psych ch6

operant behavior

"operates" on the environment or is controllable by the individual. Operant behavior is done because it produces some type of consequence. For example, you are probably familiar with Pavlov's dog (classical conditioning) in which the dog salivated in response to meet powder. The dog couldn't control the salivation...that's classical conditioning. However, if the dog understood that by coming when called it would receive a treat, then it would be engaging in operant behavior.

antisocial effects

Antisocial behavior is exhibited typically by people who are "antisocial" which is hostility toward society or the established values of society. When behaviors are exhibited that violates rules or conventions of society and/or personal rights, they are exhibiting antisocial behavior

habituation

As humans, we get used to things. Something that is new and incredibly exciting can become boring. This tendancy to have decreased repsponsiveness to something is habituation (you might also hear someone say that you get habituated to something). For example, there may be a painting or picture you really like so you put it on the wall in your room. You see this picture every day, 10 times a day. Over time and repeated exposures to this picture you might start feeling like you've "seen it a million times" and it just doesn't have the same effect on you that it used to.

expectancy

Expectancy Effects are the results that an experimental researcher or observer generates when they have somehow, usually subtly and subconsciously, communicated the expected results to the participant. In other words, the experimenter gives away the purpose, direction, meaning, etc., of the experiment to the participants - not good! This happens frequently when a subject (human or animal) learns to associate an unintended stimulus (a sound, gesture, facial expression, etc.) with an expected action or response.

generalization

Generalization refers to a process within operant and classical conditioning, where a conditioned response (CR) starts occurring in response to the presentation of other, similar stimuli, not just the conditioned stimulus (CS). For example, a dog is trained to sit (CR) when you give the command, "sit" (CS). Soon after that, the dog might sit when you say "hit", "bit", and "kick". In this case, the CR (sitting) is not only done to the CS (the command, "sit") but also to commands that are similar.

observational learning

The process of acquiring information by observing others. Learning to tie your shoe by observing another individual perform the task would be an example of observational learning.

behaviorism

The school of thought that stresses the need for psychology to be an objective science. In other words, that psychology should be a science based on observable (and only observable) events, not the unconscious or conscious mind. This perspective was first suggested and propagated by John Watson in 1913, who wanted psychology to study only observable behaviors and get away from the study of the conscious mind completely. Watson's primary rationale was that only observable events are verifiable and thus, are the only events that can be proven false.

emotion-focused coping

`avoiding a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to stress reaction

unconditioned stimulus

any stimulus that can evoke a response without the organism going through any previous learning; the response to the US (the unconditioned response) occurs naturally. For example, if you smell a lemon, it might get a sour taste in your mouth and you may salivate. This may occur from the time you are born and can occur without you ever having tasted a lemon before. The lemon, therefore, is a US since it produced the salivation and sour taste (the UR) naturally, without you having any previous experience with lemons.

stimulus

behavior that causes a responce

shaping

behavioral term that refers to gradually molding or training an organism to perform a specific response (behavior) by reinforcing any responses that are similar to the desired response. For example, a researcher can use shaping to train a rat to press a lever during an experiment (since rats are not born with the instinct to press a lever in a cage during an experiment). To start, the researcher may reward the rat when it makes any movement at all in the direction of the lever. Then, the rat has to actually take a step toward the lever to get rewarded. Then, it has to go over to the lever to get rewarded (remember, it will not receive any reward for doing the earlier behaviors now...it must make a more advanced move by going over to the lever), and so on until only pressing the lever will produce reward. The rat's behavior was "shaped" to get it to press the lever.

unconditioned response

can produce responses all by themselves and without any prior learning. These types of stimuli are called unconditioned stimuli (US or UCS) and they evoke unconditioned responses (UR or UCR), or responses that are completely natural and occur without an organism going through any prior learning. For example, if you smell a lemon, it might get a sour taste in your mouth and you may salivate. This may occur from the time you are born and can occur without you ever having tasted a lemon before. The salivation and sour taste would be unconditioned responses.

