Ethology

For ethologists, motivation and emotion are seen as two names for the same concept: buildup of action-specific energy

Intention Movements

Intention movements: innate expressions of an animal’s state, which has evolved from intention movements: indicators of a behaviour that an organism is about to make
Expressive behaviours are seen when opposing emotions are present and tend to be a mixture of behaviors involved in the conflicting states
Intention movements will be informative to the extent that other members of the individual’s group recognize them as a signal of behaviour that may occur i.e.

crying brings adult to aid of infant

Miller’s rhesus monkeys: could “send” appropriate facial expressions and “receive” these expressions and alter their behaviour as a result –

Non-Verbal Cues

Non-verbal cues: facial expressions, gestures, and calls that often accompany emotional behaviour o The ability to send and receive emotional cues may involve an interaction between innate and acquired patterns of behaviour
Study: when a participant expressed emotion through facial movements, the observer was able to correctly predict what type of slide the first person was watching and whether the person experienced it as pleasurable or unpleasurable o We are good at sending and receiving signals that reflect our general mood but not so good at indicating non-verbally why we feel the way we do (reasons for pleasure or displeasure)

o Thus, humans, like monkeys, can communicate feelings through nonverbal cues

Women communicate emotion nonverbally better than men because they were more facially expressive

Society teaches little girls to express emotion internally (openly) while boys are taught express the, externally (inhibit them)

Emotional expression is innate but can be altered by experience
Children communication emotion through facial expression at young as age 4
Observers were better at judging the pleasantness or unplesasantness of the emotion expressed than they were at judging the particular category of emotion
Emotional expression through facial movements indicates emotional mood but not the causes of that mood
Most people can correctly identify various emotional states, even when given very brief exposures to the nonverbal cues
Women were more sensitive than men to nonverbal cues, especially body cues
Women are better than men at sending nonverbal info and detecting it in others
Haith’s experiment on the visual fixation of faces by infants: infants 3-5 weeks old could barely fixate the face of an adult vs. 7 months were fixed on the face very well o Eyes become important fixation points b/c they serve as source of signals or cues in social situation
Humans are sensitive to the nonverbal expression of emotion and though learning is involved in this ability, some components of emotional expression and recognition of the same are innate
Humans communicate affect nonverbally and “read” the nonverbal emotional signals of others

Brain Mechanisms of Emotion

Papez suggested that there was a system of structures within the brain that was concerned w/emotional expression
Limbic system: parts of body involved in emotional expression; includes hypothalamus, amygdala, anterior thalamic nuclei, cingulate gyrus and hippocampus
Amygdala: primary structure concerned with the production and governance of the expression of emotions

 An emotional response has 3 components:

Emotional behaviours: muscular changes that are appropriate to the environmental context in which those behaviours occur i.e. angry person may clench their fist and may be seen as preparation to fight
Autonomic changes: make additional energy available quickly and prepare the individual for more intense behaviours i.e. rapid movements or stronger responses
Hormonal changes: production of epinephrine and norepinephrine by the adrenal medulla help sustain autonomic changes.

The Amygdala, Orbital Frontal Cortex, and Cingulate Cortex

Amygdala: complex structure located within the temporal lobe; consists of approximately 12 different nuclei (groups of cells) o Major divisions relevant to emotion: medial nucleus, the late rand basolateral nuclei, central nucleus and basal nucleus
Inputs to amygdala from thalamus and sensory cortex provide sensory info to amygdala that are emotionally relevant
Hippocampus provides a route through which cortical associations could also influence emotional responsiveness and provide a route where conditioning of fear may occur
Inputs to and from the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) (brain region close to the eye sockets) provide info to amygdala that may be important for emotionality produced by social situations
Phineas Gage: damage to frontal lobe = big change in processing of emotion, changes in personality and trouble making rational decisions about personal and social matters
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC): includes orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex o vmPFC: integrates computations of neocortex w/more basic bodily and emotional info

o Anterior cingulated cortex: involved in cognitive-emotional interactions and has connections w/amygdala)

Amygdala is important in recognition of facial expressions of emotion, especially fear
In humans, amygdala activation processes stimuli that have some biologically relevant, but presently unclear, predictive value o Amygdala does this by modulating vigilance in order to gain additional information to resolve the situation i.e. sensitivity to facial expressions of fear lead to processing of additional cues from environment In order to understand this situation
Summary: amygdala is crucial to the behavioural, autonomic and hormonal changes that occur in emotional situations and probably contributes to the cognitive aspects of emotion as well

