Psychology Chapter 7

After Watson and Rayner classically conditioned Little Albert to fear a white rat, the child later showed fear in response to a rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin coat. This illustrates

generalization

What conditioning principle is affecting the snail's affections?

generalization

Reinforcing a desired response only some of the times it occurs is called ___________ reinforcement.

partial (intermittent)

Fill in the three blanks below with one of the following terms: positive reinforcement (PR), negative reinforcement (NR), positive punishment (PP), and negative punishment (NP). We have provided the first answer (PR) for you. Type of Stimulus. Give It. Take It Away. Desired (for example, a teen's 1. PR 3. use of the car) 2. 4. Undesired/aversive (for example, an insult)

1. PR (positive reinforcement), 2. NP (negative punishment), 3. PP (positive punishment), 4. NR (negative reinforcement)

Match the examples (1-5) to the appropriate underlying learning principle (a-e): a. Classical conditioning b. Operant conditioning c. Latent learning d. Observational learning e. Biological predispositions 1. Knowing the way from your bed to the bathroom in the dark 2. Your little brothers getting in a fight after watching a violent action movie 3. Salivating when you smell brownies in the oven 4. Disliking the taste of chili after being violently sick a few hours after eating chili 5. Your dog racing to greet you on your arrival home

1. c, 2. d, 3. a, 4. e, 5. b

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.

How do different reinforcement schedules affect behavior?

A reinforcement schedule defines how often a response will be reinforced. In continuous reinforcement (reinforcing desired responses every time they occur), learning is rapid, but so is extinction if rewards cease. In partial (intermittent) reinforcement (reinforcing responses only sometimes), initial learning is slower, but the behavior is much more resistant to extinction. Fixed-ratio schedules reinforce behaviors after a set number of responses; variable-ratio schedules, after an unpredictable number. Fixed-interval schedules reinforce behaviors after set time periods; variable-interval schedules, after unpredictable time periods.

"Sex sells!" is a common saying in advertising. Using classical conditioning terms, explain how sexual images in advertisements can condition your response to a product.

A sexual image is a US that triggers a UR of interest or arousal. Before the ad pairs a product with a sexual image, the product is an NS. Over time the arousal can become a CS that triggers the CR of interest or arousal.

How do biological constraints affect classical and operant conditioning?

An animal's capacity for conditioning is limited by biological constraints, so some associations are easier to learn. Each species learns behaviors that aid its survival----a phenomenon called preparedness. Those who readily learned taste aversions were unlikely to eat the same toxic food again and were more likely to survive and leave descendants. Nature constraints each species' capacity for both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Our preparedness is to associate a CS with a US that follows predictable and immediately is often (but not always) adaptive. During operant training, animals may display instinctive drift by reverting to biologically predisposed patterns.

Who was Skinner, and how is operant behavior reinforced and shaped?

B.F. Skinner was a college English major and aspiring writer who later entered psychology graduate school. He became modern behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure. Expanding on Edward Thorndike's law of effect, Skinner and others found that the behavior of rats or pigeons placed in an operant chamber (Skinner box) can be shaped by using reinforcers to guide successive approximations of the desired behavior.

What is the impact of prosocial modeling and of antisocial modeling?

Children tend to imitate what a model does and says, whether the behavior being modeled is prosocial (positive, constructive, and helpful) or antisocial. If a model's actions and words are inconsistent, children may imitate the hypocrisy they observe.

What have been some applications of Pavlov's work to human health and well-being? How did Watson apply Pavlov's principles to learned fears?

Classical conditioning techniques are used to improve human health and well-being in many areas, including behavioral therapy for some types of psychological disorders. The body's immune system may also respond to classical conditioning. Pavlov's work also provided a basis for Watson's idea that human emotions and behaviors, though biologically influenced, are mainly a bundle of conditioned responses. Watson applied classical conditioning principles in his studies of "Little Albert" to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned.

Why did Skinner's ideas provoke controversy, and how might his operant conditioning principles be applied at school, in sports, at work, and at home?

