Chapter 6 -- Learning

_______: the return of a previously extinguished conditioned response following a rest period

spontaneous recovery

_______ are innate behaviors that are triggered by a broader range of events, such as maturation and the change of seasons. -- They are more complex patterns of behavior, involve movement of the organism as a whole (e.g., sexual activity and migration), and involve higher brain centers.

Instincts

______ (1849-1936), a Russian scientist, performed extensive research on dogs and is best known for his experiments in classical conditioning

Pavlov

________ can be used to encourage socially acceptable behavior.

Prosocial (positive) models

Birds build nests and migrate as winter approaches. Infants suckle for nurishment. Dogs shake water off wet fur. Salmon swim upstream to spawn, and spiders spin intricate webs. What do these seemingly unrelated behaviors have in common?

They all are unlearned behaviors.

The behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus is called the _______

conditioned response (CR)

But unlike instincts and reflexes, learned behaviors involve change and experience: ______ is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience. --In contrast to the innate behaviors discussed above, learning involves acquiring knowledge and skills through experience.

learning

Sometimes, instead of stickers on a sticker chart, a token is used. Tokens, which are also secondary reinforcers, can then be traded in for rewards and prizes. --Entire behavior management systems, known as ______, are built around the use of these kinds of token reinforcers. -- Token economies have been found to be very effective at modifying behavior in a variety of settings such as schools, prisons, and mental hospitals. --Sticker charts are a form of token economies

token economies

Working with Thorndike's law of effect as his foundation, Skinner began conducting scientific experiments on animals (mainly rats and pigeons) to determine how organisms learn through operant conditioning. --He placed these animals inside an operant conditioning chamber, which has come to be known as a ______ -- A Skinner box contains a lever (for rats) or disk (for pigeons) that the animal can press or peck for a food reward via the dispenser. Speakers and lights can be associated with certain behaviors. A recorder counts the number of responses made by the animal.

"Skinner box".

______ is often used in teaching a complex behavior or chain of behaviors.

Shaping

Pairing a new neutral stimulus ("squeak") with the conditioned stimulus ("zzhzhz") is called _______. --This means you are using the conditioned stimulus of the can opener to condition another stimulus: the squeaky cabinet -- It is hard to achieve anything above second-order conditioning. For

higher-order conditioning, or second-order conditioning

Both instincts and reflexes are _______ that organisms are born with.

innate (unlearned) behaviors

Bandura identified three kinds of models: _______ --A live model demonstrates a behavior in person, as when Ben stood up on his surfboard so that Julian could see how he did it. A verbal instructional model does not perform the behavior, but instead explains or describes the behavior, as when a soccer coach tells his young players to kick the ball with the side of the foot, not with the toe. A symbolic model can be fictional characters or real people who demonstrate behaviors in books, movies, television shows, video games, or Internet sources

live, verbal, and symbolic.

In ______, you remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease behavior. --For example, when a child misbehaves, a parent can take away a favorite toy. In this case, a stimulus (the toy) is removed in order to decrease the behavior.

negative punishment

In _______ an undesirable stimulus is removed to increase a behavior. --For example, car manufacturers use the principles of negative reinforcement in their seatbelt systems, which go "beep, beep, beep" until you fasten your seatbelt. The annoying sound stops when you exhibit the desired behavior, increasing the likelihood that you will buckle up in the future. Negative reinforcement is also used frequently in horse training. Riders apply pressure—by pulling the reins or squeezing their legs—and then remove the pressure when the horse performs the desired behavior, such as turning or speeding up. The pressure is the negative stimulus that the horse wants to remove.

negative reinforcement,

In his operant conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach called shaping. --Instead of rewarding only the target behavior, in _____ we reward successive approximations of a target behavior. --Why is shaping needed? Remember that in order for reinforcement to work, the organism must first display the behavior. Shaping is needed because it is extremely unlikely that an organism will display anything but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously. In shaping, behaviors are broken down into many small, achievable steps. The specific steps used in the process are the following: 1. Reinforce any response that resembles the desired behavior. 2. Then reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior. You will no longer reinforce the previously reinforced response. 3. Next, begin to reinforce the response that even more closely resembles the desired behavior. 4. Continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. 5. Finally, only reinforce the desired behavior.