Emotion from a Learning Perspective

Classical Conditioning and Emotion

Many emotions we experience result from the accidental pairing of stimuli in the environment w/things that happen to us
Positive and negative emotions can be acquired from this, which can lead us to re-experience the emotion when presented with those stimuli i.e. would explain why sometimes old songs make us feel good – was associated w/good experiences in the past

Conditioned fear: when stimuli is associated w/unpleasant experiences in the past, calling up some of the negative emotionality previously associated with those stimuli i.e. kid frightened by un-leashed dog will be fearful around dog in the future, even when it is leashed o Associated w/activity in the amygdala; amygdala is crucial in the development of emotional learning

Basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA): important for the association of conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in conditioned fear situations o This association enables CS to call forth the emotional or motivational value of the UCS to which it is connected
Central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA): involved w/control of the hypothalamus, midbrain, and brainstem areas concerned with arousal and responding; also involved in some conditioned responses

Operant/Instrumental Conditioning and Emotion

In operant conditioning, the consequences of a response (i.e. reinforcement = more likely or punishment = less likely) alter the future probability of that response
When a response is followed by “something good” (i.e. reinforcer) we are likely to repeat the response and we find it to be an emotionally positive experience and
Response-consequence contingencies both motivate us and alter our emotional experience:
- When a response is followed by “something good” (i.e. reinforcer) we are likely to repeat the response and we find it to be an emotionally positive experience and
- When response we have made is followed by “something bad” (i.e.

punisher) we are less likely to behave that way in the future and we find it to be an unpleasant experience emotionally

Amygdala + associated areas (i.e. orbital frontal cortex and the anterior cingulated cortex) are intimately involved in processes of emotion
Above 3 are connected to the nucleus accumbens (Acb), directly or indirectly
Acb is crucial for the reinforcing effects of natural reinforcers (i.e. food, water, sex) and artificial reinforcers (i.e. drugs)
Natural and artificial reinforcers stimulate the release of dopamine (DA) in the Acb and are thought by some researchers to produce the pleasurable effects of reinforcement; however aversive stimuli can also cause the release of DA in the nucleus accumbens
DA and NMDA glutamate receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of rats also play a crucial role in producing operant and instrumental conditioning
Thus, circuitry including frontal areas of the cortex (OFC, ACC, mPFC), the amygdala (BLA and CeA) and the nucleus accumbens are importantly involved in the association of responses and their consequences in operant conditioning Emotional Modeling
Observational learning/modeling: emotionality can also be learned through the observation of others
We are sensitive to facial, vocal and postural indications of emotional arousal in others and we note them
We are influenced by the emotionality of models who are important to us, usually in motion pictures, television shows, etc.
Emotional learning via observation occurs very early in development

The Preparedness of Emotional Learning

General process learning theory: assumes that one response can be learned just as easily as any other and rules by which learning occurs is the same across all organisms; theory needs to be modified o Some responses are easily learned, some with difficulty and others unlearned
- You cannot adequately understand, control or predict an organism’s behaviour unless you know something about its instinctive patterns, evolutionary history and ecological niche
Preparedness hypothesis: diff species will have evolved diff prepared, unprepared and contraprepared associations as a result of selective pressures of evolution o Thus one species may quickly learn a response to one set of environmental circumstances but not to another set because evolution has prepared one type of association to be easily formed while, at the same time, making other associations difficult or impossible
- Associations of events in environment are described as continuum:

Prepared associations: events that can be easily and quickly associated (at one extreme) i.e. phobias
Unprepared associations: can be learned, but numerous experiences with the events are necessary for an association to be formed (middle of extremes)
Contraprepared associations: associations that an organism cannot learn (other extreme)

Phobias: unreasonable fear of some object, situation, or symbol that has no basis

 leads to highly emotion behaviour: irrational fear

Problems w/phobias interpreted as example of classical conditioning:
- Phobias are very resistant to extinction vs. lab conditioning of fear extinguishes more easily
- Sometimes phobic reactions have been learned in as little as one exposure vs. conditioned fear in lab usually takes 3 to 6 trials to become established
- Common phobias represent non-arbitrary set of conditions (i.e. heights, dark, closed spaces) vs. conditioned stimuli are supposed to be arbitrary: any neutral stimulus can become conditioned if paired with an unconditioned stimulus