Critics of Skinner's principles believed the approach dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and seeking to control their actions. Skinner replied that people's actions are already controlled by external consequences, and that reinforcement is more humane than punishment as a means for controlling behavior. Teachers can use shaping techniques to guide students' behaviors, and use interactive media such as online adaptive quizzing to provide immediate feedback. (The LearningCurve system available with this text provides such feedback, and allows students to direct the pace of their own learning.) Coaches can build players' skills and self-confidence by rewarding small improvements. Managers can boost productivity and morale by rewarding well-defined and achievable behaviors. Parents can reward desired behaviors but not undesirable ones. We can shape our own behaviors by stating realistic goals, planning how to work toward those goals, monitoring the frequency of desired behaviors, reinforcing desired behaviors, and gradually reducing rewards as behaviors become habitual.

reinforcement schedule

a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced

How did Garcia and Koelling's taste-aversion studies help disprove Gregory Kimble's early claim that "just about any activity of which the organism is capable can be conditioned . . . to any stimulus that the organism can perceive"?

Garcia and Koelling demonstrated that rats may learn an aversion to tastes, on which their survival depends, but not to sights and sounds.

Why are habits, such as having something sweet with that cup of coffee, so hard to break?

Habits form when we repeat behaviors in a given context, and, as a result, learn associations- often without our awareness. For example, we may have eaten a sweet pastry with a cup of coffee often enough to associate the flavor of the coffee with the treat, so that the cup of coffee alone just doesn't seem right anymore!

Ethan constantly misbehaves at preschool even though his teacher scolds him repeatedly. Why does Ethan's misbehavior continue, and what can his teacher do to stop it?

If Ethan is seeking attention, the teacher's scolding may be reinforcing rather than punishing. To change Ethan's behavior, his teacher could offer reinforcement (such as praise) each time he behaves well. The teacher might encourage Ethan toward increasingly appropriate behavior through shaping, or by rephrasing rules as rewards instead of punishments. ("You can have a snack if you play nicely with the other children" [reward] rather than "You will not get a snack if you misbehave!" [punishment].)

In slasher movies, sexually arousing images of women are sometimes paired with violence against women. Based on classical conditioning principles, what might be an effect of this pairing?

If viewing an attractive nude or seminude woman (a US) elicits sexual arousal (a UR), then pairing the US with a new NS (violence) could turn the violence into a conditioned stimulus (CS) that also becomes sexually arousing, a conditioned response (CR).

How do cognitive processes affect classical and operant conditioning?

In classical conditioning, animals may learn when to expect a US and may be aware of the link between stimuli and responses. In operant conditioning, cognitive mapping and latent learning research demonstrate the importance of cognitive processes in learning. Other research shows that excessive rewards (driving extrinsic motivation) can undermine intrinsic motivation.

In classical conditioning, what are the processes of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination?

In classical conditioning, the first stage is acquisition, associating an NR with the US so that the NS begins triggering the CR. Acquisition occurs most readily when the NS is presented just before (ideally, about a half-second before) a US, preparing the organism for the upcoming event. This finding supports the view that classical conditioning is biologically adaptive. Through higher-ordering conditioning, a new NS can become a new CS. Extinction is diminished responding, which occurs if the CS appears repeatedly by itself without the US. Spontaneous recovery is the appearance of a formerly extinguished conditioned response, following a real period. Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to a CS. Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other irrelevant stimuli.

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.

unconditioned response (UR)

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

How does operant conditioning differ from classical conditioning?

In operant conditioning, an organism learns associations between its own behavior and resulting events; this form of conditioning involves operant behavior (behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing consequences). In classical conditioning, the organism forms associations between stimuli- events it does not control; this form of conditioning involves respondent behavior (automatic responses to some stimulus).

positive reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

negative reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: negative reinforcement is not punishment.)

What was behaviorism's view of learning?

Ivan Pavlov's work on classical conditioning laid the foundation for behaviorism, the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes. The behaviorists believed that the basic laws of learning are the same for all species, including humans.

Who was Pavlov, and what are the basic components of classical conditioning?

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, created novel experiments on learning. His early twentieth-century research over the last three decades of his life demonstrated that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli and anticipate events. A UR is an event that occurs naturally (such as salivation), in response to some stimulus. A US is something that naturally and automatically (without learning) triggers the unlearned response (as food in the mouth triggers salivation). A CS is originally an NS (neutral stimulus, such as a tone) that after association with a US (such as food) comes to trigger a CR. A CR is the learned response (salivating) to the originally neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.

