 | Term | Definition |
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Learning |
process by which humans and animals acquire behavior patterns; experience or practice results in a relatively permanent change in behavior or potential behavior; more broad than studying |
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Conditioning |
a natural stimulus that evokes a natural response; acquisition of specific patterns of behavior in the presence of well defined stimuli; general term for humans and animals; basic form of learning |
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Classical Conditioning |
expanded by John Watson and Rosalie Rayner; Learning where a response, normally elicited by one stimulus, is taught to respond to another, normally, neutral stimulus; AKA Pavlovian; pairing an involuntary response |
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Unconditioned Stimulus |
US or UCS; a stimulus that causes an organism to respond in a natural manner; in Pavlov’s experiment, the meat powder |
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Conditioned Stimulus |
CS; ordinarily a neutral stimulus paired with a unconditioned stimulus to achieve a desired result and eventually produces the desired response in an organism when presented alone; in Pavlov’s experiment, the bell |
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Unconditioned Response |
UR or UCR; a natural response that occurs when the UCS occurs, like salivating in Pavlov’s experiment |
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Conditioned Response |
CR; a response (after conditioning) that occurs after the CS; in Pavlov’s experiment, salivation |
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Desensitization Therapy |
created by Joseph Wolpe; Wolpe adapted Mary Cover Jones’s method of unlearning fears (of children) to treat certain kinds of anxiety; a conditioning technique designed to gradually reduce anxiety about a particular object or situation; thought is that if a person can associate relaxation with the fearful stimulus then they could change human behavior |
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Backward Conditioning |
when the natural stimulus is presented and terminated before the conditioned stimulus is presented. If Pavlov had presented the food and then, after the dog ate, presented the sound of the bell, the tone alone would not elicit much salivation, since it no longer signals that food is imminent. Backward conditioning is controversial because many psychologists argue that it does not work. |
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Interstimulus Interval |
time between two stimulus; best used in the eyeblink conditioning experiment; Max Wertheimer did experiments with two stationary, flashing lights that at some |
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Intermittent Pairing |
pairing the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus on only a portion of learning rituals; this procedure reduces both the rate of learning and the final level of learning achieved |
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Conditioned Food Aversion |
AKA taste aversion; discovered by John Garcia by accident during an experiment using rats and radiation; learned association between a food (taste) and nausea/revulsion; avoiding a particular food because it was paired with a bad experience |
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Extinction |
a decrease in the frequency of a conditioned response because of a failure to continue pairing the US and CS (in classical conditioning) or withholding of reinforcement (operant conditioning) |
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Spontaneous Recovery |
the reappearance of an extinguished response after the passage of time, without further training |
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Stimulus Generalization |
the transfer of behavior (learned response) from one stimulus to another stimulus that is similar in nature; in Little Albert’s case, Little Albert was afraid of not only white, furry rats but any white and furry objects. |
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Discrimination |
Learning to respond to only one stimulus and to inhibit the response to all other stimuli; when Little Albert was able discern between a white rat and a white rabbit |
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Higher Order Conditioning |
conditioning based on previous learning; the CS serves as an US for further training |
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Operant Behavior |
expanded by BF Skinner; learning based on rewards or punishment; not automatic reflexes |
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Vicarious Learning |
AKA observational learning or modeling; component of social learning theory; expanded by Albert Bandura; states that people pay attention to a model and convert the learning into action |
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Shaping |
reinforcing successive approximations to desired behavior; example: Skinner box, tiger jumping through a hoop; teaching dog to pee outside, teach a penguin to do a figure 8, driving, etc |
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Law Of Effect |
Thorndike; used in an experiment with cats and a puzzle box; principle of reinforcement; behavior consistently rewarded will be ‘stamped in’ as learned behavior, and behavior that brings about discomfort will be ‘stamped out’; satisfying effect (reinforcement) is likely to be performed again, whereas behavior that brings about negative effect (punishment) is likely to be suppressed |
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Negative Reinforcer |
the removal of an unpleasant stimulus that increases the likelihood that behavior will continue; is more effective in learning than punishment |
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Positive Reinforcer |
a reward; any event whose presence increase the likelihood that behavior will continue |
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Primary Reinforcer |
reinforcer such as water, food, or sex |
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Secondary Reinforcer |
reinforcer whose value allows an individual to acquire other reinforcers like food and water; examples: money, credit cards |
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Schedules Of Reinforcement |
the rule for determining when and how often reinforcers will continue; Four types of schedules: fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval; interval means over a time and ratio means an act; partial reinforcement is on a variable schedule whereas continuous reinforcement is on a fixed schedule; variable schedules are more effective in learning |
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Punishment |
any event whose presence decreases the likelihood that behavior will occur |
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Response Generalization |
giving a response that is somewhat different from the response originally learned to that stimulus; when Little Albert responds the same way to a white rat or a white coat |
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Cognitive Learning |
impossible to observe and measure; learning that depends on processes which are not directly observable; learning is inferred from the behavior |
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Latent Learning |
pioneered by Edward Chace Tolman; learning that is not immediate in behavior; knowledge that is used when needed, like riding a bike or using a cognitive map |
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Cognitive Map |
example of a cognitive learning; mental image of a spatial environment that is used to problem solve when stimulated |
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Insight |
learning resulting from rapid understanding of all elements of a problem; sudden ‘coming together’; an ‘A HA’ moment |
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Learning Set |
used by Harry Harlow in an experiment using Rhesus monkeys; ability to become increasingly more effective in solving problems as problems are solved; learning how to learn; Köhler’s chimps, Epstein’s pigeons |
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Contingency Set |
Robert Rescorla shock and tone experiment; an “if then” (informative) relationship between stimuli |
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Blocking |
determined by Leon Kamin; when a second stimulus does not elicit desired behavior because behavior occurs with the first stimulus |
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Learned Helplessness |
experiment by Martin Seligman and dogs; when an individual gives up because any behavior causes the same ill result; punishment is unrelated to a child’s behavior (in abused families) often develop feelings of powerlessness |
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Social Learning Theory |
learning by observing without firsthand experience; often used as an argument against violent video games or immoral television shows. |