shaping,

In operant conditioning, extinction of a reinforced behavior occurs at some point after reinforcement stops, and the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule. --In a variable ratio schedule, the point of extinction comes very slowly, as described above. But in the other reinforcement schedules, extinction may come quickly. --For example, if June presses the button for the pain relief medication before the allotted time the doctor has approved, no medication is administered. They are on a fixed interval reinforcement schedule (dosed hourly), so extinction occurs quickly when reinforcement doesn't come at the expected time. --Among the reinforcement schedules, variable ratio is the most productive and the most resistant to extinction. Fixed interval is the least productive and the easiest to extinguish

true

It is hard to achieve anything above second-order conditioning.

true

--In Pavlov's experiments, the dogs salivated each time meat powder was presented to them. The meat powder in this situation was an ________: a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism. The dogs' salivation was an unconditioned response (UCR): a natural (unlearned) reaction to a given stimulus.

unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

In _______ you add an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior. --An example of positive punishment is scolding a student to get the student to stop texting in class. In this case, a stimulus (the reprimand) is added in order to decrease the behavior (texting in class).

positive punishment,

_______ always decreases a behavior.

punishment

In fact, Skinner was such a staunch believer that cognition didn't matter that his ideas were considered _____. -- Skinner considered the mind a "black box"—something completely unknowable—and, therefore, something not to be studied.

radical behaviorism

Bandura researched modeling behavior, particularly children's modeling of adults' aggressive and violent behaviors -- He conducted an experiment with a five-foot inflatable doll that he called a Bobo doll. In the experiment, children's aggressive behavior was influenced by whether the teacher was punished for her behavior. In one scenario, a teacher acted aggressively with the doll, hitting, throwing, and even punching the doll, while a child watched. There were two types of responses by the children to the teacher's behavior. When the teacher was punished for her bad behavior, the children decreased their tendency to act as she had. When the teacher was praised or ignored (and not punished for her behavior), the children imitated what she did, and even what she said. They punched, kicked, and yelled at the doll.

Bobo doll study

______ extends the effective range of both classical and operant conditioning. In contrast to classical and operant conditioning, in which learning occurs only through direct experience, observational learning is the process of watching others and then imitating what they do. -- A lot of learning among humans and other animals comes from observational learning. To get an idea of the extra effective range that observational learning brings, consider Ben and his son Julian from the introduction. How might observation help Julian learn to surf, as opposed to learning by trial and error alone? By watching his father, he can imitate the moves that bring success and avoid the moves that lead to failure. Can you think of something you have learned how to do after watching someone else?

Observational learning

______ are a motor or neural reaction to a specific stimulus in the environment. - They tend to be simpler than instincts, involve the activity of specific body parts and systems (e.g., the knee-jerk reflex and the contraction of the pupil in bright light), and involve more primitive centers of the central nervous system (e.g., the spinal cord and the medulla).

Reflexes

--Reinforcement is delivered at unpredictable time intervals (e.g., after 5, 7, 10, and 20 minutes). --Moderate yet steady response rate --Checking social media

Variable interval

--Reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable number of responses (e.g., after 1, 4, 5, and 9 responses). --High and steady response rate --Gambling

Variable ratio

unconditioned response (UCR)

a natural (unlearned) reaction to a given stimulus

unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism.

______ is a stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

conditioned stimulus (CS),

-- Reinforcement is delivered at predictable time intervals (e.g., after 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes). --Moderate response rate with significant pauses after reinforcement --Hospital patient uses patient-controlled, doctor-timed pain relief

fixed interval

With a _____, there are a set number of responses that must occur before the behavior is rewarded. --Carla sells glasses at an eyeglass store, and she earns a commission every time she sells a pair of glasses. She always tries to sell people more pairs of glasses, including prescription sunglasses or a backup pair, so she can increase her commission. She does not care if the person really needs the prescription sunglasses, Carla just wants her bonus. The quality of what Carla sells does not matter because her commission is not based on quality; it's only based on the number of pairs sold. This distinction in the quality of performance can help determine which reinforcement method is most appropriate for a particular situation. Fixed ratios are better suited to optimize the quantity of output, whereas a fixed interval, in which the reward is not quantity based, can lead to a higher quality of output.

fixed ratio reinforcement schedule

In classical conditioning, a ______ is presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus. --Pavlov would sound a tone (like ringing a bell) and then give the dogs the meat powder. The tone was the ________, which is a stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response. --Prior to conditioning, the dogs did not salivate when they just heard the tone because the tone had no association for the dogs. Tone (NS) + Meat Powder (UCS) → Salivation (UCR)

neutral stimulus (NS)

