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