problem-focused coping

changing a stressor

operant chamber

created by B.F. Skinner to assist with laboratory analysis of animal behavior. The chamber is a box that holds the test subject, an animal such as a rat, and is often sound and light proof, to limit responses from unintended stimuli. The box is built with a system for delivering a stimulus and can detect the response. It has an automatic system of reward or punishment delivery, simplifying the process of observation and data collection in behavioral studies.

instinctive drift

here are times when they stop performing those behaviors in the way they learned and start reverting back to their more instinctual behaviors - this is the basic premise of Instinctual Drift. The animal no longer performs the behaviors it has been taught, but goes back to behaviors that are in its nature. It begins to do what it is driven to do regardless of the resulting punishment.

theory of the mind

is the ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc. — to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.

conditioned response

is the learned response (reflexive behavior) to a conditioned stimulus (CS). This response is almost identical to the Unconditioned Stimulus except that now the reflexive behavior occurs in response to a conditioned stimulus as opposed to an unconditioned stimulus. For example, a dog salivates (UR) from the smell of a bone (US) naturally, without any conditioning. Once some neutral stimulus (CS) (for example, a "beep" that the dog would not naturally or normally cause the dog to salivate) has been paired with the bone for some time, the dog will salivate (CS) when the "beep" occurs.

conditioned reinforcer

items used as rewards for behavior and that are used to elicit (gain) desired behaviors from a test subject. For instance, most of us have seen "piano-playing chickens" at a fair. These chickens have been taught that they receive food in reward for pecking at the keys of a toy piano.

operant conditioning

type of learning in which a behavior is strengthened (meaning, it will occur more frequently) when it's followed by reinforcement, and weakened (will happen less frequently) when followed by punishment. Operant conditioning is based on a simple premise - that behavior is influenced by the consequences that follow. When you are reinforced for doing something, you're more likely to do it again. When you are punished for doing something, you are less likely to do it again.

primary reinforcer

used in conditioning, and it refers to anything that provides reinforcement without the need for learning to an organism. This means that the reinforcer is naturally reinforcing to the organism. For example, water is naturally reinforcing because organisms don't need to learn to be reinforced by it, they naturally get reinforced especially in times of being thirsty.

partial reinforcement

reinforcing an organism only sometimes and not everytime the desired behavior occurs. Think of trying to teach your dog to sit. Will he learn to sit faster if you reward the dog every single time he sits when you tell him to or if you reward him only sometimes? Of course he will learn to sit slower using this partial reinforcement approach.

neutral stimulus

stimulus that produces no response other than catching your attention. For example, let's say you have to bring your child to the pediatrician for a shot. Prior to the shot, the pediatrician presses a buzzer to call her assistant to come in and help her administer the vaccine. In this case, the sound of the buzzer is the neutral stimulus because it doesn't produce any response from the child, but the child does notice it.

positive reinforcement

stimulus which increases the frequency of a particular behavior using pleasant rewards. A doggy treat can pleasantly coerce your new puppy to sit (positive reinforcement) just as a pull to the choke collar can achieve the same affect (negative reinforcement). The difference is that the positive reinforcer is pleasant, but make sure you understand that both increase the frequency of the behavior!

classical conditioning

studied by Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is one form of learning in which an organism "learns" through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. For example, when a neutral stimulus (such as a bell) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (such as food) which produces some involuntary bodily response all on its own (such as salivating), the neutral stimulus begins to trigger a response by the organism similar (some salivation) to that produced by the unconditioned stimulus. In this way, the organism has "learned" that the neutral stimulus equals something good (just like the unconditioned stimulus).

discrimination

term that is used in both classical and operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, it refers to an ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and other, similar stimuli that don't signal an unconditioned stimulus (US). For example, if Pavlov's dog had developed discrimination, it would have salivated to the tone that had been paired with the delivery of the meat powder, and not a similar tone with a slightly different pitch. In operant conditioning, the definition is essentially the same, but here the organism discriminates between a learned, voluntary response and an irrelevant, non-learned response. For example, a dog that has learned to sit when a person says "sit" in order to receive a treat, but the dog does not sit when a person says "bit".