In ______, we learn by watching others and then imitating, or modeling, what they do or say. --For instance, have you ever gone to YouTube to find a video showing you how to do something? The individuals performing the imitated behavior are called ____. --Research suggests that this imitative learning involves a specific type of neuron, called a mirror neuron

observational learning models

--In ________, organisms learn, again, to associate events—a behavior and its consequence (reinforcement or punishment). --A pleasant consequence encourages more of that behavior in the future, whereas a punishment deters the behavior.

operant conditioning

On the other hand, when an organism demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the condition stimulus, it is called _______, the opposite of stimulus discrimination. --The more similar a stimulus is to the condition stimulus, the more likely the organism is to give the conditioned response. For instance, if the electric mixer sounds very similar to the electric can opener, Tiger may come running after hearing its sound. But if you do not feed her following the electric mixer sound, and you continue to feed her consistently after the electric can opener sound, she will quickly learn to discriminate between the two sounds (provided they are sufficiently dissimilar that she can tell them apart). --In our other example, Moisha continued to feel ill whenever visiting other oncologists or other doctors in the same building as her oncologist.

stimulus generalization

With a _______, the person or animal gets the reinforcement based on varying amounts of time, which are unpredictable. --Say that Manuel is the manager at a fast-food restaurant. Every once in a while someone from the quality control division comes to Manuel's restaurant. If the restaurant is clean and the service is fast, everyone on that shift earns a $20 bonus. Manuel never knows when the quality control person will show up, so he always tries to keep the restaurant clean and ensures that his employees provide prompt and courteous service. His productivity regarding prompt service and keeping a clean restaurant are steady because he wants his crew to earn the bonus.

variable interval reinforcement schedule

Pavlov came to his conclusions about how learning occurs completely by accident. Pavlov was a physiologist, not a psychologist. --Physiologists study the life processes of organisms, from the molecular level to the level of cells, organ systems, and entire organisms. -- Pavlov's area of interest was the digestive system. --In his studies with dogs, Pavlov measured the amount of saliva produced in response to various foods. --Over time, Pavlov (1927) observed that the dogs began to salivate not only at the taste of food, but also at the sight of food, at the sight of an empty food bowl, and even at the sound of the laboratory assistants' footsteps. --Salivating to food in the mouth is reflexive, so no learning is involved. However, dogs don't naturally salivate at the sight of an empty bowl or the sound of footsteps. --These unusual responses intrigued Pavlov, and he wondered what accounted for what he called the dogs' "psychic secretions". To explore this phenomenon in an objective manner, Pavlov designed a series of carefully controlled experiments to see which stimuli would cause the dogs to salivate. --He was able to train the dogs to salivate in response to stimuli that clearly had nothing to do with food, such as the sound of a bell, a light, and a touch on the leg. --Through his experiments, Pavlov realized that an organism has two types of responses to its environment: ___________

(1) unconditioned (unlearned) responses, or reflexes, and (2) conditioned (learned) responses.

Like Tolman, whose experiments with rats suggested a cognitive component to learning, psychologist ______ ideas about learning were different from those of strict behaviorists. --Bandura and other researchers proposed a brand of behaviorism called social learning theory, which took cognitive processes into account. --According to Bandura, pure behaviorism could not explain why learning can take place in the absence of external reinforcement. He felt that internal mental states must also have a role in learning and that observational learning involves much more than imitation. In imitation, a person simply copies what the model does. -- --Observational learning is much more complex. --According to Lefrançois there are several ways that observational learning can occur: 1. You learn a new response. After watching your coworker get chewed out by your boss for coming in late, you start leaving home 10 minutes earlier so that you won't be late. 2. You choose whether or not to imitate the model depending on what you saw happen to the model. Remember Julian and his father? When learning to surf, Julian might watch how his father pops up successfully on his surfboard and then attempt to do the same thing. On the other hand, Julian might learn not to touch a hot stove after watching his father get burned on a stove. 3. You learn a general rule that you can apply to other situations.

Albert Bandura's

______ occurs when an organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment. --You will see that associative learning is central to all three basic learning processes discussed in this chapter; classical conditioning tends to involve unconscious processes, operant conditioning tends to involve conscious processes, and observational learning adds social and cognitive layers to all the basic associative processes, both conscious and unconscious.

Associative learning

Psychologist _______ saw that classical conditioning is limited to existing behaviors that are reflexively elicited, and it doesn't account for new behaviors such as riding a bike. He proposed a theory about how such behaviors come about. -- He believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: the reinforcements and punishments. His idea that learning is the result of consequences is based on the ______, which was first proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike.

