AP Psych Behaviorism Terms
Overjustification Effect
The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do.
Law of Effect
Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely
Counter Conditioning
a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning.
Intrinsic Motivation
a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.
Extrinsic Motivation
a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.
Cognitive Map
a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.
Learning
a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience
Conditioned Reinforcer (Secondary Reinforcers)
a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer.
Aversive Conditioning
a type of counter conditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).
Systematic Desensitization
a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.
Operant Conditioning
a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer of diminished if followed by a punisher
Classical Conditioning
a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
Punishment
an event that decreases the behavior that it follows.
Primary Reinforcer
an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.
Token Economy
an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats.
Shaping
an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior
Respondent Behavior
behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus
Operant Behavior
behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally- naturally and automatically- triggers a response
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after associated with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response
Acquisition
in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response
Discrimination
in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned Response (CR)
in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth
Operant Chamber (Skinner Box)
in operant conditioning research, a chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking
Variable Ratio Schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.
Variable-Interval Schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.
Fixed Ratio Schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.
Fixed-Interval Schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.
Reinforcer
in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
Associative Learning
learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).
Latent Learning
learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
Partial (intermittent) Reinforcement
reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.
Continuous Reinforcement
reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.
Extinction
the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced
Modeling
the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.
Spontaneous Recovery
the reappearance, after a pause, of any extinguished conditioned response
Generalization
the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses
Behaviorism
the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not (2).