Psych Chapter 5

Learning

Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice

Vicarious Conditioning

Classical Conditioning of a reflex response or emotion by watching the reaction of another person

Conditioned Response

Learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus

Observational learning

Learning a new behavior by watching a model perform

Latent learning

Learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful

Classical Conditioning

Learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex

Unconditioned stimulus

Naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary response

Biofeedback

The use of feedback about biological conditions to bring involuntary responses such as blood pressure and relaxation under voluntary control

Behavior Modification

The use of operant conditioning techniques to bring about desired changes in behavior

Token Economy

Type of behavior modification in which desired behavior is rewarded with tokens

Punishment

Any event or object that, when following a response, decreases the likelihood of that response occurring again

Thorndike's Law of Effect

A law stating that if a response is followed by a pleasurable consequence, it will tend to be repeated, and if followed by an unpleasurable response will tend to not be repeated

Unconditioned Response

An involuntary response to a naturally occurring or unconditioned stimulus

Operant

Any behavior that is voluntary

Reinforcer

Any event of object that, when following a response, makes that response more likely to happen again

Negative reinforcement

Removal or escape from an unpleasant stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus

Stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus

Neutral Stimulus

Stimulus that has no effect on the desired response

Insight

Sudden perception of relationships among various parts of a problem, allowing the solution to the problem to come quickly

Instinctive Drift

Tendency for animal's to revert to genetically controlled patterns

Ivan Pavlov

The Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning though his work with dogs

Positive reinforcement

The addition of a pleasurable stimulus

Extinction

The disappearance or weakening of a learned response

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred

Positive Reinforcement

The reinforcement of a response that occurs when that response is followed by a pleasurable consequence

Continuous Reinforcement

The reinforcement of each and every correct response

Shaping

The reinforcement of simple steps in behavior that lead to a desired, more complex behavior

Reinforcement

The strengthening of a response that occurs when that response is followed by a pleasurable consequence

Learned Helplessness

The tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation because of a history of repeated failures in the past

Stimulus Discrimination

The tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency to stop making a generalized response to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus because the similar stimulus is never paired with the unconditioned stimulus