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PSYC1001 - Chapter 6
Textbook Material
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Learning | Any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience. |
| Conditioning | Learning connections between events that occur in an organism’s environment. |
| Phobias | Irrational fears of specific objects or situations. |
| Classical Conditioning | A type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus. It typically governs involuntary behaviour. |
| Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) | A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning (meat powder). |
| Unconditioned Response (UCR) | An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning (salivation). |
| Conditioned Stimulus (CS) | A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response (tone). |
| Conditioned Response (CR) | A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning (salivation). |
| Neutral Stimulus (NS) | A stimulus that does not independently elicit a response, but eventually becomes the CS when paired with the UCS (tone). |
| Trial | A presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli. Psychologists are interested by how many trials are required to form associations. |
| Evaluative Conditioning | Changes in the liking of a stimulus that result from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli (the acquisition of preferences through classical conditioning), which produce stable and durable attitudes. |
| Acquisition | The initial stage of learning something, which depends on stimulus contiguity (simultaneous presentations of stimuli). Salient (novel, unusual, or especially intense) stimuli are most likely to result in conditioning. |
| Extinction | The gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency caused by consistent presentations of the CS without the UCS, the length of which depending on the pre-existing strength of the bond between the UCS and CS. |
| Spontaneous Recovery | The reappearance of an extinguished response, after a period of non-exposure to the conditioned stimulus. This can occur more than once. |
| Renewal Effect | The reappearance of an extinguished response when an organism is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place, given that the response was extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired. |
| Stimulus Generalization (Classical) | An organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus. The more similar new stimuli are to the CS, the greater the likelihood and ease of generalization. |
| Stimulus Discrimination (Classical) | An organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus. The less similar new stimuli are to the CS, the greater the likelihood and ease of discrimination. |
| Higher-Order Conditioning | A process of two phases in which a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus. |
| Higher-Order Conditioning: Phase 1 | A NS is paired with a UCS until it becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the response originally evoked by the UCS. |
| Higher-Order Conditioning: Phase 2 | Another NS is paired with the previously established CS so that it also acquires the capacity to elicit the response originally evoked by the UCS. |
| Operant Conditioning | A form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences. It typically governs voluntary behaviour. |
| Thorndike's Law of Effect | If a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between the stimulus and the response is strengthened. |
| Skinner's Theory of Reinforcement | Organisms tend to repeat responses that are followed by favourable consequences. |
| Primary Reinforcers | Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs (food, water, warmth, sex). |
| Secondary Reinforcers | Events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers (money, good grades, applause). |
| Skinner Box | A small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is recorded while the consequence of the response is systematically controlled. They permit researchers to control the reinforcement contingencies that are in effect for the animal. |
| Cumulative Recorders | Devices inside Skinner boxes record the animal’s response rate over time by creating a graphic record. A rapid response rate produces a steep slope while a slow response rate produces a shallow slope. |
| Shaping | The reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response, necessary if an organism does not naturally emit the desired response (ex: a rat pressing a lever for food). |
| Discriminative Stimuli | Cues that influence operant behaviour by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or nonreinforcement) of a response, controlled by generalization and discrimination. |
| Continuous Reinforcement | A schedule of reinforcement in which every instance of a designated response is reinforced, used by researchers to shape and establish a new response before moving onto intermittent/partial reinforcement. |
| Partial Reinforcement | A schedule of reinforcement in which a designated response is reinforced only some of the time. This is a more realistic schedule than continuous reinforcement and is more resistant to extinction. |
| Ratio Schedule | A partial reinforcement schedule in which the organism is required to make a designated response a certain number of times to gain each reinforcer. Ratio schedules tend to produce more rapid responding than interval schedules. |
| Fixed-Ratio Schedule | The reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced responses. |
| Variable-Ratio Schedule | The reinforcer is given after a variable number of nonreinforced responses that varies around a predetermined average. Variable schedules tend to produce steadier responding and greater resistance to extinction than fixed schedules. |
| Interval Schedule | A partial reinforcement schedule in which a time period is required to pass between the presentation of each reinforcer. |
| Fixed-Interval Schedule | The reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed. |
| Variable-Interval Schedule | The reinforcer is given for the first response after a variable time interval has elapsed that varies around a predetermined average. Variable schedules tend to produce steadier responding and greater resistance to extinction than fixed schedules. |
| Reinforcement | A consequence that increases an organism’s tendency to make a certain response. |
| Positive Reinforcement | A response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a pleasant stimulus. |
| Negative Reinforcement | A response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus. |
| Escape Learning | A subcategory of negative reinforcement in which an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some unpleasant stimulation. |
| Avoidance Learning | A subcategory of negative reinforcement in which an organism acquires a response that prevents some unpleasant stimulation from occurring. |
| Punishment | A consequence that decreases an organism’s tendency to make a certain response. |
| Positive Punishment | A response is weakened because it is followed by the presentation of an unpleasant stimulus. |
| Negative Punishment | A response is weakened because it is followed by the removal of a pleasant stimulus. |
| Instinctive Drift | An animal’s innate response tendencies interfere with conditioning responses. |
| Observational Learning | An organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others and being conditioned indirectly by observing another’s conditioning. It asserts that reinforcement influences the performance of an acquired behaviour rather than learning. |
| Attention (Observational Learning) | A process of observational learning that states to learn through observation, you must pay attention to another person’s behaviour and its consequences. |
| Retention (Observational Learning) | A process of observational learning that states you may not have occasion to use an observed response for a long time, hence, you must store in your memory a mental representation of what you witnessed. |
| Reproduction (Observational Learning) | A process of observational learning that states enacting a modelled response depends on your ability to reproduce the response by converting your stored mental representations into behaviour. |
| Motivation (Observational Learning) | A process of observational learning that states you are unlikely to reproduce an observed response unless you are motivated to do so. Your motivation depends on whether you believe that the response will pay off. |
| Preparedness | A species-specific predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways and not others. This is an evolutionary explanation for why certain phobias are more common than others, such as spiders, heights, and darkness. |
| Latent learning | Learning that is not apparent from behaviour when it first occurs, proving that learning is related to cognitive processes. |
| Causal reasoning | An automatic cognitive process involving the recognition of logical relationships (contingencies) between a response and an outcome, with the objective of learning which stimuli maximize positive experiences and minimize negative experiences. |
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archmall
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