuana: The dried leaves
and flowers of Indian hemp
(Cannabis sativa) that
produce an altered state of
consciousness when smoked
or ingested.
• The active ingredient in
marijuana is a complex
molecule called
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),
which occurs naturally in the
common weed Cannabis
sativa (hemp.)
• Marijuana can be either
smoked or eaten to produce
certain effects.
* The effects of marijuana vary somewhat from
person to person and also seem to depend on
the setting in which the drug is taken and the
user’s past experience.
• These effects can be both pleasant and
unpleasant.
• In general, though, many marijuana users
report most sensory experiences seem greatly
augmented – music sounds fuller, colors look
brighter, smells are stronger, foods have
stronger flavors, and other experiences are
more intense than usual.
• Users may feel elated, the world may seem
somehow more meaningful, and even the
most ordinary events may take on
extraordinary significance.
• Marijuana is not a physically addictive drug, as
heroin is, but people may become
psychologically addicted or dependent on the
drug.
• Marijuana can also instill or heighten a variety
of unpleasant experiences.
• If a person is frightened, unhappy, or
depressed to begin with, the chances are good
that taking the drug will blow the negative
feelings out of proportion so that the user’s
world, at least temporarily, becomes very
upsetting.
• Cases have been reported in which marijuana
appears to have helped bring on psychological
disturbances in people who are already
unstable before they used it. (Marijuana
Psychosis. You will see a video clip on this
later in the year.)
• Studies suggest that marijuana
use is more damaging to the
lungs than cigarette use.
• While cigarettes have been
proven to be more prone to
cause cancer and other physical
ailments for a variety of
reasons, studies have shown
that marijuana can be deadly in
a different way.
• Marijuana users hold marijuana
smoke, tar, carbon monoxide,
and other chemicals in their
lungs for 20 to 40 seconds,
creating the deadly potential for
extreme damage to the lining of
the lungs.
Brilliant…
• Marijuana also disrupts
memory formation,
making it difficult to
carry out mental and
physical tasks.
• Research has also
shown that adults who
are habitually using
marijuana scored much
lower than equal – IQ
nonusers on a 12th
grade academic
achievement test.
Factors in Drug Use
• Psychologist Deborah Franklin cites the
following factors that influence drug use:
– 1. The nature of the drug itself is important. The
more intense the euphoria and the faster it is
over, the more likely it is that users will take large
doses of the drug often. This explains why crack
cocaine is more likely to produce dependency than
the slower-acting powder and why both drugs are
more likely to be addictive than LSD. If a drug
triggers painful withdrawal symptoms, as is
characteristic of alcohol, barbiturates, and
narcotics, a heavy user is more likely to continue
use to avoid the pain.
– 2. Biological factors are also important.
Having had an alcoholic parent greatly
increases the risk of a drinking problem,
partly because of inherited body chemistry.
Abuse of other drugs may also have a
genetic component. Some researchers
believe that certain people will experience
the exhilaration of a drug’s high, as well as
the pain of withdrawal, more acutely than
others of genetic differences because of
genetic differences in the way their bodies
metabolize the drug.
– 3. Psychological
factors that seem to
support drug use
include feelings of
depression, low selfesteem,
powerlessness, and
the absence of
values – for example,
religious tenets –
that encourage
sobriety.
– 4. The social factors contributing to drug
use include a barren environment that
offers few opportunities or alternative
pleasures. Urban slums, prisons, and war
zones are prime examples. Social norms
also govern the acceptability of drug use.
For example, in the United States, it is
generally permissible to drink alcohol in the
early evening but not the morning. It’s
okay to get drunk on Friday night with
friends but not Monday night. Finally,
having a cheap, plentiful drug supply
increases use, especially if one is
surrounded by drug users.
I NEED a Volunteer!

Oh…You might get a bit wet…
Human Taste Aversions
• Psychologist Paul Rozin states,
“many people find slimy foods
upsetting or anything with a
mucoid texture.”
• This is an example of what he
calls “secondary disgust,”
disgust for something that
looks or feels similar to
something disgusting in its own
right.
• Rozin notes that in one of his
studies, participants were
presented with two pieces of
chocolate fudge, one shaped
like a muffin, the other like dog
droppings.
• Guess which one was avoided?
• For the following questions, I
want you to think of a bowl of
soup that you like. Please
respond in the following
manner:
–1. Dislike
–5. Neutral
–10. Like
• 1. Now imagine that the soup was served to
you in an ordinary bowl, but had been stirred
by a thoroughly washed, but used, fly
swatter. How much would you like to eat the
soup?