taste aversion

the mind develops a resistance towards a certain food. In simpler terms, eating certain types of food can cause a bad reaction. This is a form of classical condition when the body uses a natural instinct as a means of protection. This is also called a survival mechanism. It warns the body if a type of food (berries or mushrooms) is harmful. EX- I did not eat rosado again after I threw up.-JOHN GARCIA

highly order conditioning

(also known as Second Order Conditioning) is a classical conditioning term that refers to a situation in which a stimulus that was previously neutral (e.g., a light) is paired with a conditioned stimulus (e.g., a tone that has been conditioning with food to produce salivating) to produce the same conditioned response as the conditioned stimulus. Wow...if you understand how a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (conditioning), you understand higher order conditioning because this is really just extending the conditioning one more level...the conditioning is happening not by pairing the stimulus with something that naturally produces a response, but with something that has been conditioned to produce a response.

internal locus of control

If you believe that you control your own destiny and that your behaviors are under your control, then you have an internal locus of control. This concept has quite a bit of importance when we try to make attributions for our behaviors. For example, if you did well on a test, how would you explain it? If you said that it was because you got lucky or the teacher made an easy test, then you would be exhibiting and "external" locus of control. However, if you attribute your good performance to your hard work, good study habits, and interest in the topic, you would being exhibiting and internal locus of control.

mirror neurons

Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that fires when you do an action, and also when you simply watch someone else doing the same action. For example, when you are grabbing a cup of coffee, Motor Neuron A (which also happens to be a Mirror Neuron) fires to tell your hand to reach out and grip the handle of the cup. When you watch your friend pick up his own cup of coffee, Motor Neuron A also fires as if you were also picking up his cup of coffee, even if your hand is not moving at all.

reinforcement

Operant Conditioning term that refers to a process by which the likelihood of a behavior occurring is increased either by giving a pleasant stimulus (positive reinforcement) or removing an unpleasant stimulus (negative reinforcement). Imagine I want to teach my dog to sit on command. When I tell him to sit and he does, I give him a treat. Giving the treat increases the probability that he will sit the next time I tell him to sit.

law of effect

Stimulus-response means exhibiting a reaction to some form of reward. This law is based on the observation of the effects that rewards have on animal behavior in test conditions. For example, an animal can be taught to push a lever to receive a bite of food as a reward. When the animal receives a treat for its behavior, it becomes more willing to continue to perform the behavior. In this example, you can see the effect the reward has the animal's behavior.

learned helplessness

When an organism (person, animal, etc.) is prevented from avoiding some aversive stimulus repeatedly (e.g., continuous electric shocks) the organism will reach a state in which it becomes passive and depressed because he believes that there are no actions it can take to avoid the aversive stimulus. Esssentially, the organism just gives up trying to avoid it and just takes the aversive stimulus. Thus, the organism learns that it is helpless against the aversive stimulus.

insight

When the solution to a problem comes to you in an all-of-a-sudden manner, it can be considered insight. More specifically, insight can be defined as the sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem. This is the opposite type of solution to trial-and-error solutions.

respondent behavior

a behavioral process (or behavior) that happens in response to some stimuli, and is essential to an organism's survival. This behavior is characterized by involuntary action. For example, the pupil starts to flicker when exposed to direct sunlight. If the pupil does not flicker, the eye will be more exposed to sun rays, which may lead to blindness. Functions of respondent behavior include protecting the body against harmful stimuli, regulating the internal balance and economy of the organism, and promoting reproduction. Other examples of human respondent behaviors are sexual arousal and sweating while running.

cognitive learning

a broad theory that explains thinking and differing mental processes and how they are influenced by internal and external factors in order to produce learning in individuals. When cognitive processes are working normally then acquisition and storage of knowledge works well, but when these cognitive processes are ineffective, learning delays and difficulties can be seen. These cognitive processes are: observing, categorizing, and forming generalizations about our environment. A disruption in these natural cognitive processes can cause behavioral problems in individuals and the key to treating these problems lies in changing the disrupted process. For example, a person with an eating disorder genuinely believes that they are extremely overweight. Some of this is due to a cognitive disruption in which their perception of their own weight is skewed. A therapist will try to change their constant pattern of thinking that they are overweight in order to decrease the unhealthy behaviors that are a result of it.

