Psychology Unit 3: Learning, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Observational Learning

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that triggers a response reflexively and automatically.

B.F. Skinner

American behavioral psychologist who developed the fundamental principles and techniques of operant conditioning and devised ways to apply them in the real world. he argued that children learn language through association, initiation, and reinforcement.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus.

Fixed Ratio Schedule

a partial reinforcement schedule that rewards a response only after sone defined number of correct responses. after x attempts. ex. buy 3 get one free.

Variable Ratio Schedule

a partial reinforcement schedule that rewards an unpredictable number of correct responses. after ? number of attempts. ex. slot machine.

Fixed Interval Schedule

a partial reinforcement schedule that rewards only the first correct response after some defined period. after x amount of time. ex. birthday every year.

Variable Interval Schedule

a partial reinforcement schedule that rewards the first correct response after an unpredictable amount of time. after unknown amount of time. ex. watching for shooting stars.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

a previously neural stimulus that, through learning, gains the power to cause a response.

Learning

a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience.

Partial Reinforcement Schedule

a reward follows only some correct responses. reinforces a response only part of the time. though this results in slower acquisition in the beginning, it shows greater resistance to extinction later on.

Continuous Reinforcement

a schedule of reinforcement in which a reward follows every correct response. reinforces the desire response each time it occurs.

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning in which a stimulus gains the power to cause a response.

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning in which the frequency of a behavior depends on the consequence that follows that behavior. developed from an idea of Edward Thorndike.

Sequence of Classical Conditioning

acquisition, extinction, ans spontaneous recovery.

Fixed

after a set number or duration.

Variable

after any number or amount of time.

Antisocial Behavior

aggression, delinquency, criminal behavior, etc. (sometimes caused by misjudging another person's motives as them trying to hurt you). not good.

Cognitive

all mental processes associated with think, knowing, and remembering.

Conditioned Response (CR)

an automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus.

Response

any behavior or action.

Punishment

any consequences that decreases the future likelihood of a behavior. attempt to extinguish the behavior.

Reinforcement

any consequences that increases the future likelihood of a behavior. increase likelihood the behavior will repeat.

Stimulus

anything in the environment that one can respond to.

Positive Reinforcement

anything that increases the likelihood of a behavior by following it with a desirable event or state. gives the organism what it wants. ex. give a dog a bone.

Negative Reinforcement

anything that increases the likelihood of a behavior by following it with the removal of an undesirable event or state. take away what it doesn't want. ex. straight a's then no homework.

Ratio

attempts

Edward Thorndinke

author of the law of effect, the principle that forms the basis of operant conditioning.

How does punishment influence behavior?

behavior can be decreased with positive or negative punishment. punishment can create problems when used to control behavior: punishment does not end the desire to engage in a behavior, punishment can lead to fear and anxiety, and children may imitate aggressive forms of punishment (such as spanking). punishment can be an effective way to stop dangerous behaviors if it is used immediately and only occasionally.

What are the Different Kinds of Reinforcement?

behavior can be increased with positive or negative reinforcement. immediate reinforcement is more effective than delayed reinforcement. reinforcement can be primary (naturally rewarding) or secondary (learned).

Law of Effect

behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is most likely going to be repeated. the behavior that is followed by punishment will most likely be stopped. behaviors with favorable consequences will occur more frequently and behaviors that have less favorable consequences will occur less frequently.

How Do We Learn?

by association. our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence.

Biological Predispositions

can constrain an animal's capacity for operant conditioning; organisms are biologically predisposed to learn associations that are naturally adaptive. the behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is most likely going to be repeated; behavior that is followed by punishment will most likely be stopped.

What is Classical Conditioning?

classical conditioning is a type of learning by association. this means that two stimuli appear together in such a consistent and reliable way that one stimulus gains the power to predict the response that the other stimulus already produces.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of different schedules of reinforcement?

continuous reinforcement, useful for establishing new responses, occurs when a reward follows every correct response. it is harder to extinguish behavior that has been maintained with a partial reinforcement schedule, in which a reward follows only some correct responses. partial reinforcement can reward behaviors after a period of time has passed (fixed interval and variable interval), or it can provide a reward only after a particular number of responses (fixed ratio and variable ratio).

Robert Rescola

developed, along with colleague allan wagner, a theory that emphasized the importance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning.

What is the law of effect?

edward thorndike's law of effect states that behaviors with favorable consequences (reinforced behaviors) will occur more often and behaviors followed by less favorable consequences (punished behaviors) will occur less often.

John B. Watson

founder of behaviorism, the theory that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes.

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.