• 2. If the fly swatter were brand new…How
much would you like to eat the soup?
• 3. If the soup were first stirred with a
washed but used comb…How much would
you like to eat the soup?
• 4. If the soup was served in a thoroughly
washed but used dog bowl…How much would
you like to eat the soup?
• Now fantasize about your favorite
cookie. Here we go again:
• 5. Would you eat it if you dropped it in
the grass first?
• 6. Would you eat it if the waiter had
taken a bite first? What about a person
that you just met?
Association is everything when it comes
to food!
Cognitive Processes in Learning
• Classical Conditioning Discussion (Squirt
Gun)…How and why does it work?
• The Office
Biological Predispositions
• In 1924, Watson stated: “The importance of
stimulus substitution or stimulus conditioning
cannot be over stated…so far as we
know…we can take any stimulus calling out a
standard reaction and substitute another
stimulus for it.”
• Psychologists Nisbett and Ross note that few
hypotheses in psychology have ever been so
amply disconfirmed, although it took nearly
four decades of research to realize it.
• Although Watson was able to successfully
condition “Little Albert” to fear a rat by
pairing it with a loud noise, other experiments
were not as successful.
• One of Watson’s students tried pairing a
block of wood with a loud noise…but
conditioning failed to occur.
• Basically, not all conditioning will work, but
some will. It depends on the issue, the
setting, and what s being attempted.
Little Albert Tests
Messing With Kids

The Association Principle
• Advertisers, of course, apply this
principle regularly.
• By associating a physically attractive
model with an automobile, for example,
they hope we will see the product as
more desirable.
• Does it work?
• In one study, men who saw a car ad
that included a seductive young
woman, rated the car as faster, better
designed, and more appealing than
men who saw the same car ad without
the model.
• When asked, the men refused to
believe that the model had anything to
do with their judgments…
• BMW Commercial
• Associating celebrities with products is
another technique used by advertisers.
Movie stars and professional athletes
are paid to endorse products that are
unrelated to their jobs (cars, soft
drinks, food, perfume, etc.)
• The connection does not have to be
logical…Just enough to elicit a positive
reaction.
• Aguilera Perfume Commercial
• We Will Rock…Pepsi? Umm…ok, yes, very
logical.
• Of course! Brad Pitt wears…Levi’s?
• Bird and Jordan always fight over
Mcdonald’s…They cannot afford more than
one…duh.
• Could it be?...Not the Trifecta! Model + Actor
+ Unrelated product...No way!
• Politicians attempt to link themselves with
positive values, including motherhood and
apple pie.
• Particularly, the president tries to sway
undecided voters over a meal. Fundraisers
are held as “dinners” or “luncheons.”
• Research suggests that associating people or
things with food is a very effective technique.
People seem more approving of people or
slogans that are associated with food.
• Interestingly, slogans or people associated
with putrid odors are disliked.
• The association principle also explains why
radio announcers are instructed to mention
the stations call letters just before playing a
hit song.
• We all recognize how this principle works.
We associate ourselves with good news but
not bad.
• Students in an experiment were assigned the
task of informing a fellow student that he was
wanted for an important phone call.
• Half of the time the call reportedly brought
good news, the other half of the time bad
news.
• When the news was good, the student
who was asked to relay it was always
sure to mention it “You just got a
phone call with some great news.”
• When the news was bad, it was always
“you got a phone call. It might be
important.”
• We associate ourselves with our
favorite sports teams when “we” win,
but not when “they” lose.
• “We” beat you 17-14. You suck.
• Eh, “they” lost 14-17. No big deal.
Pop Warner
Operant Conditioning
• Ok, so, suppose you have a dinosaur!
Yes a dinosaur!
• Your dinosaur is wandering around the
neighborhood, sniffing trees, checking
garbage cans, and looking for a
squirrel to chase.
• A kind neighbor sees the dinosaur and
tosses a bone out of the kitchen door
to it.
• The next day the dinosaur is likely to
stop at the same door on it’s rounds.
Once again your neighbor produces
another bone, so the dinosaur becomes
a regular visitor!
• Why?
• Well I’ll tell ya why! Hold your
horses!
• Well, ummm, see, there’s this,
well, ummm, thing called, like,
operant conditioning.
• Operant Conditioning: Learning in
which a certain action is reinforced
or punished, resulting in
corresponding increases and
decreases in occurrence.
• Operant = operates due to a
change yo.