modeling

a form of learning where individuals ascertain how to act or perform by observing another individual. Think of it this way, you may know how to tell a joke better because you have watched Jay Leno's standup routine on TV. Or, if you have ever felt uncomfortable at a party and someone gives you the advice of: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" -- well, the person is really saying: "Model your behaviors and learn how to act by watching how others are performing in the same situation."

conditioned stimulus

a formerly neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to produce a conditioned response. For example, a dog salivates (UR) from the smell of a bone (US) naturally, without any conditioning. Once some neutral stimulus (for example, a "beep" that the dog would not naturally or normally cause the dog to salivate) has been paired with the bone for some time, the dog will salivate (conditioned response or CR) when the "beep" occurs. Once the beep has the capacity to elicit the salivation, it is now considered a conditioned stimulus (CS).

cognitive map

a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. It seems that many animals, not just humans, are able to form a mental representation of an environment that they have been in or are currently in. For example, when a friend asks you for directions to your house, you are able to create an image in your mind of the roads, places to turn, landmarks, etc., along the way to your house from your friend's starting point.

spontaneous recovery

a term associated with learning and conditioning. Specifically, spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a response (a Conditioned Response; CR) that had been extinguished. The recovery can occur after a period of non-exposure to the Conditioned Stimulus (CS). It is called spontaneous because the response seems to reappear out of nowhere. Let's look at an example. Let's say I condition (teach/train) a rat to press a lever whenever I ring a bell. Then I teach the rat to press the lever when I flash a light and not when I ring the bell. Once I've accomplished this, we can say that the first conditioned response (pressing the lever when I ring the bell) has been extinguished. But then one day, the rat starts to press the lever when I ring the bell and not when I flash the light. In this situation, there was spontaneous recovery of the response that was previously extinguished.

discriminative stimulus

a term used in classical conditioning as a part of the process known as operant conditioning. A discriminative stimulus is a type of stimulus that is used consistently to gain a specific response and that increases the possibility that the desired response will occur. For example, in an experiment where a rat is being taught to navigate a maze it is easiest to train the rat with a highly desirable treat (such as peanut butter) rather than a less desirable reward such as a piece of broccoli.

punishment

also known as Positive Punishment, is any stimulus that represses a behavior. It is important to note that punishment is not the same as negative reinforcement. Is failing a test negative reinforcement or punishment? If it motivates you to study more it is negative reinforcement (i.e., it increases the behavior of studying). However, if you feel that studying is actually hurting your performance (due to, for example, test anxiety) you will perceive that failing the test was due to studying too hard. Next time, you will not study (i.e., decrease your behavior) so that you will not be punished for it. Now you just need to convince your professor that bad grades are actually causing you to study less.

continuous reinforcement

an operant conditioning principle in which an organism is reinforced every single time that organism provides the appropriate operant response. For example, you, as a researcher, might present a food pellet every time the rat presses the lever. One of the biggest dangers when using this type of reinforcement is saturation (the organism basically gets full - you keep feeding it and it no longer wants the reinforcement because it is stuffed), so the idea that giving reinforcement all the time is the best way to teach/learn is not necessarily true.

cognitive imitation

evaluate a student's ability to copy some feature of an expert's motor behavior. Here, we describe a type of observational learning in which a student copies a cognitive rule rather than a specific motor action. Two rhesus macaques were trained to respond, in a prescribed order, to different sets of photographs that were displayed on a touch-sensitive monitor. Because the position of the photographs varied randomly from trial to trial, sequences could not be learned by motor imitation. Both monkeys learned new sequences more rapidly after observing an expert execute those sequences than when they had to learn new sequences entirely by trial and error.

extinction

from conditioning and refers to the reduction of some response that the organism currently or previously produced. In classical conditioning this results from the unconditioned stimulus NOT occurring after the conditioned stimulus is presented over time. In operant conditioning it results from some response by the organism no longer being reinforced (for example, you keep getting your dog to sit on command, but you stop giving it a treat or any other type of reinforcement. Over time, the dog may not sit every time you give the command).

