center = 1. (emp, physiol) a locus in the nervous system characterized by the presence of a number of cell bodies and synapses, the excitation of which by appropriately specified electrical stimulation may yield discrete motor or autonomic behavior patterns and experimental destruction of which is fol1owed by the disappearance or gross modification of the same, or similar, discrete motor or autonomic behavior patterns. = 2. (th, physiol) a functionally coordinated, but not necessarily localized, group of neural structures having the properties of center (1.). =3. (th, eth) a hypothetical neural structure, or place or set of places in the central nervous system, of unspecified anatomical properties, presumed to act as a unit upon excitation by another such place or other such places by sending nerve impulses that govern the occurrence of some innate response. A center is the theoretical neural correlate of a species-specific response. Theory endows this with all the properties of the physiologist's centers. It is not impossible that these centers may become, eventually, empirical concepts, with specified anatomical loci and properties.-Ger. Erbkoordinationen.
choice point = (emp, bt) that position in a T-maze, or other maze, or on a discrimination apparatus, from which it is possible for, the animal to give only one of two or more alternative responses. E.g., to move down only one of two or more runways, or jump to one of two or more doors. In the T-maze, this is of course the point at which the base of the T touches the cross-arm.
cognition = (con, bt) a hypothetical stimulus-stimulus association or perceptual organization postulated to account for expectancies. See expect. It is not possible as yet to define in other than intuitive terminology, except for trivial cases. Cognitive maps are elaborations of such cognitions.
concept = (emp, bt) any response, verbal or motor, that is under the discriminative control of a broad class of environmental objects or events; the members of the class may differ from one another in all respects other than a single quantifiable property. Most concepts are statements that refer to the common property: "blue," "square," "velocity," 'beauty," "length." Pseudo-concepts may depend on a number of partially overlapping classes of events that do not share an objective common property: "honesty," "virtue," "rigidity."
conditioning = 1. (emp, bt) the generic name for the empirical concepts defined procedurally below. In laboratory usage, the response brought under experimental control through die operations of conditioning is termed a conditioned response. Lab slang, unfortunately, extends the usage, so that an animal is called conditioned when one of its responses has been conditioned, and a stimulus may be spoken of as "becoming conditioned" when a response is conditioned to it. These usages are, strictly speaking, incorrect and may lead to misunderstandings on the part of the student. How many kinds of conditioning? In the strictly empirical, operational sense, there are as many kinds of conditioning as there are sets of conditioning operations. The present glossary lists the more important. In terms of the equivalences that can be empirically and quantitatively established, the list becomes shortened, perhaps to two, which seem to exhibit persistent differences: "classical" and "operant" Drive-reduction theorists argue that both kinds of conditioning inevitably occur whichever procedure one follows and that the only distinction that can be made is in terms of which one of several responses is observed. Their statement rests on theoretical grounds. Others prefer to admit that conditioned responses of both types can be observed in the same animal at the same time as a function of the same reinforcing stimulus, and let it go at that = 2. (th, eth) the hypothetical production of a change in the nervous system presumed to occur with and to underlie conditioning (1.).
conditioning/approximation = (emp, bt) a special case of operant conditioning. If it is desired to condition a highly improbable (infrequent) operant response (one that will not occur and, hence, cannot be reinforced, except. rarely), the experimenter may shorten the time before the subject emits the response by reinforcing other responses that are successively more like the response to be conditioned. The timing of these reinforcements is critical: they must follow the response reinforced within a second's time, or the procedure will be ineffective. Thus, if it is desired to train a dog to jump up against a wall, the experimenter may first reinforce a head turn toward the wall, then a body turn, then one or more steps toward the wall, and so on- This technique makes it possible to train animals (and people) to give unusual performances in short order. Many parlor games (e.g., Twenty Questions) are based on it. Syn. shaping.
conditioning/avoidance = (emp, bt) the experimental procedure in which the occurrence of a response prevents the administration of a negatively reinforcing stimulus which would otherwise occur shortly after the onset of the conditioned stimulus. Conditioning is said to occur if, and only if, the response then increases in rate of occurrence, in magnitude, or in relative frequency, or decreases in latency with successive presentations of the CS as a function of this operation. On theoretical grounds, it is often argued that avoidance conditioning is a special case of operant conditioning under intermittent reinforcement.
conditioning/classical = (emp, bt) the experimental procedure of repeatedly presenting the animal with a stimulus (unconditioned stimulus or US) of some reflex contiguously or almost contiguously in time with a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus or CS). Conditioning is said to have occurred if, and only if, a response (conditioned response or CR) similar to, but not necessarily identical with, that of the reflex can later be elicited by the initially indifferent stimulus (CS). The differences are primarily quantitative: the CR has a longer latency, is usually of greater duration, and, in some cases, of much smaller amplitude. In the case of certain responses, some components of a topographically complex response disappear completely (assume a value of zero). The CR produced by conditioning a given R must therefore always be determined empirically. E.g., the Pavlovian CR, conditioned salivation, is only one part of the dog's initial response (UR) to food. Many of the remaining parts of the UR do not occur after the response is conditioned. Syn., or approximate Syn., Pavlovian conditioning, respondent conditioning, type-S conditioning, and type-1 conditioning.
