Psychology Ch. 6
A Skinner box is a chamber with a highly controlled environment that was used to study
operant conditioning processes with laboratory animals
True or False: In contrast to the modern cognitive psychological understanding of human learning, Pavlov believed that people could only learn through deep, critical thinking.
False
___ ____ is the presentation or addition of a stimulus after a behavior occurs that increases how often that behavior will occur.
Positive Reinforcement
When is stimulus generalization most likely to occur?
When two stimuli are highly similar
Conditioned taste aversion occurs after a single pairing of the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus. This is because learning what foods make you sick
is something humans are biologically prepared for and can be important for survival.
Strengthening a response in operant conditioning means it will occur
more often
Taking medicine to relieve pain is an example of ___ because it increases the behavior of taking medicine.
negative reinforcement
When removal of a stimulus in response to a behavior increases the frequency of that behavior, ___ is said to have occurred.
negative reinforcement
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that does not bring about a response of interest is a ____ stimulus.
neutral
Operant conditioning has occurred when
the consequences of an action influence the likelihood that that behavior will be displayed again
A ___ is any stimulus that increases the probability that a preceding behavior will occur again.
reinforcer
Caucasian females and African-American males are more apt to use a ___ style of learning than caucasian males.
relational
In the ___ learning style, information is learned best when it is presented as being part of a larger.
relational
One reason an ex-smoker can feel a strong urge to smoke when sitting in their favorite chair where they used to smoke can be explained by
spontaneous recovery
Pavlov's dogs would salivate at the ring of a bell but not at the chime of a clock. What concept is this an example of?
stimulus discrimination
If a behavior is reinforced in the presence of a specific stimulus but not in its absence, we would say
that stimulus control training is being used
The idea that consequences of a behavior can increase or decrease the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated is referred to as
the law of effect
The stimulus that automatically gives rise to a response is called the ___ stimulus.
unconditioned
The pattern of intermittent reinforcement in which responses are reinforced after time periods of different duration have passed is called a
variable interval (VI) schedule
The pattern of intermittent reinforcement in which the number of responses needed for reinforcement changes is called a
variable ration (VR) schedule
In the ____ learning style, information is learned best when the fundamentals are understood before the bigger picture is presented.
analytical
Even severe psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), can be explained by ___ conditioning.
classical
An initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a response because of its pairing with a stimulus that causes that response is called the
conditioned stimulus
Taste aversion and other easily learned behaviors typically help an organism to survive. This suggests that biological constraints
have positive evolutionary consequences
Why does considering reinforcers as nothing but rewards oversimplify things?
Reinforcers can be positive or negative, rewards are only positive.
What is the definition of stimulus discrimination?
The ability to distinguish between two stimuli
Positive punishment is:
addition of a stimulus to decrease a behavior
When a previously conditioned response decreases and eventually disappears, ___ has occurred.
extinction
Behavior modification has been proven useful in helping people with severe mental retardation
feed themselves
Which of the following are primary reinforcers? (praise, money, food, sex)
food, sex
Both ___ increase the frequency of a behavior.
positive and negative reinforcement
Behavior modification includes
recording preliminary data
The sudden reappearance of an extinguished response is called ____ recovery.
spontaneous
___ learning theory focuses on the thought processes that underlie learning.
Cognitive
Who developed the principles of classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov
____ is a relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience.
Learning
___ neurons are at least partially responsible for the modeling behavior exhibited in observational learning.
Mirror
A process that allows us to teach a complex behavior through rewarding behaviors that are gradually closer to the desired behavior.
Shaping
Classical Conditioning
The form of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus is associated with a stimulus to which the subject has an automatic, inborn response
What is the definition of reinforcement?
The process by which a stimulus increases probability that behavior will be repeated.
The word ___ emphasizes the point that an organism operates on its environment to produce desirable results.
operant
____ conditioning has occurred when the consequences of an action influence the likelihood that the behavior will be displayed again.
operant