latent learning

learning that occurs, but you don't really see it (it's not exhibited) until there is some reinforcement or incentive to demonstrate it. This may seem a bit silly, but it is important to understand that there is a difference between learning and performance. For example, if you are in a car going to school with a friend every day, but your friend is driving all the time, you may learn the way to get to school, but have no reason to demonstrate this knowledge. However, when you friend gets sick one day and you have to drive yourself for the first time, if you can get to school following the same route you would go if your friend was driving, then you have demonstrated latent learning.

intrinsic motivation

motivated to perform specific behaviors to achieve promised outside rewards or to avoid punishment from others. However, if you are working at a job because you get a great feeling of personal satisfaction from it, and you are trying to perform the behavior for its own sake (not for money), then you are intrinsically motivated. We are not saying that this is better or worse than extrinsic motivation, only different. Intrinsic motivation does seem to be more satisfying to people though. People who are extrinsically motivated tend to be less satisfied and become unhappy more easily (in general, not always).

extrinsic motivation

motivated to perform specific behaviors to achieve promised outside rewards or to avoid punishment from others. You are not working at a job because you get a great feeling of personal satisfaction from it or because it makes you feel good about yourself (that you are a good person), but rather to gain some kind of reward. We are not saying there is anything wrong with this. We are only trying to explain the concept to you.

negative reinforcement

negative reinforcement the occurrence of a behavior is increased by removing an unpleasant stimulus. For example, your dog can avoid being spanked when it sits in response to your command. If the dog has been getting spanked, not getting spanked is rewarding (removal of unpleasant stimulus) so the frequency of the behavior will increase. People confuse negative reinforcement with punishment--just remember that with reinforcement you increase the occurrence of the behavior but punishment extinguishes a behavior.

self control

our ability to direct our behavior and control our impulses so that we meet certain standards, achieve certain goals, or reach certain ideals. Self regulation involves being able to set goals, monitoring one's behavior to ensure that it is in line with those goals, and having the willpower to persist until goals are reached.

external locus of control

person with an external locus of control is more likely to believe that his or her fate is determined by chance or outside forces that are beyond their own personal control. This strategy can be healthy sometimes. Like when dealing with failure or disaster, but can also be harmful in that it can lead to feeling of helplessness and loss of personal control.

positive and negative punishment difference?

positive- adding something negative like spanking negative takes away something like your license to keep you from speeding again.

associative learning

refers to learning that two different events occur or happen together. This is really a fundamental component of conditioning since a response to a stimulus won't really be learned if the organism doesn't get the point that the stimulus and response are supposed to occur together. This doesn't have to be a conscious learning (remember, there is a big difference between classical and operant conditioning) but the association must be made for the learning to occur. For example, will a rat learn to press a lever if it never makes the association between pressing the lever and getting the reward? Or why would a dog salivate to a bell if it never makes the connection between the bell and getting food?

cope

refers to the human behavioral process for dealing with demands, both internal or external, in situations that are perceived as threats. This can mean doing what is necessary at the time to deal with a situation in the safest or easiest way.

acquistion

refers to the initial stage of the learning or conditioning process. In this stage, some response is being associated with some stimulus to the point where we can say the organism (person, animal, etc.) has "acquired" the response. During this stage the response is strengthened (reinforced) so that it is truly "learned". For example, if you are trying to train a rat to press a lever in response to you ringing a bell (i.e., trying to condition the rat to press the lever when and only when you ring the bell), then once the rat presses the lever in only response to the bell, you can say the response is "acquired". You would then continue to gradually reinforce the lever pressing in response to the bell to make sure the response is strengthened.

prosocial

refers to the phenomenon of people helping each other with no thought of reward or compensation. You may have thought this didn't exist, but it's been known to happen. Prosocial behaviors are actions or patterns of behavior rather than motivations. The motivation to do charitable acts is called altruism. For example, if a person gives an unmarked box of clothing to a shelter anonymously, the action of giving the box is the prosocial behavior. The person's motivation to give the box would be altruism.