AP Psychology, Chapter 8, Learning and Behaviorism
punishment
An event that decreases the behavior that it follows.
Contingency
Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables.
John Garcia
Researched taste aversion. Showed that when rats ate a novel substance before being nauseated by a drug or radiation, they developed a conditioned taste aversion for the substance.
Minimal effectiveness response
Therapeutic drug monitoring.
Assertiveness Training
This behavioral technique provides tools and experience through which the client can become more assertive.
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.
John B. Watson
behaviorism; emphasis on external behaviors of people and their reactions on a given situation; famous for Little Albert study in which baby was taught to fear a white rat.
Aversion therapy
form of behavioral therapy in which an undesirable behavior is paired with an aversive stimulus to reduce the frequency of the behavior.
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.
Robert Rescorla
researched classical conditioning; found subjects learn the predictability of an event through trials (cognitive element).
SIB/SAB
self-injurious behavior is not considered socially acceptable behavior.
Habituation
An organism's decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it.
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).
Observational learning
learning by observing others.
Modeling
the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.
B.F. Skinner
1904-1990; Field: behavioral; Contributions: created techniques to manipulate the consequences of an organism's behavior in order to observe the effects of subsequent behavior; Studies: Skinner box.
Flooding
A behavioral technique used to treat phobias in which the client is presented with the feared stimulus until the associated anxiety disappears.
Learning
A relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience.
Reflex
A simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response.
Systematic desensitization
A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.
Classical conditioning
A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus. Also called Pavlovian conditioning.
Operant conditioning
A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.
Reinforcement
An event following a response that strengthens the tendency to make that response.
Shaping
An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
Ivan Pavlov
Contributions: developed foundation for classical conditioning, discovered that a UCS naturally elicits a reflexive behavior; Studies: dog salivation.
Mirror neurons
Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy.
Discrimination
In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
Unconditioned response (UCR)
In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.
Edward Thorndike
Pioneer in operant conditioning who discovered concepts in intstrumental learning such as the law of effect. Known for his work with cats in puzzle boxes.
Learned helplessness
The behavior of giving up or not responding to punishment, exhibited by people or animals exposed to negative consequences or punishment over which they have no control.
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.
Overjustification effect
The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. The person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task.
Deprivation vs. Satiation
The state of an organism with respect to how much time has elapsed since it has consumed or contacted a particular type of reinforcer: also refers to a procedure for increasing the effectiveness of a reinforcer. (vs) A decrease in the frequency of operant behavior presumed to be the result of continued contact with or consumption of a reinforcer that has followed the behavior.
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 with (2).
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.
Operant chamber (Skinner Box)
a chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer, with attached devices to record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking. Used in operant conditioning research.
Extrinsic motivation
a desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishment.
Intrinsic motivation
a desire to perform a behavior for its own sake and to be effective.
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.
Fading
a procedure for transferring stimulus control in which features of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., shape, size, position, color) controlling a behavior are gradually changed to a new stimulus while maintaining the current behavior; stimulus features can be faded in (enhanced) or out (reduced)
Conditioned reinforcer (secondary reinforcers)
a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer.
Biofeedback
a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension.
The Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System (SIBIS)
an apparatus designed to reduce self-injurious behavior directed at the head.
Primary reinforcer
an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.
Respondent behavior
behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus; Skinner's term for behavior learned through classical conditioning.
Operant behavior
behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.
Graduated exposure
in behavior therapy, a method in which a person suffering from a phobia or panic attacks is gradually taken into the feared situation or exposed to a traumatic memory until the anxiety subsides.
Neutral stimulus (NS)
in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.
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 association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response.
Conditioned response (CR)
in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS)
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.
Discriminative stimulus
in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement).
Latent learning
learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
Albert Bandura
pioneer in observational learning (AKA social learning), stated that people profit from the mistakes/successes of others; Studies: Bobo Dolls-adults demonstrated 'appropriate' play with dolls, children mimicked play.
Prosocial behavior
positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior.
Edward Tolman
researched rats' use of "cognitive maps".
Negative reinforcement
something bad is removed or avoided, which encourages the occurrence of the behavior.
Positive reinforcement
something good is presented, which encourages the behavior in the future.
Target behavior
the behavior selected for intervention, most often to be extinguished or changed, although it may be a positive behavior.
Acquisition
the initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.
Spontaneous recovery
the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.
Successive approximation
the sequence of new response classes that emerge during the shaping process as the result of differential reinforcement; each successive response class is closer in form to the terminal behavior than the response class it replaces.
