Chapter 5: How do We Learn?

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

A relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavior potential, as a result of experience.

Question 2

Orienting Reflex

Answer 2

The tendency of an organism to orient its

senses toward unexpected stimuli.

Question 3

Habituation

Answer 3

The tendency of an organism to ignore repeated stimuli. Keeps our brain from being overstimulated.

Question 4

Dishabituation

Answer 4

Re-responding to a stimulus to which one has been habituated. I.E. You are accustomed to ignoring the jackhammer, but then the worker begins to sing loudly over the noise and you find it hard to ignore.

Question 5

Unconditioned Stimulus

Answer 5

A stimulus that naturally elicits are response in an organism.

Question 6

Unconditioned Response

Answer 6

The response that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

Question 7

Neutral Stimulus

Answer 7

A stimulus that does not naturally elicit an unconditioned response in an organism.

Question 8

Conditioned Stimulus

Answer 8

A stimulus that elicits a conditioned response in an organism.

Question 9

Conditioned Response

Answer 9

The response that is elicited by a conditioned stimulus.

Question 10

Classical Conditioning

Answer 10

Learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus; because of this pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus with the same power as the unconditioned stimulus to elicit the response in the organism.

Question 11

Contiguity

Answer 11

The degree to which two stimuli occur close together in time.

Question 12

Contingency

Answer 12

The degree to which the presentation of one stimulus reliably predicts the presentation of the other.

Question 13

Real world classical conditioning

Answer 13

Little Albert and the white rat

Question 14

Stimulus Generalization

Answer 14

Responding in a like fashion to similar stimuli (i.e. I am afraid of bees, so I also fear hornets, wasps, and yellow-jackets).

Question 15

Stimulus Discrimination

Answer 15

Responding only to a particular stimulus (i.e. I work with snakes, so the only snake that I hold fear for are Cobras).

Question 16

Taste Aversion

Answer 16

Classical conditioning that occurs when an organism pairs the experience of nausea with a certain food and becomes conditioned to feel ill at the sight, smell, or idea of the food.

Question 17

Biological Preparedness

Answer 17

A genetic tendency to learn certain responses very easily.

Question 18

Extinction

Answer 18

The removal of a conditioned response

Question 19

Acquisition

Answer 19

The process of learning a conditioned response or behavior.

Question 20

Spontaneous Recovery

Answer 20

During extinction, the tendency for a conditioned response to reappear and strengthen over a brief period of time before re-extinguishing.

Question 21

Operant Conditioning

Answer 21

A type of learning in which the organism learns through the consequences of its behavior.

Question 22

E.L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect

Answer 22

A principle discovered by E.L. Thorndike, which states that behaviors that lead to positive consequences will be strengthened and behaviors that lead to negative consequences will be weakened.

Question 23

Reinforcement

Answer 23

The strengthening of a response that occurs when the response is rewarded.

Question 24

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 24

Strengthening a behavior by ADDING something pleasant to the environment.

Question 25

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 25

Strengthening a behavior by REMOVING something unpleasant from the environment.

Question 26

Punishment

Answer 26

The weakening of a response that occurs when a behavior leads to an unpleasant consequence.

Question 27

Positive Punishment

Answer 27

Weakening a behavior by adding something unpleasant to the environment.

Question 28

Negative Punishment

Answer 28

Weakening behavior by removing something pleasant from the environment.

Question 29

Extinction Burst

Answer 29

A temporary increase in a behavioral response that occurs immediately after extinction has begun.

Question 30

Schedule of Reinforcement

Answer 30

The timing and the consistency of the reinforcement.

Question 31

Continuous Reinforcement

Answer 31

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for every instance of the desired response. Leads to high rates of responding but the quickest extinction.

Question 32

Partial Reinforcement

Answer 32

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for only some instances of the desired response.

Question 33

Fixed Ratio Schedule

Answer 33

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for every Xth instance of the desired response. Leads to higher rates of responding than interval schedules of reinforcement.

Question 34

Variable Ratio Schedule

Answer 34

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded on average for every Xth instance of the desired response. Leads to higher rates of responding than interval schedules of reinforcement.

Question 35

Fixed Interval Schedule

Answer 35

A schedule of reinforcement in which the organism is rewarded for the first desired response in an Xth interval of time. Lead to behaviors that are the most resistant to extinction.

Question 36

Variable Interval Schedule

Answer 36

A schedule in which the organism is rewarded for the first desired response in an average Xth interval of time. Lead to behaviors that are the most resistant to extinction.

Question 37

Shaping

Answer 37

Using operant conditioning to build a new behavior in an organism by rewarding successive approximations of the desired response.

Question 38

Primary Reinforcer

Answer 38

Something that is reinforcing in and of itself.

Question 39

Secondary Reinforcer

Answer 39

A reinforcer that is reinforcing only because it leads to a primary reinforcer. I.E. Money, tokens.

Question 40

Token Economy

Answer 40

A system of operant conditioning in which participants are reinforced with tokens that can later be cashed in for primary reinforcers.

Question 41

Behaviorism

Answer 41

A school of thought in psychology that emphasizes the study of observable behavior over the study of the mind.

Question 42

Insight

Answer 42

A sudden realization about how to solve a problem that occurs after an organism has studied the problem for a period of time.

Question 43

Latent Learning

Answer 43

Learning that cannot be directly observed in an organism’s behavior.

Question 44

Cognitive Map

Answer 44

A mental representation of the environment that is formed through observation of one’s environment.

Question 45

Observational Learning

Answer 45

Learning through observation and imitation of other’s behavior. AKA modeling

Question 46

4 steps for modeling to occur

Answer 46

1. Attention: The observer must first pay attention to the model’s behavior before he or she can model it.
2. Retention in Memory: The observer must retain a cognitive representation or memory of the model’s behavior.
3. Reproduction of the Behavior: The observer must have a mental representation of the behavior stored in memory that can be retrieved and used to reproduce the behavior, and the observer must be physically capable of reproducing the behavior.
4. Motivation: After retrieving the memory of the behavior and figuring out how to produce the behavior, the observer must be motivated to actually execute the behavior