Chapter 6 Learning PSY

Operant conditioning (class)

(Skinner) Learn to associate behavior and its consequences. Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences.

Instrumental conditioning

(Thorndike) Law of Effect: "Behavior is a function of its consequences." Rewarding consequences are "stamped in".

Observational learning (class)

- Acquisition and later performance of behaviors demonstrated by others.

Schedules of reinforcement (class)

- Continuous - every response - Intermittent - Not every response (partial).

Problems with punishment (class)

1. Negative emotional responses 2. Produces modeling of the punishment. 3. What is a punishment? 4. Doesn't teach a desired behavior - need to reward desired behavior.

Memory structure (class)

1. Sensory memory - store less than one second. 2. Short term memory - Less than one minute. 3. Long term memory - Years

Biological preparedness

A genetic tendency to learn certain response very easily.

Cognitive map

A mental representation of the environment that is formed through observation of one's environment.

Law of effect

A principle discovered by E.L. Thorndike, which states that behaviors that lead to positive consequences will be strengthened and behaviors that lead to negative consequences will be weakened.

Learning (class)

A process that results in a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience.

Primary reinforcer

A reinforcer that is reinforcing in and of itself.

Secondary reinforcer

A reinforcer that is reinforcing only because it leads to a primary reinforcer.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavior potential, as a result of experience.

Fixed ratio schedule

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for every XTH instance of the desired response.

Continuous reinforcement

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for every instance of the desired response.

Partial reinforcement

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for only some instances of the desired response.

Fixed interval schedule

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for the first desired response in an XTH interval of time.

Variable ratio schedule

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded on average for every XTH instance of the desired response.

Variable interval schedule

A schedule of reinforcement of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for the first desired response in an average XTH interval of time.

Behaviorism

A school of thought in psychology that emphasizes the study of observable behavior over the study of the mind.

Neutral stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that does not naturally elicit an unconditioned response in an organism.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A stimulus that elicits a conditioned response in an organism.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

A stimulus that naturally elicits a response in an organism.

Insight

A sudden realization about how to solve a problem that occurs after an organism has studied the problem for a period of time.

Token economy

A system of operant conditioning in which participants are reinforced with tokens that can later be cashed in for primary reinforcers.

Extinction burst

A temporary increase in a behavioral response that occurs immediately after extinction has begun.

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which the organism learns through the consequences of its behavior.

Aversion therapy

A type of therapy that uses classical conditioning to condition people to avoid certain stimuli.

Chunking

Chunk, put information together.

Taste aversion

Classical conditioning that occurs when an organism pairs the experience of nausea with a certain food and becomes conditioned to feel ill at the sight, smell, or idea of the food.

Difference between classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning (class)

Classical conditioning: Behavior - Involuntary, reflex. Response - Response elicited Conditioning procedure - Pairing two stimuli. Instrumental conditioning: Behavior - Voluntary behavior. Response - Response emitted. Conditioning procedure - Pairing stimulus and response.

Stimulus generalization (class)

Conditioned response generalizes to similar stimuli.

Skinner box

Device created by B.F. Skinner to study operant behavior in a compressed time frame; in a Skinner box, an organism is automatically rewarded or punished for engaging in certain behaviors.

Spontaneous recovery

During extinction, the tendency for a conditioned response to reappear and strengthen over a brief period of time before re-extinguishing.

Basic memory process (class)

Encoding - Code and put into memory. Storage - Maintain in memory. Retrieval - Recover from memory.

Attention (class)

Extent to which we focus on other's behavior.

Latent learning

Learning that cannot be directly observed in an organisms behavior.

Classical conditioning

Learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus; because of this pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus with the same power as the unconditioned stimulus to elicit the response in the organism.

Observational learning

Learning through observation and imitation of other's behavior.

Production processes (class)

Our ability to actually perform the actions we observe.

Retention (class)

Our ability to retain a representation of others behavior in memory.

Motivation (class)

Our need for the actions we witness; their usefulness to us.

Dishabituation

Re-responding to a stimulus to which one has been habituated.

Stimulus discrimination (class)

Respond one way to stimulus A, a different way to Stimulus B.

Stimulus generalization

Responding in a like fashion to similar stimuli.

Stimulus discrimination

Responding only to a particular stimulus.

Positive reinforcement

Strengthening a behavior by adding something pleasant to the environment of the organism.

Negative reinforcement

Strengthening a behavior by removing something unpleasant from the environment of the organism.

Countercondition (class)

Substitute a different response.

Contingency

The degree to which the presentation of one stimulus reliably predicts the presentation of the other stimulus.

Contiguity

The degree to which two stimuli occur close together in time.

Schedule of reinforcement

The frequency and timing of the reinforcements that an organism receives.

Acquistion

The process of learning a conditioned response or behavior.

Extinction

The removal of a conditioned response.

Unconditioned response (UR)

The response that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned response (CR)

The response that is elicited by conditioned stimulus.

Reinforcement

The strengthening of a response that occurs when the response is rewarded.

Habituation

The tendency of an organism to ignore repeated stimuli.

Orienting Reflex

The tendency of an organism to orient its senses toward unexpected stimuli.

Punishment

The weakening of a response that occurs when a behavior leads to an unpleasant consequence.

Conditioned stimuli (class)

They are predictive signals.

Extinction (class)

Unlearning or suppressing a condition response.

Shaping

Using operant conditioning to build a new behavior in an organism by rewarding successive approximations of the desired response.

Positive punishment

Weakening a behavior by adding something unpleasant to the organism's environment.

Negative punishment

Weakening a behavior by removing something pleasant from the organism's environment.