Understanding Elicited Behaviors and Reflexes in Psychology

Elicited Behaviors and Reflexes

Types of Stimuli

Eliciting Stimuli: These stimuli trigger reflex responses or respondents (e.g., a puncture).

Reinforcing Stimuli: Environmental consequences that follow responses, increasing their frequency (e.g., a child repeating a word for attention).

Discriminative Stimuli: Stimuli that accompany responses without producing them, signaling when it's appropriate to respond (e.g., light).

Neutral Stimuli: Stimuli that have no effect on a particular behavior.

Types of Responses

Respondent Behaviors: Reactions triggered by eliciting stimuli. Automatic reactions.

Operant or Instrumental Responses: Responses emitted spontaneously by organisms, modified by environmental consequences.

Instinctive Behavior

Also called fixed action patterns. These behaviors are notable for their effectiveness and usefulness in adapting to the environment.

Definition: Genetically programmed behaviors with a certain degree of complexity, serving important adaptive functions for survival and interaction with other individuals of the species.

Most researchers agree that humans do not have behavior patterns that can properly be called instincts.

The general opinion is that people are born with a number of reflexes, a moderate genetic program, and an extraordinary ability to learn.

Reflexive Behavior

Reflexes are part of the genetic programming of a particular species. A reflex is an innate, relatively simple, unintended behavior that occurs automatically in response to specific, well-defined stimuli.

Elements of the Reflex Arc:

1. A receptor responsible for capturing the sensory stimulation.
2. An afferent (or sensory) neuron that conducts nerve impulses toward a center in the spinal cord or brain.
3. An efferent (or motor) neuron that conducts nerve impulses from the nerve center to the part of the body responsible for the response.
4. An effector, which is the muscle or gland that executes the response.

Laws of Reflex Behaviors:

1. Law of the Threshold: The thresholds of simple reflexes are relatively stable and quite low due to their role as protective mechanisms.
2. Law of Latency: The time it takes to respond to a stimulus. It is inversely proportional to the intensity of the stimulation (i.e., the more intense the stimulus, the faster the reflex response).
3. Law of Magnitude: Refers to the relationship between the intensity of stimulation and the magnitude of the triggered reflex response. This relationship is generally positive (the greater the stimulus intensity, the greater the magnitude of the reflex response).
4. Post-Discharge: In many reflexes, the response persists for some time after the end of the stimulation that triggered it.
5. Law of Summation: Two subliminal stimuli (below the threshold) occurring close together in time can elicit a reflex response due to temporal summation, even though neither stimulus alone is capable of inducing the reflex.
6. Reflex Fatigue: Refers to the decrease in the magnitude of the reflex response as a function of the repetition of the stimulus that provokes it.
7. Refractory Period: Once a reflex response has been emitted, a certain period of time is required before it can occur again.