B. F. Skinner law of effect

Once we have established the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, how do we break that connection and get the dog, cat, or child to stop responding? -- In Tiger's case, imagine what would happen if you stopped using the electric can opener for her food and began to use it only for human food. Now, Tiger would hear the can opener, but she would not get food. --In classical conditioning terms, you would be giving the conditioned stimulus, but not the unconditioned stimulus. --Pavlov explored this scenario in his experiments with dogs: sounding the tone without giving the dogs the meat powder. ---Soon the dogs stopped responding to the tone. ______ is the decrease in the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus. --When presented with the conditioned stimulus alone, the dog, cat, or other organism would show a weaker and weaker response, and finally no response. In classical conditioning terms, there is a gradual weakening and disappearance of the conditioned response.

Extinction

--Reinforcement is delivered after a predictable number of responses (e.g., after 2, 4, 6, and 8 responses). --High response rate with pauses after reinforcement --Piecework—factory worker getting paid for every x number of items manufactured

Fixed ratio

________ is considered the founder of behaviorism. -- Behaviorism is a school of thought that arose during the first part of the 20th century, which incorporates elements of Pavlov's classical conditioning. -- In stark contrast with Freud, who considered the reasons for behavior to be hidden in the unconscious, Watson championed the idea that all behavior can be studied as a simple stimulus-response reaction, without regard for internal processes. Watson argued that in order for psychology to become a legitimate science, it must shift its concern away from internal mental processes because mental processes cannot be seen or measured. -- Instead, he asserted that psychology must focus on outward observable behavior that can be measured.

John B. Watson

Watson's ideas were influenced by ______ work. --According to Watson, human behavior, just like animal behavior, is primarily the result of conditioned responses. Whereas Pavlov's work with dogs involved the conditioning of reflexes, Watson believed the same principles could be extended to the conditioning of human emotions In 1920, while chair of the psychology department at Johns Hopkins University, Watson and his graduate student, Rosalie Rayner, conducted research on a baby nicknamed Little Albert. --Rayner and Watson's experiments with Little Albert demonstrated how fears can be conditioned using classical conditioning. Through these experiments, Little Albert was exposed to and conditioned to fear certain things. Initially he was presented with various neutral stimuli, including a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks, cotton wool, and a white rat. He was not afraid of any of these things. --Then Watson, with the help of Rayner, conditioned Little Albert to associate these stimuli with an emotion—fear. For example, Watson handed Little Albert the white rat, and Little Albert enjoyed playing with it. Then Watson made a loud sound, by striking a hammer against a metal bar hanging behind Little Albert's head, each time Little Albert touched the rat. --Little Albert was frightened by the sound—demonstrating a reflexive fear of sudden loud noises—and began to cry. --Watson repeatedly paired the loud sound with the white rat. Soon Little Albert became frightened by the white rat alone. -- Days later, Little Albert demonstrated stimulus generalization—he became afraid of other furry things: a rabbit, a furry coat, and even a Santa Claus mask. --Watson had succeeded in conditioning a fear response in Little Albert, thus demonstrating that emotions could become conditioned responses. --It had been Watson's intention to produce a phobia—a persistent, excessive fear of a specific object or situation— through conditioning alone, thus countering Freud's view that phobias are caused by deep, hidden conflicts in the mind. However, there is no evidence that Little Albert experienced phobias in later years. While Watson's research provided new insight into conditioning, it would be considered unethical by today's standards.

Pavlov's

____ are reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities. --These kinds of reinforcers are not learned. Water, food, sleep, shelter, sex, and touch, among others, are primary reinforcers. Pleasure is also a primary reinforcer. --Organisms do not lose their drive for these things. For most people, jumping in a cool lake on a very hot day would be reinforcing and the cool lake would be innately reinforcing—the water would cool the person off (a physical need), as well as provide pleasure.