Jason's parents and older friends all drive over the speed limit, but they advise him not to. Juan's parents and friends drive within the speed limit, but they say nothing to deter him from doing so. Will Jason or Juan be more likely to speed?

Jason may be more likely to speed. Observational learning studies suggest that children tend to do as others do and say what they say.

How do we define learning, and what are some basic forms of learning?

Learning is the process of acquiring through experience new information or behaviors. In associative learning, we learn that certain events occur together. In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two or more stimuli. Automatically responding to stimuli we do not control is called respondent behavior. In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response and its consequences. These associations produce operant behaviors. Through cognitive learning, we acquire mental information that guides our behavior. For example, in operational learning, we learn new behaviors by observing events and watching others.

What is the violence-viewing effect?

Media violence can contribute to aggression. This violence-viewing effect may be prompted by imitation and desensitization. Correlation does not equal causation, but study participants have reacted more cruelly when they have viewed violence (instead of entertaining nonviolence).

An experimenter sounds a tone just before delivering an air puff to your blinking eye. After several repetitions, you blink to the tone alone. What is the NS? The US? The UR? The CS? The CR?

NS = tone before conditioning, US = air puff, UR = blink to air puff, CS = tone after conditioning, CR = blink to tone

How does observational learning differ from associative learning? How may observational learning be enabled by neural mirroring?

Observational learning involves learning by watching and imitating, rather than learning associations between different events. We learn to anticipate a behavior's consequences because we experience vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment. Our brain's frontal lobes have a demonstrated ability to mirror the activity of another's brain, which some psychologists believe is enabled by mirror neurons; others argue it may be more due to the brain's distributed brain networks.

Why does Pavlov's work remain so important?

Pavlov taught us that significant psychological phenomena can be studied objectively, and that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning that applies to all species.

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

How does punishment differ from negative reinforcement, and how does punishment affect behavior?

Punishment administers an undesirable consequence (such as spanking) or withdraws something desirable (such as taking away a favorite toy) to decrease the frequency of a behavior (a child's disobedience). Negative reinforcement (taking an aspirin) removes an aversive stimulus (a headache). This desired consequence (freedom from pain) increases the likelihood that the behavior (taking aspirin to end pain) will be repeated. Punishment can have undesirable side effects, such as suppressing rather than changing unwanted behaviors; encouraging discrimination (so that the undesirable behavior appears when the punisher is not present); creating fear; teaching aggression; and fostering depression and feelings of helplessness.

How do positive and negative reinforcement differ, and what are the basic types of reinforcers?

Reinforcement is any consequence that strengthens behavior. Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior. Negative reinforcement reduces or removes an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior. Primary reinforcers (such as receiving food when hungry or having nausea end during an illness) are innately satisfying ----- no learning required. Conditioned (or secondary) reinforcers (such as cash) are satisfying because we have learned to associate them with more basic rewards (such as the food or medicine we buy with them). Immediate reinforcers (such as a purchased treat) offer immediate payback; delayed reinforcers (such as a paycheck) require the ability to delay gratification.

Thorndike's law of effect was the basis for __________'s work on operant conditioning and behavior control

Skinner

People who send spam e-mail are reinforced by which schedule? Home bakers checking the oven to see if the cookies are done are on which schedule? Sandwich shops that offer a free sandwich after every 10 sandwiches purchased are using which reinforcement schedule?

Spammers are reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule (after sending a varying number of e-mails). Cookie checkers are reinforced on a fixed-interval schedule. Sandwich shop programs use a fixed-ratio schedule.

In Watson and Rayner's experiments, "Little Albert" learned to fear a white rat after repeatedly experiencing a loud noise as the rat was presented. In these experiments, what was the US? The UR? The NS? The CS? The CR?

The US was the loud noise; the UR was the fear response to the noise; the NS was the rat before it was paired with the noise; the CS was the rat after pairing; the CR was the fear of the rat.

How is operant conditioning at work in this cartoon?

The baby negatively reinforces her parents' behavior when she stops crying once they grant her wish. Her parents positively reinforce her cries by letting her sleep with them.

If the aroma of a baking cake sets your mouth to watering, what is the US? The CS? The CR?

The cake (including its taste) is the US. The associated aroma is the CS. Salivation to the aroma is the CR.

Instinctive drift and latent learning are examples of what important idea?