- Most phobic reactions are to objects of natural origin b/c evolution has adapted us to be particularly sensitive to forming relationships between fearfulness and natural phenomena such as darkness and heights

Strong overlap in characteristics of phobias and prepared behaviours; both: (1) can be learned in one trial, (2) Both phobias and prepared behaviours can be learned in one trial, (2) are nonarbitrary set of situations, (3) very resistant in nature, (4) non-cognitive in nature
Certain common phobias may develop because humans are prepared to make associations between fear and particular situations

Emotion from a Cognitive Perspective

Cognitive processes are important in experience of emotion
Cognitive appraisal: cognitive approaches to understanding emotion o Thus, we must asses a situation as emotion producing before we experience emotion b/c bodily changes are insufficient for the experience
When arousal occurs, a cognitive label is attached to the arousal, and both are necessary for the experience of emotion o Thus when aroused, cues suggest pleasantness, we are happy; but same arousal in the presence of diff cues can make us feel angry

Attribution of Emotion

Experiment: showed pictures of girls and measured false heart rate = emotion o Conclusion: only the belief that one is aroused is necessary for the experience of emotion
Experimenter demand characteristics: false feedback effect may result from subtle cues provided by the experimenter that indicate to the participant how to respond
Self monitoring: scale that measures a personality trait o High self-monitors: motivated to change their behaviour to meet the demands of the situation; they analyze their surroundings and alter their behaviour to the circumstance

o Low self-monitors: motivated to engage in behaviour that is consistent with their internal states (attitudes and feelings) even if their behaviour is incongruous w/demands of the situation

Expectancies and emotion are seen as guiding motivated behaviour

Emotion as Primary and Universal

Primacy affect by Zajonc: emotion is independent of and can occur prior to any cognition; arguments for it:

Affect is basic : emotion is universal among animal species o We do not know if all animals have cognitive processing, thus, system of affect must be independent of cognitive processing
Emotions are inescapable: occur whether we want them to or not
Once affective reaction occurs, subsequently trying to change emotion is very hard to alter

o This is b/c emotions are not open to logic; but if cognitive processing occurs prior to emotion, then logic should affect our emotional judgments.

Emotional reactions are hard to verbalize, suggesting that emotion lies outside the cognitive system
However, Lazarus said cognition must precede emotion and there is a continuous interplay between cognition, motivation and emotion

The Tomkins Model

We have a limited set of emotions, which are genetically programmed into the brain and initiated by changes in stimulation
- Changes in stimulation cause changes in the neural firing pattern of circuits within the brain, which create specific emotional states
- Thus increased firing = interest, fear or surprise and neural firing decreases = enjoyment and firing above optimal levels = distress and anger
Communication and experience come from feedback from facial expressions and voice
For each specific emotion there is: (1) preprogrammed set of facial muscle responses and (2) specific set of vocalizations
Important feedback signals for emotion come from changes in the stimulation of sensory receptors in the facial skin
Emotions serving to amplify drives (i.e. hunger, thirst, sex) is provided by emotional amplification
Emotion provides the intensity factor in motivation and is necessary for the activation of behaviour
Every society puts constraints on the free expression of emotion b/c of its contagious quality and its power to generate behaviour; thus, emotional reactions we observe in others are not innate but backed up: voluntarily modified in some way o Backed up emotion is common in anger

Izard’s Differential Emotions Theory

– Fundamental emotions are innately programmed

Differential emotions theory (DET): specific emotions have distinct experiential qualities

Theory has 5 assumptions:

Each emotion has 3 components: (1) its own neural substrate, (2) a characteristic expressive pattern (usually involving facial expressions), (3) distinct participative quality or feeling associated with it; all 3 are requires
Emotion is inherently adaptive: each emotion has unique motivational properties that are important for survival of either the individual or the species
Emotion is discrete: diff emotions produce diff inner experiences and are associated with diff behaviours
Emotions interact w/each other: emotional state may consist of a complex blend of individual emotions
Emotions interact with and influence other important bodily processes, such as homeostasis, drive, perception, cognition and motor responses o This interplay makes emotion the principal motivational system for behaviour

- Emotion provides basis for personality
- Theory argues that neurochemical activity occurring in innate programs within the brain cause facial and bodily changes; when changes are fed back to the brain and made conscious, they produce one of the fundamental emotions
- Other characteristics of emotion: (1) noncyclical: no specific time of day to feel a certain way, (2) unlimited generality: one emotion can result from many things