Operant Conditioning
• B.F. Skinner – Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement vs. Punishment
• Reinforcement: Stimulus or event
follows a response and increases the
likelihood that the response will be
repeated.
• Examples of reinforcers:
•
•
•
•
Social Approval
Money
Extra privileges
Giving a dog a treat when it shakes your
hand.
• Aversive Control: Process of
Influencing behavior by means of
some form of “unpleasant” stimuli!
Funny Fishies!
Aversive Control vs. Negative Reinforcement
• In the concept of negative
reinforcement, a painful or unpleasant
stimulus is removed. The removal of
unpleasant consequences increases the
frequency of a behavior.
• Negative Reinforcement: Increasing
the strength of a given response by
removing or preventing a painful
stimulus when the response occurs.
Examples of Negative Reinforcement
• 1. Taking aspirin to relieve a headache.
• 2. Hurrying home in the winter to get out of the
cold.
• 3. Giving in to an argument or to a dog’s begging.
• 4. Fanning oneself to escape the heat.
• 5. Leaving a movie theater if the movie is bad.
• 6. Smoking in order to relieve anxiety.
• 7. Following prison rules in order to be released from
confinement.
• 8. Faking a stomach ache in order to avoid school.
• 9. Putting on your seatbelt to stop the annoying
buzzing sound.
• 10. Turning down the volume of a very loud radio.
• 11. Putting up an umbrella to escape the rain.
• 12. Saying “uncle” to stop the beatings…
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Fixed-Ratio Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement in
which a specific number of correct responses is
required before reinforcement can be obtained.
• Variable-Ratio Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement
in which an unpredictable number of responses are
required before reinforcement can be obtained.
• Fixed-Interval Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement
in which a specific amount of time must elapse
before a response will elicit reinforcement.
• Variable-Interval Schedule: A pattern of
reinforcement in which changing amounts of time
must elapse before a response will obtain
reinforcement.
Couch Potatoes/Operant Conditioning
• Psychologist David Allison of Columbia
University recently reported a “nifty”
application of the operant conditioning
principles to both weight control and
leisure management in children.
• Presenting at the Experimental Biology
meeting in Washington, D.C. in April
1999, Allison described how his team
successfully got overweight, sedentary
children moving while watching TV.
• The researchers wondered
what would happen if kids
had to ride a stationary
bicycle to keep the television
on.
• So they created TV-cycles
and randomly assigned
overweight 8 to 12 year olds
on two conditions.
• In one condition, children
had to pedal in order to
keep their TV on.
• In the second condition, a
bicycle was present, but not
necessary for the TV’s
operation.
• Results?
• Children who had to pedal to watch TV
biked an average of an hour a week
while the others only biked an average
of only 8 minutes a week.
• The treatment group watched one hour
of TV per week, while the controls
watched over 20 hours.
• Equally significant was the finding that
the treatment group significantly
decreased overall body fat.
• “This was a non-nagging approach to
get kids to exercise,” claimed Allison.
• “We told parents just to let the bicycle
do the work.”
• One problem, however, was that it was
difficult on parents themselves not to
be able to watch TV. They had to find
other ways to occupy their kids.
Remote Controlled Rats
• Psychologists at the State
University of New York recently
reported a fascinating application
of operant conditioning
principles.
• The researchers implanted tiny
stimulating electrodes into the
brains of five rats and then used
a laptop to guide them over an
obstacle course and through a
maze.
• “Our rats,” report the research
team, “were easily guided
through pipes and across
elevated runways and ledges,
and could be instructed to climb
or jump.
• They were even able to lead the rats over
piles of rubble and through bright, open fields
– an environment rats normally avoid.
• Such remote controlled rats may eventually
serve as “living robots” for land-mine
detection and search—and-rescue missions
after a disaster or terrorist attack.
• For example, a rat fitted with a microphone
and video camera could be directed to where
people are believed to be buried alive.
• How does this all work?
• The researchers planted
electrodes in two
regions of the rat’s
brain: the
somatosensory cortex,
which receives signals
when the rats whiskers
brush against
something, and the
medial forebrain bundle,
whose activation
produces reward
signals.
• A tiny electronic
backpack on top of
each rat took signals
from the laptop that
was up to 500 feet
away
• When the left somatosensory cortex
was stimulated, the rat interpreted it as
a signal that something had brushed its
right whiskers and it immediately
turned right.
• Similarly, activating the right
somatosensory cortex made the rat turn
left.
• After the rat made the correct turn, the
researchers activated the electrode in
the rat’s reward center, thereby
delivering positive reinforcement.
• Poor Little Guy