Primary reinforcers

Rescorla, along with his colleague at Yale University, Alan Wagner, developed a mathematical formula that could be used to calculate the probability that an association would be learned given the ability of a conditioned stimulus to predict the occurrence of an unconditioned stimulus and other factors; today this is known as the _______

Rescorla-Wagner model

In classical conditioning, the initial period of learning is known as _____, when an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. -- During acquisition, the neutral stimulus begins to elicit the conditioned response, and eventually the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus capable of eliciting the conditioned response by itself. --Timing is important for conditioning to occur. Typically, there should only be a brief interval between presentation of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. Depending on what is being conditioned, sometimes this interval is as little as five seconds. However, with other types of conditioning, the interval can be up to several hours. -- Taste aversion is a type of conditioning in which an interval of several hours may pass between the conditioned stimulus (something ingested) and the unconditioned stimulus (nausea or illness). Here's how it works. Between classes, you and a friend grab a quick lunch from a food cart on campus. You share a dish of chicken curry and head off to your next class. A few hours later, you feel nauseous and become ill. Although your friend is fine and you determine that you have intestinal flu (the food is not the culprit), you've developed a taste aversion; the next time you are at a restaurant and someone orders curry, you immediately feel ill. While the chicken dish is not what made you sick, you are experiencing taste aversion: you've been conditioned to be averse to a food after a single, bad experience.

acquisition

In ________, also known as Pavlovian conditioning, organisms learn to associate events—or stimuli—that repeatedly happen together. --We experience this process throughout our daily lives. For example, you might see a flash of lightning in the sky during a storm and then hear a loud boom of thunder. The sound of the thunder naturally makes you jump (loud noises have that effect by reflex). -- Because lightning reliably predicts the impending boom of thunder, you may associate the two and jump when you see lightning. --Psychological researchers study this associative process by focusing on what can be seen and measured—behaviors. --Researchers ask if one stimulus triggers a reflex, can we train a different stimulus to trigger that same reflex?

classical conditioning

______ is a process by which we learn to associate stimuli and, consequently, to anticipate events.

classical conditioning

As the unreinforced rats explored the maze, they developed a ______ a mental picture of the layout of the maze. --After 10 sessions in the maze without reinforcement, food was placed in a goal box at the end of the maze. As soon as the rats became aware of the food, they were able to find their way through the maze quickly, just as quickly as the comparison group, which had been rewarded with food all along. --This is known as _____: learning that occurs but is not observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it.

cognitive map: latent learning

--When Pavlov paired the tone with the meat powder over and over again, the previously neutral stimulus (the tone) also began to elicit salivation from the dogs. Thus, the neutral stimulus became the _____ which is a stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus. -- Eventually, the dogs began to salivate to the tone alone, just as they previously had salivated at the sound of the assistants' footsteps. The behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus is called the conditioned response (CR). In the case of Pavlov's dogs, they had learned to associate the tone (CS) with being fed, and they began to salivate (CR) in anticipation of food.

conditioned stimulus (CS)

When an organism receives a reinforcer each time it displays a behavior, it is called _____. ---This reinforcement schedule is the quickest way to teach someone a behavior, and it is especially effective in training a new behavior.

continuous reinforcement

Research into taste aversion suggests that this response may be an ______ designed to help organisms quickly learn to avoid harmful foods --Not only may this contribute to species survival via natural selection, but it may also help us develop strategies for challenges such as helping cancer patients through the nausea induced by certain treatments --Garcia and Koelling (1966) showed not only that taste aversions could be conditioned, but also that there were biological constraints to learning. --In their study, separate groups of rats were conditioned to associate either a flavor with illness, or lights and sounds with illness. Results showed that all rats exposed to flavor-illness pairings learned to avoid the flavor, but none of the rats exposed to lights and sounds with illness learned to avoid lights or sounds. This added evidence to the idea that classical conditioning could contribute to species survival by helping organisms learn to avoid stimuli that posed real dangers to health and welfare.

evolutionary adaptation

A ______ is when behavior is rewarded after a set amount of time. --For example, June undergoes major surgery in a hospital. During recovery, they are expected to experience pain and will require prescription medications for pain relief. June is given an IV drip with a patient-controlled painkiller. Their doctor sets a limit: one dose per hour. June pushes a button when pain becomes difficult, and they receive a dose of medication. Since the reward (pain relief) only occurs on a fixed interval, there is no point in exhibiting the behavior when it will not be rewarded.

fixed interval reinforcement schedule

According to the ______, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated. -- Essentially, if an organism does something that brings about a desired result, the organism is more likely to do it again. If an organism does something that does not bring about a desired result, the organism is less likely to do it again. --An example of the law of effect is in employment. One of the reasons (and often the main reason) we show up for work is because we get paid to do so. If we stop getting paid, we will likely stop showing up—even if we love our job.