(3) serve as important regulators: amplify or reduce motivational systems

Basic emotions: innate, evolutionarily adaptive, automatic responses to stimuli, short o e. in 1. Infancy- 4 emotions predominate: joy, interest, sadness, anger
- 2-5- interplay between: empathy, anger, shame and guilt (anger during terrible 2s)
- 6-12- emotions relevant to evaluation of self: pride, guilt and shame; assess their own abilities through social comparison (measuring themselves relative to their peers).
- Adolescence: sadness, fear and disgust, abstract thinking
Emotion schemas: involve interaction between emotion and cognitive processes (i.e. attribution or appraisal), complex, long
B/c emotions are so important to development, emotion-based interventions can be employed to foster healthy development and minimize negative psychological behavioural consequences in children

The Circumplex Model of Emotion

Russell sees emotions are viewed as consistently related to one another rather than discrete and independent; emotions fall along circular path

Proposed that emotions can be classified along 2 dimensions (pleasantnessunpleasantness and high arousal-low arousal), w/emotional words forming a circle around these dimensions

Emotional labels are in bipolar continuum (very happy, happy, sad, very sad) vs. unipolar (happy vs. not happy) o Words expressing opposite emotional experience tend to fall opposite each other (ie. Bipolar)
Emotion involves at least: (1) core affect, (2) an object (3) affective quality, (4) attributed affect
Circumplex: circular pattern where items that are positively correlated tend to cluster together, items that are unrelated are at 90 degree angles to one another and items that are negatively correlated are at opposite ends of circle
Fuzzy set: affective term (i.e. pleasure) is a label for a category that s not discrete, but s one in which the transition from membership to non-membership

is gradual; generally characteristic of language categories

Core affect: aspect of emotional experience that can be mapped on the dimension of pleasantness (pleasure-displeasure) and arousal (activationdeactivation) o It is basic feeling state that is necessary, but rarely sufficient

Facial Expression and Emotion

Ekman said emotional expression should be similar across cultures; some expressions are universal and support the concept of innate fundamental emotions
People from diverse cultures not only judge specific facial expressions similarly, they also produce the same facial movements when asked to portray particular emotions
Similarity among cultures:
- Interpretation of emotions shown: consistently agreed on (1) which emotion was the strongest (2) which secondary emotion was being expressed and (3) relative intensities of expressed emotions i.e. if more than one emotion is present, which emotion is more intense – Differences among cultures:
Judgment of absolute emotional intensity i.e. how strong is the emotion being depicted? Display Rules
Although universal facial expressions are associated w/specific emotional states, these expressions can be modified by display rules
Learned early in life and determine which emotional expressions are appropriate in particular situations

Experiment told participants to mask their emotions:

Results: diffs can be found between true happy smiles and masking smiles produced to cover true feelings b/c diff muscles were used in the face
Conclusion: our true emotional state can influence the facial expressions that we portray, despite our attempts to mask our feelings

The Facial Feedback Hypothesis

Facial feedback hypothesis: proposes that the emotion we experience is influenced by feedback from facial muscles or skin
1^st experiment presented pleasant and disgusting odors to participants; facial expressions videotaped o Results: posing pleasant or unpleasant expressions led to evaluations consistent w/posed expressed (expressions influenced the emotion experienced)
- Posing pleasant expressions increased the evaluation of an odor over its evaluation after nonposed trials
- Posing unpleasant expressions decreased the odor evaluations relative to nonposed trials
2^nd experiment: participants held pens in mouth in 2 diff ways o Participants required to hold pen between their teeth (and thus contract the muscles associated with smiling) rated the cartoons as more humorous than the control group, who held the pen with their non dominant hand
- Participants asked to hold the pen with their lips (prevented contraction of the muscles involved in smiling) rated the cartoons as less humorous than the control group.
- Conclusion: affective reaction to an emotional stimulus was intensified or weakened when the facial muscles associated with smiling were facilitated or inhibited
3^rd experiment included genuine and deceptive smiles o Asked participants to hold pens in their mouths in a manner that mimicked a genuine smile (Duchenne smile), a fake smile (non-duchenne smile) or 2 non-smiling expressions
- Results: Duchenne smiling group rated video clips more positive than the other three groups
All 3 experiments support the hypothesis

Opponent-Process Theory: Hedonism Theory (additional pgs. 225-231)

