chapter 4 key terms

Question 1

acute stress

Answer 1

stress that lasts for a relatively short time

Question 2

antecedent

Answer 2

what happens just before something else

Question 3

attention

Answer 3

the process of focusing on specific stimuli or aspects of the sensory environment whilst ignoring and therefore excluding others

Question 4

behaviour

Answer 4

any action made by a living person (or animal) that can be observed or measured

Question 5

behaviourist

Answer 5

approach to learning emphasises the study of observable behaviour alone to understand and explain learning,

Question 6

behaviourism

Answer 6

the theory that human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning

Question 7

classical conditioning

Answer 7

a three-phase learning process that results in the involuntary association between a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response;

Question 8

conditioned response (CR)

Answer 8

in classical conditioning, the learned or acquired response to the conditioned stimulus

Question 9

conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 9

the stimulus that is initially neutral and does not normally produce the unconditioned response but eventually becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus and elicits a conditioned response

Question 10

conditioning

Answer 10

a learning process through which stimuli and responses become associated with one another

Question 11

consequence

Answer 11

in operant conditioning, the environmental event that occurs immediately after the relevant behaviour and has an effect on the occurrence of the behaviour

Question 12

discriminative stimulus

Answer 12

the antecedent stimulus that has stimulus control over behaviour because the behaviour was reliably reinforced in the presence of that stimulus in the past

Question 13

learning

Answer 13

a relatively permanent change in behaviour due to experience

Question 14

maturation

Answer 14

the action or process of maturing

Question 15

motivation

Answer 15

processes within an organism which activate behaviour that is directed towards achieving a particular goal

Question 16

negative punishment

Answer 16

the removal or loss of a desirable stimulus thereby weakening or decreasing the likelihood of a response recurring again

Question 17

negative reinforcement

Answer 17

the removal of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus, thereby strengthening or making a desired response more likely to reoccur

Question 18

negative reinforcer

Answer 18

any unpleasant or aversive stimulus that, when removed or avoided, strengthens or increases the frequency or likelihood of a desired response

Question 19

neutral stimulus (NS)

Answer 19

in classical conditioning, any object or event that does not normally produce a predictable response; becomes a conditioned stimulus through repeated association with the unconditioned stimulus

Question 20

observational learning

Answer 20

acquisition of information, skills or behaviour through watching the performance of others, either directly or indirectly; involves a sequence of processes called attention, retention, reproduction, motivation and reinforcement; also called modelling

Question 21

operant

Answer 21

any response (or set of responses) that acts on the environment to produce some kind of consequence

Question 22

operant conditioning

Answer 22

a learning process whereby the consequences of a behaviour (e.g reward or punishment) determine the likelihood that it will be performed again in the future

Question 23

positive punishment

Answer 23

presentation of an unpleasant stimulus that weakens a response or decreases the likelihood of the response occurring again

Question 24

positive reinforcement

Answer 24

presentation of a positive reinforcer following a desired response

Question 25

positive reinforcer

Answer 25

stimulus that strengthens or increases the frequency or likelihood of a desired response by providing a satisfying consequence

Question 26

punishment

Answer 26

delivery of an unpleasant consequence following a response, or the removal of a pleasant consequence following a response, in order to weaken a response or decrease the likelihood of it occurring again

Question 27

reflex

Answer 27

an unconscious, automatic, involuntary reaction to a stimulus that occurs in the same way each time

Question 28

reinforcement

Answer 28

when a stimulus strengthens or increases the frequency or likelihood of a response that it follows; may also refer to the process of administering the stimulus (i.e. reinforcer)

Question 29

reinforce

Answer 29

to strengthen or support an existing feeling, idea, or habit

Question 30

reproduction

Answer 30

(in observational learning) when a behaviour that has been closely attended to and retained in memory is imitated

Question 31

response

Answer 31

a reaction by an organism to a stimulus

Question 32

retention

Answer 32

(in observational learning) remembering a behaviour that has been closely attended to

Question 33

social learning

Answer 33

the process of learning by observing the social interactions and behaviours of others

Question 34

social-cognitive approach

Answer 34

(to learning) emphasises the role of cognitive processes such as attention, memory and motivation in learning, in addition to environmental stimuli such as conditioning, reinforcement and punishment

Question 35

stimulus

Answer 35

any object or event that elicits (produces) a response from an organism

Question 36

three-phase model of operant conditioning

Answer 36

explains operant conditioning as occurring in a specific sequence: (1) presence of an antecedent stimulus that occurs before the behaviour; (2) the behaviour that occurs due to the antecedent and (3) the consequence to the behaviour

Question 37

vicarious conditioning

Answer 37

in observational learning, when an individual observes a model displaying behaviour that is either reinforced or punished and later behaves in the same way, in a modified way, or refrains from doing so as a result of the observation

Question 38

vicarious punishment

Answer 38

being conditioned indirectly by observing someone else’s punishment

Question 39

vicarious reinforcement

Answer 39

being conditioned indirectly by observing someone else’s reinforcement

Question 40

unconditioned response (UCR)

Answer 40

in classical conditioning, an involuntary response that occurs when the unconditioned stimulus is presented

Question 41

unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Answer 41

in classical conditioning, any stimulus that consistently produces a particular naturally occurring, involuntary response (i.e. an unconditioned response)

Question 42

way of knowing

Answer 42

different ways people arrive at a sense of knowledge of the world and respective fields