Hi I too did some searching. Found a fair bit on one- trial avoidance learning, although little with humans. For me the main impression I have of the shower scene is the facial expression of terror, followed closely by the blood circling down the drain. If fear expression spontaneously elicits fear reaction (eg heightened startle in infants?) then it would seem to qualify as ucs. Also classical conditioning allows second-order conditioning even if fear response to expression is learned. Clearly quick learning of fear to facial expression would be of evolutionary value (ie don't need to have expression paired with personal pain). Finally i do not think contemporary psychologists would find CC and associative learning in conflict. Former refers to phenomenon and latter to underlying explanation.
Jim Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 9, 2014, at 10:38 AM, "Mike Palij" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sat, 08 Feb 2014 19:24:05 -0800, Jeffry Ricker wrote: > On Feb 8, 2014, at 6:46 PM, Mike Palij wrote: >>> I suppose that Janet Leigh's shock at being stabbed in the shower >>> is a UCS and the shower is CS but doesn't really sound right to me. >> >> Yes, I agree that my labeling of these objects as stimuli is not valid if we >> are designing and conducting an experimental study (e.g., see my previous >> comments about Watson & Rayner, 1920). On the other hand, when trying to >> explain the basics of classical (and operant) conditioning to intro-psych >> students, I am much more lax in my use of the terminology. One reason is >> that I >> want to make sure that students see the relevance of classical conditioning >> to >> their everyday lives. Another reason is that, at that level, few students >> appreciate the need to describe with extreme precision the stimuli being >> presented in a conditioning experiment. > > I understand what you're saying but what if this entire argument, that is, > vicarious classical conditioning (VCC) is a phenomenon best understood > as the relationship among stimuli and responses, is wrong? I have searched > on the web and in PsycInfo but I cannot find any reference with both VCC > and *mirror neurons*. Stop and consider how mirror neurons are supposed > to operate (for one description see the Wikipedia entry on this topic and > I'm sure the interested reader can find better sources: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron ). Mirror neuron activity seem > to better explain the type of phenomena VCC seem to represent while > explaining the phenomenon in neural terms and better explains some aspects > (e.g., the apparent one trial learning that occurs in VCC). > > The kicker, apparently, is whether mirror neurons actually exist (the > Wikipedia > entry provides arguments pro and con). If mirror neurons don't exist, then > some form of associative learning is involved but my bet would that it is not > based on traditional conditioning explanations (e.g., may be based on a > Hebbian > rule). > > This, of course, leads to a critical question: Are there no Pavlovian > conditioning > experts on Tips? If so, how about some sugar? ;-) > > -Mike Palij > New York University > [email protected] > > P.S. In thinking about the Janet Leigh shower scene in "Psycho", I vaguely > recall it serving as an unconditioned stimulus for an erotic response (a > response > I usually have while watching an attractive woman taking a shower). The > fact that she got stabbed in the shower changed that response to a turn-off > but I imagine that there probably was some response competition between > the erotic and fearful. This suggests that one should expect more women > than men to develop fear from the shower scene under the assumption that > they did not have an initial erotic response or had just plain neutral one. > I wonder > if anyone has done any research on this? > > P.P.S. In general, I don't care for Spielberg films and did not find "Jaws" > or Bruce (Spieflberg's name for the shark) frightening. Whenever the music > came on in the film, I'd interpret it as a signal to expect the appearance of > the > shark and in neutral emotional terms. When the music was used outside of > film, > I usually found it funny because it was an obvious attempt to induce fear > (the Saturday Night Live sketches that start with the music and with Chevy > Chase > knocking on a door saying "Candygram" and then when the door opens and it's > revealed that he's a "land shark" also made it difficult to find the music > fear inducing). Mirror neurons, with the mental simulation of being stabbed, > seems more credible to me than the fear expressed on Janet Leigh's face > which was visible for a very, very short period of time. > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=34078 > or send a blank email to > leave-34078-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=34080 or send a blank email to leave-34080-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
