Classical Conditioning Study Guide

learning

a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience

behaviorism

the theory that psychology should study observable behaviors, not mental processes -founded by John Watson

conditioned stimulus

-a previously neutral stimulus that, through learning, gains the power to cause a response -used to be neutral stimulus before conditioning occurs -example: yelling "flush!"

unconditioned stimulus

-a stimulus that triggers a response reflexively and automatically -classical conditioning can't happen w/o this -example: scolding hot water

classical conditioning

-a type of learning in which a stimulus gains the power to cause a response -the stimulus predicts another stimulus that already produces that response

Ivan Pavlov

Russian physiologist and learning theorist famous for the discovery of classical conditioning, in which learning occurs through association

Robert Rescorla

a theory that emphasized the importance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning

cognition

all mental processes associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering

John B. Watson

founder of behaviorism and conducted the little albert study

generalization

producing the same response to 2 similar stimuli -the more similar the substitute is to the original used in conditioning, the stronger the generalized response

unconditioned response

-an automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus -the relationship between the UCS and UCR must be reflexive and automatic, not learned -example: jumping out of the way to avoid scalding hot water

acquisition

-the process of developing a learned response -the subject learns a new response (CR) to a previously neutral stimulus (CS)

conditioned response

-the response to the conditioned stimulus -usually the same same behavior as the UCR -example: jumping out of the way to avoid scalding hot water

response

any behavior or action

stimulus

anything in the environment that one can respond to

extinction

in classical conditioning, the diminishing of a learned response after repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone

discrimination

the ability to distinguish between 2 signals or stimuli and produce different responses -the subject learns that one stimuli predicts the UCS and the other does not