law of effect

Imagine you are teaching your dog, Hodor, to sit. You tell Hodor to sit, and give him a treat when he does. After repeated experiences, Hodor begins to associate the act of sitting with receiving a treat. He learns that the consequence of sitting is that he gets a doggie biscuit. Conversely, if the dog is punished when exhibiting a behavior, it becomes conditioned to avoid that behavior (e.g., receiving a small shock when crossing the boundary of an invisible electric fence).

operant conditioning

In _______, organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence -- A pleasant consequence makes that behavior more likely to be repeated in the future. --For example, Spirit, a dolphin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, does a flip in the air when her trainer blows a whistle. The consequence is that she gets a fish.

operant conditioning

Once a behavior is trained, researchers and trainers often turn to another type of reinforcement schedule— ________. --In _______, also referred to as intermittent reinforcement, the person or animal does not get reinforced every time they perform the desired behavior. -- These schedules are described as either fixed or variable, and as either interval or ratio. --Fixed refers to the number of responses between reinforcements, or the amount of time between reinforcements, which is set and unchanging. --Variable refers to the number of responses or amount of time between reinforcements, which varies or changes. --Interval means the schedule is based on the time between reinforcements, and --ratio means the schedule is based on the number of responses between reinforcements.

partial reinforcement

In operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. --Instead, positive means you are adding something, and negative means you are taking something away. --Reinforcement means you are increasing a behavior, and punishment means you are decreasing a behavior. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, and punishment can also be positive or negative. --All reinforcers (positive or negative) increase the likelihood of a behavioral response. All punishers (positive or negative) decrease the likelihood of a behavioral response.

positive and negative v reinforcement and punishment

The most effective way to teach a person or animal a new behavior is with positive reinforcement. --In _____ a desirable stimulus is added to increase a behavior.

positive reinforcement,

A ______ has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer. --Praise, linked to affection, is one example of a secondary reinforcer, as when you called out "Great shot!" every time Sydney made a goal. --Another example, money, is only worth something when you can use it to buy other things—either things that satisfy basic needs (food, water, shelter—all primary reinforcers) or other secondary reinforcers. If you were on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you had stacks of money, the money would not be useful if you could not spend it. What about the stickers on the behavior chart? They also are secondary reinforcers.

secondary reinforcer

When an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar, it is called ______. --In classical conditioning terms, the organism demonstrates the conditioned response only to the conditioned stimulus. Pavlov's dogs discriminated between the basic tone that sounded before they were fed and other tones (e.g., the doorbell), because the other sounds did not predict the arrival of food. Similarly, Tiger, the cat, discriminated between the sound of the can opener and the sound of the electric mixer. When the electric mixer is going, Tiger is not about to be fed, so she does not come running to the kitchen looking for food. In our other example, Moisha, the cancer patient, discriminated between oncologists and other types of doctors. She learned not to feel ill when visiting doctors for other types of appointments, such as her annual physical.

stimulus discrimination

In a ______, the number of responses needed for a reward varies. --This is the most powerful partial reinforcement schedule. --An example of the variable ratio reinforcement schedule is gambling. Imagine that Sarah—generally a smart, thrifty woman—visits Las Vegas for the first time. She is not a gambler, but out of curiosity she puts a quarter into the slot machine, and then another, and another. Nothing happens. Two dollars in quarters later, her curiosity is fading, and she is just about to quit. But then, the machine lights up, bells go off, and Sarah gets 50 quarters back. That's more like it! Sarah gets back to inserting quarters with renewed interest, and a few minutes later she has used up all her gains and is $10 in the hole. Now might be a sensible time to quit. And yet, she keeps putting money into the slot machine because she never knows when the next reinforcement is coming. She keeps thinking that with the next quarter she could win $50, or $100, or even more. Because the reinforcement schedule in most types of gambling has a variable ratio schedule, people keep trying and hoping that the next time they will win big. This is one of the reasons that gambling is so addictive—and so resistant to extinction.

variable ratio reinforcement schedule

Bandura described specific steps in the process of modeling that must be followed if learning is to be successful: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. --First, you must be focused on what the model is doing—you have to pay attention. --Next, you must be able to retain, or remember, what you observed; this is retention. --Then, you must be able to perform the behavior that you observed and committed to memory; this is reproduction. --Finally, you must have motivation. You need to want to copy the behavior, and whether or not you are motivated depends on what happened to the model. --If you saw that the model was reinforced for their behavior, you will be more motivated to copy them. This is known as ______ --On the other hand, if you observed the model being punished, you would be less motivated to copy them. This is called _____

vicarious reinforcement. vicarious punishment