What are Generalization and Discrimination?

generalization is a process in which we make the same response (a high five, for example) to two similar stimuli (a touchdown in football and a volleyball kill). discrimination is a process in which we make different responses to two stimuli (high five for winning a state championship, tears for losing).

Positive

give the organism something.

Postive Punisher

gives the organism what it doesn't want. ex. dog begs for food so you swat it.

Delayed vs Immediate Reinforcement

immediate reinforcement that occurs immediately after desired or undesired behavior occurs. this type of reinforcement has the strongest and quickest effect in controlling behavior. the longer the delay, the less likely the learning.

How are the Four Main Components of Classical Conditioning defined?

in a classically conditioned response, the unconditioned stimulus (US) triggers the unconditioned response (UR) automatically. the previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly paired with the UR, and eventually the CS triggers the conditioned response (CR).

Extinction

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

Schedules of Reinforcement

is atactic used in operant conditioning that influences how an operant response is learned and maintained.

Latent Learning

leaning that occurs but is not apparent until the larger has an incentive to demonstrate it. promised rewards and reinforcements. 'show what you know'

Vicarious Learning

learning based on observation of the consequences of others' behavior. learning by seeing the consequences of another person's behavior.

Observation Learning

learning by observing others.

How can you use operant conditioning to teach a new behavior or make an operantly conditioned behavior stop?

new behaviors can be shaped by reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior. discrimination occurs when the learner behaves differently toward similar stimuli. the extinction or loss of a learned behavior occurs when a consequence no longer follows it.

What is observational learning? What are the implications of Albert Bandura's experiments, and how can they be explained by mirror neurons?

observational learning is learning by observing others. bandura's famous bobo doll experiments showed that children learned violent behavior from adult models. a biological explanation for observational learning has recently been discovered in the form of mirror neurons, which are brain cells located in the front of the brain that activate when performing certain actions or when observing another do so.

How can observational learning lead to prosocial and antisocial behaviors?

observational learning works equally well for antisocial and prosocial behaviors. It can lead children to imitate negative, antisocial behaviors or be a force for the learning of positive, prosocial behaviors.

What is Operant Conditioning?

operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the frequency of a behavior depends on the consequence that follows that behavior.

How did Ivan Pavlov discover Classical Conditioning?

pavlov discovered the basic principles of classical conditioning during his research on the digestive process. he found that he could classically condition dogs to salivate (CR) to the sound of a tuning fork (CS) by pairing the tuning fork with meat (US), a stimulus that produced salivation automatically (UR).

Prosocial Behavior

positive, constructive, helpful behavior. the opposite of antisocial behavior. good model.

Generalization

producing the same response to two similar stimuli.

Shaping

reinforcement of behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired one. the operant technique used to establish new behaviors. rewarding successive approximations to target behaviors. you cant teach it in one step.

Albert Bandura

researcher famous for work in observational or social learning including the famous Bobo doll experiment. bandura's studies show that antisocial models (family, neighborhood, or TV) may have antisocial effects.

Ivan Pavlov

russian physiologist and leaning theorist famous for the discovery of classical conditioning, in which learning occurs through association. his work provided a basis for later behaviorists like john watson and b.f. skinner.

Primary Reinforcement

something that is naturally reinforcing, such as food (if you were hungry), warmth (if you were cold), and water (if you were thirsty). physiologically based immediately gratifying (food, water, sleep, sex).

Secondary Reinforcement

something that you have learned to value, like money. learned: praise, money, gold stars, etc.

Negative Punisher

take away what the organism wants. ex. miss curfew so parent take your car.

Negative

take something away.

Discrimination

the ability to distinguish between two signals or stimuli and produce different responses.

Intrinsic Motivation

the desire to perform a behavior for its own sake.

Extrinsic Motivation

the desire to preform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishments.

Overjustification Effect

the effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. the reward may lessen and replace the persons original, natural motivation so that the behavior stops if the reward is eliminated.

Cognitive Map

the mental representation of a place.

Acquisition

the process of developing a learned response.

Model/Modeling

the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Behaviorism

the theory that psychology should only study observable behaviors, not mental processes.

What are the Two Basic Processes in Classical Conditioning?

the two basic processes in classical conditioning are (1) acquisition, developing a new, learned response; and (2) extinction, the diminishing of a learned response.

Interval

time

What is Behaviorism, and how did John Watson and Rosalie Rayner use the principles of Classical Conditioning to create a learned fear in Little Albert?

watson established the perspective of behaviorism, the view that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes. watson and rayner extended the study of classical conditioning to emotional responses. in an ethically troubling set of experiments, they conditioned a child, little albert, to fear white rats by applying the principles of classical conditioning. watson and rayner demonstrated that whenever you associate an emotional response with a particular stimulus, classical conditioning is probably involved.