Chapter 6 Terms

Secondary Reinforcer

A stimulus that gains reinforcement value through association with established reinforcers.

Stimulus

An environmental condition that elicits a response.

Model

An organism that engages in a response that is then imitated by another organism.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Reinforcer

Another term for a secondary reinforcer.

Shaping

A procedure for teaching complex behaviors that at first reinforces approximations of the target behavior.

Negative Reinforcer

A reinforcer that when removed increases the frequency of an operant.

Fixed-Interval Schedule

A schedule in which a fixed amount of time must elapse between the previous and subsequent times that reinforcement is available.

Variable-Interval Schedule

A schedule in which a variable amount of time must elapse between the previous and subsequent times that reinforcement is available.

Variable-Ratio Schedule

A schedule in which reinforcement is provided after a variable number of correct responses.

Continuous Reinforcement

A schedule of reinforcement in which every correct response is reinforced.

Reflex

A simple unlearned response to a stimulus.

Operant Behavior

Behavior that operates on, or manipulates, the environment.

Counterconditioning

A fear-reduction technique in which pleasant stimuli are associated with fear-evoking stimuli so that the fear-evoking stimuli lose their aversive qualities.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response to a conditioned stimulus. (In Pavlov's demonstration, salivation.)

Law of Effect

Thorndyke's view that pleasant events stamp in responses, and unpleasant events stamp them out.

Reinforce

To follow a response with a stimulus that increases the frequency of the response.

Operant

The same as an operant behavior.

Generalization

In conditioning, the tendency for a conditioned response to be evoked by stimuli that are similar to the stimulus to which the response was conditioned.

Discriminative Stimulus

In operant conditioning, a stimulus that indicates that reinforcement is available.

Systematic Desensitization

A behavioral fear-reduction technique in which a hierarchy of fear-evoking stimuli is presented while the person remains relaxed.

Positive Reinforcer

A reinforcer that when presented increases the frequency of an operant.

Primary Reinforcer

A reinforcer whose effectiveness is based on the biological makeup of the organism and not on learning.

Biological Preparedness

Readiness to acquire a certain kind of conditioned response due to the biological makeup of the organism.

Flooding

A behavioral fear-reduction technique based on principles of classical conditioning. Fear-evoking stimuli are presented continuously in the absence of actual harm so that fear responses are extinguished.

Higher Order Conditioning

A classical conditioning procedure in which a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit the response brought forth by a conditioned stimulus by being paired repeatedly with that conditioned stimulus.

Cognitive Map

A mental representation of the layout of one's environment.

Programmed Learning

A method of teaching that breaks down tasks into small steps, each of which is reinforced and then combined to form the correct behavioral chain.

Discrimination

In conditioning, the tendency for an organism to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not forecast an unconditioned stimulus.

Latent Learning

Learning that is hidden or concealed.

Partial Reinforcement

One of several reinforcement schedules in which not every correct response is reinforced.

Time Out

Removal of an organism from a situation in which reinforcement is available when unwanted behavior is shown.

Learning

The process by which organisms make relatively permanent changes in the way they represent the environment because of experience. These changes influence the organism's behavior but do not fully determine it.

Extinction

The process by which stimuli lose their ability to evoke learned responses because the events that had followed the stimuli no longer occur. (The learned responses are said to be extinguished.)

Spontaneous Recovery

The recurrence of an extinguished response as a function of the passage of time.

Behavior Modification

Therapy techniques based on principles of learning that teach adaptive behavior and extinguish or discourage maladaptive behavior.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that elicits a conditioned response because it has been parked repeatedly with a stimulus that already elicited that response. (In Pavlov's demonstration, the food.)

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

A schedule in which reinforcement is provided after a fixed number of correct responses.

Classical Conditioning

A simple form of learning in which an organism comes to associate or anticipate events a neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response usually evoked by another stimulus by being paired repeatedly with the other stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

A simple form of learning in which an organism learns to engage in certain behavior because it is reinforced.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that elicits a response from an organism prior to conditioning.

Cumulative Recorder

An instrument that records the frequency of an organism's operants as a function of the passage of time.

Orienting Response

An unlearned response in which an organism attends to a stimulus.

Successive Approximations

Behaviors that are progressively closer to a target behavior.