Behavioral Pyschology

Question 1

What is non-associative learning? What is associative learning?

Answer 1

• non-associative = learning to reduce (habituation) or increase (sensitization) the amount of responding we do to stimuli that innately drive a response
• associative = Linking up stimuli and experiences because something that was previously neutral predicts something important (good or bad)

Question 2

What is habituation?

Answer 2

Reducing your responses to something that Repeats in your environment and doesn’t predict anything

Question 3

What is sensitization?

Answer 3

Increasing your responses to something that repeats in your environment and is potentially harmful

Question 4

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 4

creating a response to stimuli that previously did not warrant a response through repetition and cues

Question 5

What is an unconditioned stimulus and response?

Answer 5

• Unconditioned stimulus = stimulus that leads to an automatic response
• Unconditioned response = automatic response to a stimulus

Question 6

What is a conditioned stimulus and response?

Answer 6

• Conditioned response = conditioned response is a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus
• Conditioned stimulus = a neutral stimulus that is repeatedly associated with an unconditioned stimulus until it acquires the ability to elicit a response that it previously did not

Question 7

Are classical conditioning responses voluntary or involuntary?

Answer 7

involuntary

Question 8

What is acquisition?

Answer 8

the initial response ewe have to a stimulus, and then slow decline in response we experience over time (Ringing a bell gets a response, and a treat gets a response)

Question 9

What is exctinction?

Answer 9

we stop responding to the neutral stimulus after previously responding to it (The ringing of a bell gets a response, but the treat itself does not)

Question 10

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 10

the stimulus again creates a response after it originally was extinguished (When after the treat did not get a response, it does now)

Question 11

What is blocking?

Answer 11

• when you are only focusing on the stimulus that you have been conditioned to (that has a reward)
• A secondary stimulus would not warrant a reaction
• Only respond to the bell, don’t respond to a secondary stimulus such as a light

Question 12

What is the Garcia effect?

Answer 12

When some associations are evolutionarily advantaged in our brain

Question 13

What is latent inhibition?

Answer 13

• Trouble with learning that a cue means something
• the observation that a familiar stimulus takes longer to acquire meaning
• Interferes with us acknowledging a new association for a cue due to the cue usually not having an association

Question 14

What is Operant conditioning and how is it different from classical?

Answer 14

• Operant means learning two associations
• A cue in the environment triggers an action and an action triggers an outcome
• more voluntary than classical conditioning
• has the ability to reveal our motivation

Question 15

What are the four kinds of outcomes in operant conditioning?

Answer 15

• Positive punishment = you add a consequence to unwanted behavior
• negative punishment = taking something good or desirable away to reduce the occurrence of a particular behavior
• positive reinforcement = the introduction of a desirable or pleasant stimulus after a behavior
• negative reinforcement = the removal of something negative to strengthen a behavior

Question 16

What is Stimulus Generalization?

Answer 16

the ability to behave in a new situation in a way that has been learned in other similar situations

Question 17

What is discrimination?

Answer 17

the ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Question 18

What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect?

Answer 18

any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated in similar situations

Question 19

What is the difference between primary and secondary reinforcers?

Answer 19

• Primary reinforcers = a biological stimulus causing involuntary reflex
• Secondary reinforcers = conditioned stimulus causing learned behavior

Question 20

what are the different types of partial schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 20

• fixed-ratio = Reinforcement is delivered after a predictable number of responses
• fixed-interval = Reinforcement is delivered at predictable time intervals
• variable-ratio = Reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable number of responses
• variable-interval = Reinforcement is delivered at unpredictable time intervals

Question 21

What is a skinner box?

Answer 21

• a often small chamber that is used to conduct operant conditioning research with animals
• animal is isolated and provided with a lever or switch which it learns to use to obtain a reward

Question 22

What are shaping and chaining?

Answer 22

• Shaping = reinforcing successive approximations of a desired behavior by learning the desired behavior first
• chaining = based on task analysis, in which individual steps are recognized as requirements for task mastery

Question 23

What is the social learning theory?

Answer 23

people emulate the behavior they observe in their environment, especially if that behavior is reinforced in others

Question 24

What is cultural transmission of learning?

Answer 24

process through which cultural elements, in the form of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavioral scripts, are passed onto and taught to individuals and groups