Solomon and Corbit proposed homeostatic model of hedonic quality: both pleasant and aversive hedonic states are opposed by central nervous system processes that reduces their intensity by producing hedonic state that is opposite in quality to the initial stimulus

o Thus, stimuli that give rise to pleasurable feelings will be opposed by aversive feelings generated by process vs. stimuli that initially give rise to aversive feelings will be opposed by pleasant feelings generated by process

Every affective situation has 5 characteristics; when stimulus is detected it makes hedonic reaction that: 1) quickly peaks (hedonic peak), 2) adaption phase; intensity of hedonic experience declines, 3) steady level, 4) peak affective afterreaction w/characteristics opposite to original hedonic state and 5) decay until intensity of affective after-reaction returns to 0
Assumes that physiological processes that triggers initial hedonic reaction
State A, will be opposed by second physiological state, which will trigger an opposite hedonic reaction
State B:

When stimulus is detected, it produces a hedonic reaction State A (i.e. drug that gives pleasurable feelings) that quickly peaks (hedonic peak)
Adaption phase where intensity of hedonic experience State A declines due to B’s effect of reducing state (strongly aversive state), (at this point, person takes drugs to avoid aversive state B vs. for pleasurable drug state A); eventually reaches
Steady level until stimulus that caused these events disappear s
Peak of B, an affective after-reaction w/characteristics opposite to original hedonic state A
Decays until intensity of affective after-reaction, state B returns to 0

Decline in hedonic value from peak of State A to steady level results from state B’s effect of reducing State A
Thus, steady level of hedonic intensity is State A – State B

When stimulus creating A is no longer present, full force of State B (opposite hedonic reaction to state) is felt

State A and B are different b/c: 1) opposite hedonic quality, 2) State A develops quickly and is associated w/intensity of stimulus that produced vs. State B develops slowly and is produced as reaction to State A (not made by stimulus), 3) State B decreases slowly and continues even when State A is removed b/c it decays slowly, 4) repeated presentations of stimulus that produced State A have no effect on intensity of State A vs. repeated elicitation of State B leads to strengthening of State B
Since activation of state B has effect of reducing intensity of state A, repeated presentations of the stimulus that triggered state A will actually lead to a reduction in the hedonic intensity of state A b/c state B will increase in intensity

Drug Addiction: An Alternative to the Incentive Sensitization View

Addicting substance will initially give rise to pleasurable feelings (state A), but OP will gain in strength as person uses dug, so aversive state B develops
Since pleasurable experiences of state A are reduced by growing aversive state B, a point will be reached where addicted individual maintains drug to avoid aversiveness of state B vs. for pleasure of drug; withdrawal symptoms that occurs when drug-maintained state A is absent
Neutral stimuli that precede states A and B can become conditioned to those states; any cue that consistently occurs before high of drug state A will begin to act as secondary reinforce for continued drug use
Neutral stimuli associated w/aversive state B of drug withdrawal will negatively reinforce behaviours that reduce these stimuli o Only way to avoid (-) stimuli is to take drug again = addiction
Tolerance of drug can be partly explained as result of A an B states o Experiment: rats develop conditioned tolerance of morphine in environmental situations that signal impending drug administration; cues signaling drug injection have become conditioned to compensatory process that has same characteristics as O-P state B aroused by drug injection

Thrill Seeking

O-P suggests that one reason people engage in behaviours such as roller-coaster riding is b/c of strong state b that occurs after initial fear-producing or painful state A
e. in parachute jumping, aversive state A occurs during initial jump (shown by signs of terror i.e. eyes bulge) and upon landing, positive state B is in effect; people are very excited after i.e. interact socially in animated ways
For experienced chutist it is diff: after repeated jumps, fearful state A is reduced to point hat chutist is eager (vs. scared) b/c build up of (+) state B reduces state

A; thus chutist looks more excited before jump (vs. signs of terror)

According to O-P, people engage in frightening behaviours b/c of reduction in initially aversive state A and highly (+) opposite reaction that occurs when behaviour stops

Social Attachment

Some aspect of imprinting stimulus triggers (+) state A b/c studies show that young birds are highly motivated to approach and follow and imprinting stimulus and that such stimulus can serve as positive reinforce
Removal of imprinted stimulus leads to distress calling, which is used as a measure of (-) state B
Distress calling appeared to indicate the growth of (-) state B opposing (+) state A that happens when imprinted stimulus is present
Important factor in development of (-) state B: time interval between successive presentations of imprinting stimulus

o Short interval: negative state B grows as predicted by O-P vs. long interval: (-) state B has time to decay and thus, does not grow stronger = critical decay

