Chapter 6 Flashcards
What is Behaviorism?
The belief that psychology should concern itself with what people and other animals do and the circumstances in which they do it. without considering emotions, or thoughts
what is stimulus response psychology?
the attempt to explain behavior in terms of how each stimulus triggers a response
Concept Check: Why do behaviorists reject explanations in terms of thoughts?
Past events and current stimuli are responsible for thoughts and for that reason are the explanations behind behavior.
Concept Check: How did Loeb explain why certain animals turn toward the light?
It’s a part of the stimulus response because partial sunlight causes muscle tension on one side of the body.
What theory did Pavlov come up with?
Classical conditioning
What are unconditioned reflexes?
Connections that automatically occur between a stimulus and a physical response ex. food and drooling in dogs
What is classical conditioning?
Process by which an organism learns a new association between two stimuli- a neutral stimulus and one that naturally causes a response
What is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)?
something that already causes a response to occur
What is an unconditioned response (UCR)?
what the unconditioned stimulus causes to happen
What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?
an event that over time can cause a learned response
What is conditioned response (CR)?
the response that the conditioned stimulus caused as a result of repetition of the stimulus
Concept Check: Someone shows you many photos on several colors of background. Whenever the background color is green, the photo is disgusting. After many repetitions you see a neutral photo on a green background , but you react with disgust anyway. Identify the CS, UCS, UCR, and CR.
CS- the green background
CR- disgust to seeing the green background
UCS- the gross photos
UCR- disgust when seeing just the green background
What is acquisition in classical conditioning?
The process that establishes or strengthens a conditioned response
What does extinction mean in terms of classical conditioning?
The decrease in a conditioned response in the absence of the conditioned stimulus
What is spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning?
It is a temporary return of an extinguished response brought on by the return of the conditioned stimulus
Concept check: in Pavlov’s experiment on conditioned salivation in response to a metronome, what produces extinction? what produces spontaneous recovery?
Bringing the conditioned stimulus without having it followed by the unconditioned stimulus will cause extinction to happen. To produce spontaneous recovery, bring back the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus.
Concept Check: In what way might the term “extinction” be misleading?
because the response does not actually disappear like species do but rather the response doesn’t happen for a period of time before it reappears once presented with the conditioned stimulus.
What happens in stimulus generalization?
That is when a conditioned response becomes applied to similar stimuli. ex if the metronome changes slightly but the dogs still produce saliva.
What diagnosed condition can stimulus generalization apply to?
PTSD
What does discrimination refer to in classical conditioning?
It refers to the ability of being able to respond differently to stimuli that predict different outcomes. ex a baby shaking a rattle compared to a rattle from a rattlesnake
Concept check: If classical conditioning depended entirely on presenting the CS and UCS at nearly the same time, what result should the experimenters have expected for group 2?
That if it depended on them being at nearly the same time than the rats in group two would have developed a strong response
What is the blocking effect in classical conditioning?
It is when a previously established stimulus prevents an association from being formed with another stimulus
How does drug tolerance relate to classical conditioning?
Because people usually have specific rituals for taking and getting drugs which causes a physical reaction that creates a higher tolerance to them
Concept Check: When someone develops a tolerance to the effects of a drug injection, what is the CS, the UCS, the CR and the UCR?
CS- The routine for the injection
UCS- Entry of the drug to the brain
CR- body defense against the drug
UCR-body defense against the drug
Concept Check: How did researchers measure drug tolerance in rats?
Demonstrated when rats would react to pain after they had been given morphine
TQ: Why did behaviorists reject the study of thoughts?
A) They were only interested in the behavior of invertebres
B) Since they vary too much based on the person
C) They believed in mind- body dualism
D) Events that led to thoughts are the real cause of behavior
D
TQ: Which of the following describes the approach of the earliest behaviorists such as Loeb?
A) Stimulus response- psychology
B) Mind- body dualism
C) Psychoanalysis
D) Structuralism
A
TQ: On the first trial of classical conditioning, the CS, UCS, and UCR is present, but the CR is not. Why?
A) The CR emerges only after pairing with CS with the UCS
B) The CR emerges only after paring the UCS with the UCR
C) The experimenter begins presenting the CR on the second trial
D) The CR emerges only during the extinction process
A
TQ: How does extinction differ from forgetting?
A) Extinction is more complete and permanent
B) Forgetting depends on changes of brain activity extinction does not
C) Extinction depends on changes of brain activity forgetting does not
D) Forgetting depends on the passage of time. Extinction depends on the specific experience
D
TQ: What produces spontaneous recovery?
A) Generalization training followed by discrimination training
B) An electrical shock in a new situation
C) Extinction followed by delay
D) Additional parings of CS with the UCS
C
TQ: In some cases, a conditioned response does not resemble the unconditional response. What does this finding imply about classical conditioning?
A) Conditioning occurs only if the CS predicts the UCS
B) Conditioning is not a matter of transferring a response from the UCS to the CS
C) Conditioning is independent of the connections in the brain
D) Conditioning depends on having the CS and the UCS close together in time
B
TQ: When classical conditioning produces drug tolerance, what is the CS?
A) The injection procedure
B) The entry of the drug into the blood
C) The “high” that the drug produces
D) The body’s defense against the drug
A
TQ: When classical conditioning produces a drug tolerance, what is the CR?
A) The injection procedure
B) The entry of the drug into the blood
C) The “high” that the drug produces
D) The body’s defense against the drug
D
What is a learning curve?
A graph of the challenges in the course of learning
What is reinforcement?
it is giving a positive consequence to help ensure that the certain behavior happens again
What is operant/ instrumental conditioning?
It is when a behavior is changed by providing a reinforcer or a punishment to increase or decrease the response
What is the difference between operant and classical conditioning?
In operant conditioning the subject’s behavior has an effect on the outcome. In the classical conditioning it does not