| Question | Answer |
| Learning Relatively permanent change in an organism that occurs as a result of experiences in the environment | |
| Conditioning Systematic procedure through which associations and responses to specific stimuli are learned | |
| Reflex Automatic behavior that occurs involuntarily in response to a stimulus and without prior learning and usually shows little variability from instance to instance | |
| Classical Conditioning Conditioning process in which an originally neutral stimulus, by repeated pairing with a stimulus that normally elicits a response, comes to elicit a similar or even identical response; aka Pavlovian conditioning | |
| Unconditioned Stimulus Stimulus that normally produces a measurable involuntary response | |
| Unconditioned Response Unlearned or involuntary response to an unconditioned stimulus | |
| Conditioned Stimulus Neutral stimulus that, through repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus, begins to elicit a conditioned response | |
| Conditioned Response Response elicited by a conditioned stimulus | |
| Higher-order Conditioning Process by which a neutral stimulus takes on conditioned properties through pairing with a conditioned stimulus | |
| Extinction (classical conditioning) The procedure of withholding the unconditioned stimulus and presenting the conditioned stimulus alone, which gradually reduces the probability of the conditioned response | |
| Spontaneous Recovery Recurrence of an extinguished conditioned response, usually following a rest period | |
| Stimulus Generalization Process by which a conditioned response becomes associated with a stimulus that is similar but not identical to the original conditioned stimulus | |
| Stimulus Discrimination Process by which an organism learns to respond only to a specific stimulus and not to other stimuli | |
| Operant Conditioning Conditioning in which an increase or decrease in the probability that a behavior will recur is affected by the delivery of reinforcement or punishment as a consequence of the behavior; | |
| Skinner Box Named for its developer, B.F. Skinner, a box that contains a responding mechanism and a device capable of delivering a consequence to an animal in the box whenever it makes the desired response | |
| Shaping Selective reinforcement of behaviors that gradually approach the desired response | |
| Reinforcer Any event that increases the probability of a recurrence of the response that preceded it | |
| Positive Reinforcement Presentation of a stimulus after a particular response in order to increase the likelihood that the response will recur | |
| Negative Reinforcement Removal of a stimulus after a particular response to increase the likelihood that the response will recur | |
| Primary Reinforcer Reinforcer that has survival value for an organism; this value does not have to be learned | |
| Secondary Reinforcer Any neutral stimulus that initially has no intrinsic value for an organism but that becomes rewarding when linked with a primary reinforcer | |
| Superstitious Behavior Behavior learned through coincidental association with reinforcement | |
| Punishment Process of presenting an undesirable or noxious stimulus, or removing a desirable stimulus, to decrease the probability that a preceding response will recur | |
| Primary Punisher Any stimulus or event that is naturally painful or unpleasant to an organism | |
| Secondary Punisher Any neutral stimulus that initially has no intrinsic negative value for an organism but acquires punishing qualities when linked with a primary punisher | |
| Learned Helplessness The behavior of giving up or not responding to punishment, exhibited by people or animals exposed to negative consequences or punishment over which they have no control | |
| Fixed-interval Schedule A reinforcement schedule in which a reinforcer (reward) is delivered after a specified interval of time, provided that the required response occurs at least once in the interval | |
| Variable-interval Schedule A reinforcement schedule in which a reinforcer (reward) is delivered after predetermined but varying amounts of time, provided that the required response occurs at least once after each interval | |
| Fixed-ratio Schedule A reinforcement schedule in which a reinforcer(reward) is delivered after a specified number of responses has occurred | |
| Variable-ratio Schedule A reinforcement schedule in which a reinforcer (reward) is delivered after a predetermined but variable number of responses has occurred | |
| Extinction (operant conditioning) The process by which the probability of an organism's emitting a response is reduced when reinforcement no longer follows the response | |
| Latent Learning Learning that occurs in the absence of direct reinforcement and that is not necessarily demonstrated through observable behavior | |
| Observational Learning Theory Theory that suggests that organisms learn new responses by observing the behavior of a model and then imitating it; aka. Social learning theory | |
| aversive conditioning learning involving an unpleasant or harmful stimulus or reinforcer | |
| Law of Effect behaviors followed by pleasant consequences are strengthened while behaviors followed by unpleasant consequences are weakened (Thorndike) | |
| Premack principle commonly occurring behavior can reinforce a less frequent behavior | |
| shaping positively reinforcing closer and closer approximation of a desired behavior to teach a new behavior | |
| token economy operant training system that uses secondary reinforcers (tokens) to increase appropriate behavior; learners can exchange tokens for desired rewards | |