conditioning/counter- = (emp, bt) the experimental procedure of conditioning a second and conflicting response to the conditioned or discriminative stimulus of a response that is not being reinforced. This procedure is employed theoretically by contiguity theory to account for extinction. Cf. interference.
conditioning/escape = (emp, bt) a special case of operant conditioning. The conditioning procedure in which successive occurrences of a response repeatedly terminate a negative reinforcing stimulus. Conditioning is said to occur if, and only if, the response then increases in rate of occurrence, in magnitude, or in relative frequency, or decreases in latency as a function of this procedure. Cf. escape behavior.
conditioning/higher-order (second-order, third-order, etc.) = (emp, bt) if a classical conditioned response is established, the stimulus of this S-R correlation may serve as the unconditioned stimulus for a new second-order conditioned response, and so on.
conditioning/instrumental = 1. (emp, bt) operant conditioning. =2. (con, bt) a term applied to operant conditioning based on the view that the conditioned response is instrumental in producing the reinforcing stimulus for the animal when the animal is not free to give the response except when the experimenter chooses as by opening a door so that the animal can run out.
conditioning/operant = (emp, bt) the experimental procedure of presenting the animal with a reinforcing stimulus immediately following the occurrence of a given response. Conditioning is said to occur if, and only if, the response then increases in rate of occurrence, magnitude, or relative frequency, or decreases in latency, as a consequence of this operation. (The measure chosen depends on the response with which one is dealing.) Sensustricto, only operants may be operantly conditioned. This distinction accounts for the apparent failure of members of the list of synonyms to be strictly synonymous. The name seems to have stuck, however, to all cases where reinforcement is contingent on response, when the response occurs freely (the operant case), or when the response can occur only as the experimenter chooses, as in a trial on the runway (the instrumental case). This is an example of different operations yielding equivalent results, with the result that one term is used. For clarity, "free" is often used with the term operant conditioning to describe the first case. Syn., or approximate Syn., Skinnerian conditioning, Thorndikean conditioning, type-R conditioning, trial-and-error conditioning, instrumental conditioning, and type-2 conditioning.
conditioning/pseudo- = (emp, bt) "The US unconditioned stimulus is presented alone in a series of massed trials, and then, after a short interval of time, the CS conditioned stimulus is presented in a series of massed trials" (25). If the response to the US is then presented to the CS, pseudoconditioning is said to have occurred. Possibly related to reflex sensitization and to stimulus generalization.
conditioning/sensory pre- = (emp, bt) the experimental procedure of repeatedly and consecutively presenting the animal with two stimuli to both of which it is indifferent and then conditioning the animal to respond to the second of the two. The two stimuli must be chosen so that stimulus generalization between them cannot be demonstrated. Sensory preconditioning is said to occur if the animal is then observed to respond to the first, when the first is presented without the second, with the response conditioned to the second.
conditioning/strength of =1. (emp, bt) when it is desired to make statements about the magnitude of a response with reference to the operations of reinforcement, but with drive-inducing operations and stimulus properties taken into account, the term strength of conditioning is used. The statement, "If an animal is not hungry, he will fail to give a conditioned response, but the strength of conditioning is not altered," implies that, if this same animal now is 22-hours food deprived and is placed in the same situation, he will then give conditioned responses of large magnitude. Only the operations of reinforcement and extinction alter the strength of conditioning; changes in deprivation leave it unchanged. =2. (emp, bt) resistance to extinction.
conflict =1. (emp, bt) a term applied when the stimuli for two incompatible responses are presented simultaneously under conditions (e.g., following drive-inducing operations) in which either, presented alone, would yield a response. The most striking effects of conflict appear under conditions of such nature that both responses would be of large magnitude. = 2. (th) the state of the animal when two drives associated with incompatible behaviors are equally or nearly equally strong.
conflict/approach-approach = (emp, bt) when two stimuli, towards either one of which the animal moves when it is presented alone, are presented simultaneously but in different locations so that approach to one takes it away from the other, the conflict is termed approach-approach conflict.
conflict/approach-avoidance = (emp, bt) when two stimuli, towards one of which the animal moves when it is presented alone and from the other of which it actively runs, are presented together at the same or approximately the same location, the conflict is termed approach-avoidance. Also used if one stimulus has come to control, through separate training procedures, both approach and avoidance. The animal may have been repeatedly shocked in the same goal box to which it has run with reinforcement by food.
conflict/avoidance-avoidance = (emp, bt) if two stimuli, from either of which the animal moves if it is presented alone, are presented simultaneously but in different locations so that escape from one places the animal in the presence of the other, the conflict is classified as avoidance-avoidance conflict.
consummatory act = (emp) a response that most often terminates a given frequently occurring sequence of behaviors. E.g., eating, copulation. It is not always possible to draw a rigid distinction between a consummatory act and the responses that usually precede it. Many consummatory acts have been empirically identified with responses to reinforcing stimuli; no clear-cut exception to this is known. The converse often, but not invariably, holds. In Hullian theory, this effect is associated with the concept of drive-reduction; whereas in early ethological theory, consummatory acts are associated with the consumption of action-specific energy. These seem to be analogous notions. Many consummatory acts are highly stereotyped.
contiguity = (emp, bt) the occurrence together in time, or within; no more than two seconds of one another, of two stimuli, two responses, or a stimulus and a response. One of the conditions necessary for learning or conditioning to occur? See theory/continguity.