CH 7: Learning

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

The process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

Question 2

Classical Conditioning

Answer 2

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events.

Question 3

Operant Conditioning

Answer 3

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminisher if followed by a punisher.

Question 4

Associative Learning

Answer 4

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Question 5

Cognitive Learning

Answer 5

Thee acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.

Question 6

Stimulus

Answer 6

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Question 7

Respondent Behavior

Answer 7

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.

Question 8

Operant Behavior

Answer 8

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.

Question 9

Why are habits, such as having something sweet with that cup of coffee, so hard to break?

Answer 9

Habits form when we repeat behaviors in a given context and, as a result, learn associations—often without our awareness. For example, we may have eaten a sweet pastry with a cup of coffee often enough to associate the flavor of the coffee with the treat, so that the cup of coffee alone just doesn’t seem right anymore!

Question 10

Neutral Stimuli (NS)

Answer 10

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

Question 11

Unconditioned Response (UR)

Answer 11

In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (such as food in the mouth).

Question 12

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Answer 12

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally - naturally and automatically - triggers an unconditioned response.

Question 13

Conditioned Response (CR)

Answer 13

In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

Question 14

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Answer 14

In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

Question 15

Pavlov & his associates explored what 5 major conditioning processes in Classical Conditioning?

Answer 15

1) Acquisition
2) Extinction
3) Spontaneous Recovery
4) Generalization
5) Discrimination

Question 16

Why is Classical Conditioning biologically adaptive?

Answer 16

Because it helps humans and other animals prepare for good and bad events.

Question 17

Acquisition

Answer 17

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neural stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neural stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Question 18

If the aroma of a baking cake sets your mouth to watering, what is the US? The CS? The CR?

Answer 18

The cake (and its taste) are the US (Unconditioned Stimulus). The associated aroma is the CS (Conditioned Stimulus). Salivation to the aroma is the CR (Conditioned Reaction).

Question 19

Extinction

Answer 19

The diminishing of a Conditioned Response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.

Question 20

Spontaneous Recovery

Answer 20

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Question 21

Fill in the Blank:

The first step of classical conditioning, when an NS becomes a CS, is called _____. When a US no longer follows the CS, and the CR becomes weakened, this is called _____.

Answer 21

Acquisition; Extinction

Question 22

Generalization

Answer 22

The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar response.

Question 23

Discrimination

Answer 23

• In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
• In social psychology, unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members.

Question 24

What was Behaviorism’s view of learning?

Answer 24

The behaviorists believed that the basic laws of learning are the same for all species, including humans.

Question 25

Who is Ivan Pavlov?

Answer 25

a Russian physiologist, created novel experiments on learning. His early twentieth-century research over the last three decades of his life demonstrated that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning.

Question 26

Law of Effect

Answer 26

Thorndike’s principal that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely.

Question 27

Operant Chamber

Answer 27

In operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking.

Question 28

Reinforcement

Answer 28

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Question 29

Shaping

Answer 29

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Question 30

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 30

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

Question 31

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 31

Increased behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response.

Question 32

Primary Reinforcer

Answer 32

An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.

Question 33

Conditioned Reinforcer

Answer 33

(aka. Secondary Reinforcer) A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer.

Question 34

Reinforcement Schedules

Answer 34

A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced.

Question 35

Continuous reinforcement

Answer 35

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Question 36

Partial (intermittent) Reinforcement Schedules

Answer 36

Reinforcing a response only part of the time; result in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.

Question 37

Fixed-ratio Schedules

Answer 37

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Question 38

Variable-ratio Schedules

Answer 38

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Question 39

Fixed-interval Schedules

Answer 39

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

Question 40

Variable-interval Schedule

Answer 40

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time variables.

Question 41

Punishment

Answer 41

An event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.

Question 42

Define and give an Example of Positive Punishment.

Answer 42

Administer an aversive stimulus.

Spray water on a barking dog / Give a traffic ticket for speeding

Question 43

Define and give an Example of Negative Punishment.

Answer 43

Withdraw a rewarding stimulus.

Take away a misbehaving teen’s driving privileges / Revoke a library card for nonpayment of fines.

Question 44

Fill in the Blank:

Salivating in response to a tone paired with food is a _____ behavior; pressing a bar to obtain food is an _____ behavior.

Answer 44

Respondent Behavior; Operant Behavior

Question 45

Who was Skinner, and how is operant behavior reinforced and shaped?

Answer 45

B. F. Skinner was a college English major and aspiring writer who later entered psychology graduate school. He became modern behaviorism’s most influential and controversial figure. Expanding on Edward Thorndike’s law of effect, Skinner and others found that the behavior of rats or pigeons placed in an operant chamber (Skinner box) can be shaped by using reinforcers to guide closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Question 46

How does Operant Conditioning differ from Classical Conditioning?

Answer 46

In operant conditioning, an organism learns associations between its own behavior and resulting events; this form of conditioning involves operant behavior (behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing consequences). In classical conditioning, the organism forms associations between stimuli—events it does not control; this form of conditioning involves respondent behavior (automatic responses to some stimulus).

Question 47

Biological Constraints

Answer 47

Evolved Biological tendencies that predispose animals’ behavior and learning. Thus, certain behaviors are more easily learned than others.

Question 48

Cognitive Map

Answer 48

A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment. (ie. After exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.)

Question 49

Latent Learning

Answer 49

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

Question 50

Intrinsic Motivation

Answer 50

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for it’s own sake.

Question 51

Extrinsic Motivation

Answer 51

A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

Question 52

Instinctive Drift and Latent Learning are examples of what important idea?

Answer 52

The success of Operant Conditioning is affected not just by environmental cues, but by biological and cognitive factors.

Question 53

Observational Learning

Answer 53

Learning by observation / observing others.

Question 54

Modeling

Answer 54

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Question 55

Mirror Neurons

Answer 55

Frontal Lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable imitation and empathy.

Question 56

Prosocial

Answer 56

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior.

Question 57

What is the impact of Prosocial Modeling and of Antisocial Modeling?

Answer 57

Children tend to imitate what a model does and says, whether the behavior being modeled is prosocial (positive, constructive, and helpful) or antisocial. If a model’s actions and words are inconsistent, children may imitate the hypocrisy they observe.