If changes in intensity of imprinting stimulus (i.e. adding sound) and changes in duration (decreasing time stimulus is present affects critical decay

Woodworth’s Drive Theory

Woodworth first coined term ‘drive’ in 1918 and first made distinction between mechanisms of behaviour and forces (drives) that activate those mechanisms
Diff drives underlie diff behaviours i.e. hunger drive motivates food getting and thirst drive motivates drinking
All behaviour (excluding reflexes) is motivated
Needs activate drives and drives activate behaviour
Drives are activated by needs that result from an organic state of deficiency or excess

o I.e. of drive resulting from organic excess: when bladder is full and far from next rest on interstate

Assumed that incentives can arouse drive (as happens when first few bites of food make us hungry)
Drive has 3 characteristics:
Intensity: drive has activation properties o Activation of behaviour by drive can vary from low levels (i.e. in dreaming) to high levels (i.e. in fear or anger)

o High levels of drive are accompanied by emotion o When drive exists, the organism becomes sensitized so that it responds to previously unnoticed stimuli (possibility favoured by Woodworth), or the presence of drive leas to a general activation of diffuse, random muscle activity

Direction: drives were approach or avoidance behaviour o Drive sensitizes the organism to the particular stimuli important for the motive and determines selectivity i.e. when hungry, we approach food but not sexual stimuli
- The fact that Woodworth preferred the idea of many diff types of drive, one for each motive made directionality more plausibly b/c only the hunger drive motivated the organism to perform behaviours associated w/food getting, for example
- Agreed w/other theorists that specific directions taken by behaviours are learned; however, the tendency to approach or avoid was seen as characteristic of the drive state
Persistence: drive continues behaviour until the diff between existing and preferred situations is reduces o Thus, drive keeps the person on task until conditions leading the to the drive state are eliminated
- Causes us the theorize the existence of motives b/c the fact that behaviours persist implies that something is keeping it active, which is drive

Crespis experiments

Crespi’s experiments: gave diff groups of rats diff amounts of reinforcement for running down alleyway
Amount of reinforcement (AOR) effect: positive correlation between amount of reinforcement and performance (more intense behaviour) o Rats receiving larger rewards ran faster than those receiving smaller awards

o However, increased reinforcement does not lead to more persistent behaviour: large amount of reinforcement lead animals to stop responding more quickly when reinforcement is withdrawn in extinction

*** o Conclusion: motivational effect of amount of reinforcement is short-term: it increases performance as long as it is present, but behaviour is quickly reduced in its absence

Quality of reinforcement effect (QOR): positive correlation between quality of reinforcement and performance (more intense behaviour)
Contrast: occurs when amount or quality of reinforcement is altered within experiment
1. Negative contrast: when all groups were switched to medium amount of reinforcement: group previously receiving large amount performed worse than control group (received same amount all along)
2. Positive contrast: group previously receiving small amount performed better than control group
History of reinforcement: differing histories of reinforcement that groups experienced influenced responding on current conditions of reinforcement (as seen in positive and negative contrast)
Latent learning: learning in absence of reinforcement o Non-reinforced group appeared to learn little about traversing maze; but when food was later provided at the end of the maze, performance of non-reinforced group quickly matched that of group reinforced the whole time
- Conclusion: non-reinforced rats learned maze but were not inclined to demonstrate this learning until there was motivation to do so (food)
- Intro of food for non-reinforced group represents contrast between nothing and something
- Bigger picture conclusion: effect of reinforcement is on performance (motivation) vs. learning

Freud’s moving source aim, pressure etc using example of water or hunger; define displacement and

Freud was connecting moving force to changes in bodily functions
We satisfy a need by channeling psychic energy into behaviours (i.e. eating apple when we are hungry) to reduce the need

o i.e. being hungry  increases psychic energy = unpleasurable; eating  reduces psychic energy = pleasurable – Moving forces have 4 characteristics:

Pressure/impetus: strength of force; stronger force = more motivated behaviour o e. longer time w/no water  more pressure to drink
Aim: satisfy need by reducing stimuli o Incomplete reduction of stimuli = partial satisfaction

i.e. drinking water (object) will reduce need and energy

Object: means through which force is established; internal or external to individual o e. drinking water
Source: bodily processes that activate moving force; equivalent to need o e. need to drink water is the source of stimulation of the “drinking force” – Freud proposed 2 main classes of moving force:
The life force: includes reproductive/sexual force and the life maintenance force o Displacement: channeling energy into behaviours not typically associated w/particular force
The death force: motivated behaviour acts to bring stimulation to an optimal level, which was death

