Instrumental learning

This process of learning a behaviour by the consequences of that behaviour is called operant conditioning or instrumental learning. It is described fully in relation to problem drinking by Heather and Robertson (1985), and it is quite easy to see the parallels with drug taking. 

Meneses A. Effects of the 5-HT7 receptor antagonists SB-269970 and DR 4004 in autoshaping Pavlovian/instrumental learning task. Behav Brain Res 2004 155 275-282. 

Homayoun H, Stefani MR, Adams BW, Tamagan GD, Moghaddam B. 2004. Functional Interaction Between NMDA and mGlu5 Receptors Effects on Working Memory, Instrumental Learning, Motor Behaviors, and Dopamine Release. Neuropsychopharmacology 29 1259-1269. 

Instrumental learning is formally defined as the learning of a stimulus-response contingency. As a result of this learning, the organism emits responses contingent upon the stimulus. 

Excitotoxic NAc core lesions slow down the acquisition of first order schedules of heroin self-administration but do not affect already established responding (Alderson et al., 2001 Hutcheson et al., 2001). An impairment of instrumental learning by these lesions has been excluded on the basis of the observation that responding was still sensitive to changes in the outcome value. On the basis of the above studies, Cardinal et al. (2002) maintain that the NAc core is not critical for instrumental learning and interpret the effects of NAc core lesions in acquisition as the result of an impairment of the motivational arousal elicited by drug-conditioned stimuli. Consistent with this explanation is the observation that NAc core lesions prevent acquisition of second-order schedules... 

Baldwin AE, Sadeghian K, Kelley AE (2002) Appetitive instrumental learning requires coincident activation of NMDA and dopamine DI receptors within the medial prefrontal cortex. J Neurosci 22 1063-1071. 

Colwill RM, Rescorla RA (1988) Associations between the discriminative stimulus and the reinforcer in instrumental learning. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 7 (2) 155-164. 

Rescorla RA, Solomon RL (1967) Two-process learning theory relationships between Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental learning. Psychol Rev 74 151-182. 

Smith-Roe SL, Kelley AE (2000) Coincident activation of NMDA and dopamine Dl-receptors within the nucleus accumbens core is required for appetitive instrumental learning. J Neurosci 20 7737-7742. 

Texas Instruments Learning Center (1972). Understanding Solid State Electronics, 2nd edition. Dallas Texas Instruments Inc. 

Every engineering curriculum emphasises inclusion of practical sessions in laboratories. Students get to work on actual equipment and instruments, learn to make measurements of aU concerned operational parameters through observations and readings in weU-deflned experimental setups, and understand how things work in practice. These hands-on sessions in laboratories form a crucial component of engineering education the world over. This is where students dirty their hands and learn all the real-world aspects of engineering. 

Cannon, D. L. (1982). Fundamentals of Microcomputer Design, Texas Instruments Learning Center. 

Cardinal, R. N., and Cheung, T. H. 2005. Nucleus accumbens core lesions retard instrumental learning and performance with delayed reinforcement in the rat. BMC Neuroscience, 6,9. 

Yin, H. H., Knowlton, B. J., and Balleine, B. W. 2004. Lesions of dorsolateral striatum preserve outcome expectancy but disrupt habit formation in instrumental learning. European Journal of Neuroscience, 19(1), 181-189. 

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