Ch 7- Textbook Flashcards
What happens in classical conditioning?
- We learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events (a stimulus is any event or situation that evokes a response)
What is associative learning?
- Learning that certain events occur together
- The two events may be two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (operant conditioning)
What happens in operant conditioning?
- We learn to associate a response (our behaviour) and its consequence.
What is cognitive learning?
- Acquisition of mental information, by observing events, by watching others, or through language
Who discovered classical conditioning and how?
- Ivan Pavlov
- Through experiments with dogs
What is a neutral stimulus?
- A stimulus that elicits no response before learning
What is an unconditioned response?
An unlearned, automatic response (ex: salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (ex: food in the mouth).
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
- A stimulus that unconditionally- naturally and automatically triggers a response (UR).
What is a conditioned response?
A learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).
What is a conditioned stimulus?
- An originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).
What is acquisition?
Classical- the initial stage, when one links a neural stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response.
Operant- the strengthening of a reinforced response
What is higher- order conditioning?
- A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.
What is extinction?
Classical- When an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS).
Operant- When a response is no longer reinforced.
What is spontaneous recovery?
The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
What is generalization?.
- The tendency to respond like-wide to stimuli similar to the CS.
Ex: toddlers taught to fear moving cars also fear trucks and bikes.
What is discrimination?
- The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (which predicts the US) and other irrelevant stimuli.
What is operant conditioning?
- When organisms learn to associate their actions with consequences
- Actions followed by reinforcers increase, actions followed by publishers decrease
What is the law of effect?
- Principle that behaviours followed by favourable consequences become more likely, and behaviours followed by unfavourable consequences become less likely
Ex: Skinner box
What is reinforcement?
- Any event that strengthens (increases the frequency of) a preceding response
- What is reinforcing depends on the animal and the conditions
What is shaping?
- An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behaviour toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behaviour
What are the two types of reinforcers?
Positive- stimulus that strengthens the response
Negative- strengthens a response by reducing or removing negative stimuli- not punishment, just removes a punishing (aversive) event.
What are primary and conditioned reinforcers?
Primary- An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need. Ex: getting food when hungry
Conditioned- A stimulus that gains it’s reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer ex:Money, Good grades.
What is a reinforcement schedule?
A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced
What is continuous reinforcement?
Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
What is partial (intermittent) reinforcement?
Reinforcing a response only part of the time- for slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction ex: slot machines.
What is punishment?
Any event that tends to decrease the behaviour that it follows
Where is operant conditioning applied?
- Schools
- Sports
- Work
What is B. F Skinner’s Legacy?
- Insisted that external influences (not internal thoughts and feelings) shape behaviour
- Said knowing this, we should use rewards to evoke good behaviour
What are respondent behaviours?
- When we associate different stimuli we do not control, and we respond automatically (classical conditioning)
What are operant behaviours?
When we associate our own behaviours that act on our environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli with their consequences
What is modelling?
The process of observing and imitating a specific behaviour
What are mirror neurons?
Frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so