The success of operant conditioning is affected not just by environmental cues, but also by biological and cognitive factors.

Taste-aversion research has shown that some animals develop aversions to certain tastes but not to sights or sounds. What evolutionary psychology finding does this support?

This finding supports Darwin's principle that natural selection favors traits that aid survival.

How could your psychology instructor use negative reinforcement to encourage your attentive behavior during class?

Your instructor could reinforce your attentive behavior by taking away something you dislike. For example, your instructor could offer to shorten the length of an assigned paper or replace standard lecture time with an interesting in-class activity. In both cases, the instructor would remove something aversive to negatively reinforce your focused attention.

Preparedness

a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value

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.

higher-order conditioning

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.)

conditioned reinforcer

a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer

What is operant conditioning?

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

operant conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

classical conditioning

a type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; as a result, it illustrate with Pavlov's classic experiment, the first stimulus (a tone) comes to elicit behavior (drooling) in anticipation of the second stimulus (food).

primary reinforcer

an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need

shaping

an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

The first step of classical conditioning, when an NS becomes a CS, is called ______________. When a US no longer follows the CS, and the CR becomes weakened, this is called ______________.

acquisition, extinction

punishment

an event that decreases the behavior that it follows

Stimulus

any event or situation that evokes a response

respondent behavior

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

operant behavior

behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

Evidence that cognitive processes play an important role in learning comes in part from studies in which rats running a maze develop a ________ _________ of the maze.

cognitive map

In Pavlov's experiments, the tone started as a neutral stimulus and then became a(n) __________ stimulus.

conditional

Dogs have been taught to salivate to a circle but not to a square. This process is an example of _____.

discrimination

With classical conditioning, we learn associations between events we (do/do not) control. With operant conditioning, we learn associations between our behavior and (resulting/random) events.

do not; resulting

A restaurant is running a special deal. After you buy four meals at full price, your fifth meal will be free. This is an example of a ________ schedule of reinforcement.

fixed-ratio

neural stimulus (NS)

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

unconditioned stimulus (US)

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers an unconditioned response (UR).

conditioned stimulus (CS)

in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

Discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. (In operant conditioning, the ability to distinguish responses that are reinforced from similar responses that are not reinforced).

conditioned response (CR)

in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

operant chamber

in operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) 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

Reinforcement

in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

Learning is defined as "the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring __________ or __________."

information; behaviors

Most experts agree that repeated viewing of media violence

is a risk factor for viewers' increased aggression

Rats that explored a maze without any reward were later able to run the maze as well as the other rats that had received food rewards for running the maze. The rats that had learned without reinforcement demonstrated __________ _____________.

latent learning

observational learning

learning by observing others

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

Some scientists believe that the brain has ________ neurons that enable empathy and imitation

mirror

Your dog is barking so loudly that it's making your ears ring. You clap your hands, the dog stops barking, your ears stop ringing, and you think to yourself, "I'll have to do that when he barks again." The end of the barking was for you a

negative reinforcer

Children learn many social behaviors by imitating parents and other models. This type of learning is called

observational learning

prosocial behavior

positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior

A medieval proverb notes that "a burnt child dreads the fire." In operant conditioning, the burning would be an example of a

punisher

partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule

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 schedule

reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Salivating in response to a tone paired with food is a(n) __________ behavior; pressing a bar to obtain food is a(n) __________ behavior.

respondent; operant

One way to change behavior is to reward natural behaviors in small steps, as they get closer and closer to the desired behavior. This process is called

shaping

Garcia and Koelling's ________ ________ studies showed that conditioning can occur even when the unconditioned stimulus (US) does not immediately follow the neutral stimulus (NS).

taste-aversion

cognitive learning

the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

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.

learning

the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Modeling

the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

spontaneous recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

instinctive drift

the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns

Generalization

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. (In operant conditioning, generalization occurs when responses learned in one situation occur in other, similar situations).

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).

Parents are most effective in getting their children to imitate them if

their words and actions are consistent

Two forms of associative learning are classical conditioning, in which the organism associates ________, and operant conditioning, in which the organism associates ________.

two or more stimuli; a response and consequences

The partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after unpredictable time periods is a ________ ____________ schedule.

variable-interval

According to Bandura, we learn by watching models because we experience ________ reinforcement or ________ punishment.

vicarious; vicarious