Chapter 3 - Three Approaches to learning Flashcards
Learning
The acquisition of new knowledge or skills.
Comparative approach
The study of different species of animal in order to establish general and specific features of behaviour.
Behaviourism
The tradition that advocates that psychology should be a science of behaviour, without reference to mental states that cannot be observed.
Physiologist
A scientist who studies the structure and function of the body.
Reflex
An automatic response to a stimulus.
Conditional stimulus (CS)
A stimulus, the power of which depends upon its pairing with an unconditional stimulus.
Classical conditioning
Learning arising from a pairing of two events outside the control of the animal.
Conditional response (CR)
A response that is triggered by a conditional stimulus.
Conditional reflex
A reflex triggered by a conditional stimulus.
Unconditional stimulus (UCS)
A stimulus that evokes a response without the necessity for a history of conditioning.
Unconditional response (UCR)
A response that does not require learning.
Stimulus-response association
The link assumed to be formed by an animal whereby a stimulus triggers a response.
Expectancy
Knowledge about a sequence of events (anticipation).
Instrumental conditioning
A form of conditioning in which the outcome depends on the animal’s behaviour.
Operant conditioning
A variety of instrumental conditioning that traditionally has been studied in a Skinner box.
Operant
A behaviour freely emitted by an animal which can be reinforced (e.g. lever-pressing).
Positive reinforcement
Something that follows a behaviour and increases the probability that the behaviour will occur in the future.
Shaping
The reinforcement of successive approximations to a desired behaviour.
Law of effect
A law that states that responses having favourable consequences will be learned.
Discrimination
A response made in the presence of one stimulus and a lack of response made in the presence of another.
Negative reinforcement
Something that is terminated by behaviour and where the frequency of this behaviour increases.
Punishment
Something normally described as aversive which follows a behaviour and lowers the probability that the behaviour will occur again.
Behaviour modification
A technique of changing behaviour by means of positive reinforcement.
Concepts
Ideas that are structured in terms of attributes and refer to categories in the world.
Information processing
Information is assumed to be received via the senses, further processed or transformed, and then used to guide action and behaviour.
Category learning
The learning that occurs when people come to understand that certain objects or entities belong together in particular categories.
Hypothesis
A suggested explanation for a set of observations that may or may not turn out to be supported.
Artificial stimuli
Stimuli devised by the experimenter in order to have no intrinsic meaning.
Ecological validity
The extent to which a study reflects naturally occurring or everyday situations.
Natural categories
Categories that occur naturally and are not invented or devised by the experimenter.
Attributes
Properties of things that are reflected in the structure of concepts.
Nativism
The belief that knowledge is mainly or exclusively innate.
Empiricism
The belief that knowledge should be mainly or exclusively based on evidence about the world received via our senses. Empirical research therefore relies on gathering facts using techniques such as observation and experimentation.
Empirical studies
Studies that aim to generate data based on experiences; for example, by conducting observations and experiments.
Induction problem
The problem that arises because our past experiences do not serve as a totally reliable guide to our future experiences.
Sociocultural perspective
A perspective on learning which stresses that learning involves the use of tools and artefacts and is embedded within the context of interpersonal relationships, which in turn are embedded in social and cultural systems.
Appropriation
To make something one’s own.
Enculturation
A process through which people adopt specific cultural practices and act in accordance with cultural norms.