Opponent process theory – explain each step

Opponent-process theory: Solomon and Corbit proposed homeostatic model of hedonic quality: both pleasant and aversive hedonic states are opposed by central nervous system processes that reduces their intensity by producing hedonic state that is opposite in quality to the initial stimulus
Assumes that physiological processes that triggers initial hedonic reaction State A, will be opposed by second physiological state, which will trigger an opposite hedonic reaction State B:

When stimulus is detected, it produces a hedonic reaction State A (i.e. drug that gives pleasurable feelings) that quickly peaks (hedonic peak)
Adaption phase where intensity of hedonic experience State A declines due to B’s effect of reducing state (strongly aversive state), (at this point, person takes drugs to avoid aversive state B vs. for pleasurable drug state A); eventually reaches
Steady level until stimulus that caused these events disappear s
Peak of B, an affective after-reaction w/characteristics opposite to original hedonic state A
Decays until intensity of affective after-reaction, state B returns to 0

Weiner’s theories (briefly answer questions related to it)

Weiner’s Attributional Analysis of Achievement Behaviour

– 4 elements are important in our interpretation of an achievement-related event:

Ability: inferences about our abilities result from earlier experiences; past success = we believe we have abilities in that area and VV

Inferences about our ability also depend on social comparison: our inferences about our abilities are judged in relation to others

o Internal, stable, uncontrollable

Effort: measured by time spent, muscular effort, etc.; we tend to feel we put more effort when we are successful at a test b/c of past experiences in which we have associated effort and success o Internal, unstable controllable
Task difficulty: judged mostly via social comparison, but also through objective characteristics of the task o External, stable and controllable
Luck: present when we have no control over outcome of task (success does not depend on our behaviour) o External, unstable, uncontrollable o Thus, if we fail at a task that seems unrelated to anything we have done, we tend to explain it by bad luck

– These 4 elements differ along 3 casual dimensions:

Locus: whether cause is internal or external to individual o e. ability and effort are internal (dispositional) vs. difficulty of task and luck are external (situational)
Stability: likelihood that the cause can be altered in the future; If cause is believed to not change = stable and VV o Ability and difficulty of task = stable vs. luck and effort = unstable
Controllability: causes are controllable or uncontrollable by one’s self or others Ability and luck = uncontrollable vs. task difficulty (i.e. if teacher made test easier) and effort = controllable

sheffield’s experiments

Sheffield proposed that animals will learn to make responses that lead to an increase in motivation vs. a reduction of it
Rewards were viewed as objects that increase the excitement of the organism o Thus, the stimulus properties of a goal object can be drive inducing o e. dangling carrot in front of hungry rabbit excites rabbit vs. relaxes it
Consummatory response (i.e. chewing food) is important in reduction of drive o If goal stimuli associated w/consummatory response do not lead directly to a consummatory response, excitement is generated
- Drive induction: this excitement from cues associated w/the consummatory response
- e. placing rat pup under wire cage so that mother can se, smell and hear it but not retrieve it (the consummatory response) leads to very agitated behaviour from the mother rat
In more experimentally controlled situation, Sheffield showed the energizing effects of cues associated w/the consummatory response of feeding

Rats were placed in individual activity cages (that measured amount of movement) inside a soundproofed cabinet in a soundproofed room

Rats were fed once a day when their food was automatically dropped into the cage
For the experimental group of animals, 5 min. before delivery of food, there was an environmental change: auditory and visual cues
Control group of animals: environmental change was unrelated to food arrival
Result: experimental animals were more active vs. control animals adapted to changing environmental condition unrelated to arrival of food
Conclusion: cues associated w/arrival of food and thus the consummatory response, can activate or induce motivation
Conclusion: reinforcers can lead to learning without reduction of any drive and cues associated w/reinforcement may also have the effect of increasing motivation when they are presented before the consummatory response can occur
Thus, drive reduction theories of motivation such as Hull’s cannot account for situations where behaviours occur even though no drives are reduced o They also cannot account for situations where drive is induced by factors other than need

Caretaker experiments: name for Sheffield’s experiments on activity changes due to environmental cues