Chapter 6 Flashcards
learning phase during which conditioning occurs, i.e. a neutral stimulus is being transformed into the conditioned stimulus.
acquisition
behavior that lacks consideration for others.
antisocial
an individual who has completed the course work and testing to become certified to use the principles of learning in a variety of employment settings.
applied behavior analyst
conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented after the presentation of an unconditioned stimulus; is an ineffective form of conditioning.
backward conditioning
the application of the principles of learning to structure interventions to change behavior.
behavior modification
psychologists who embrace “behaviorism” a perspective that proposes that people’s behavioral tendencies, moral boundaries, and personality traits are an expression of each individual’s learning history that transpired programmatically or haphazardly in their environment.
behaviorists
a form of associative learning that occurs when an initially neutral stimulus becomes transformed into a conditioned stimulus (and elicits a conditioned response) because of its association with an unconditioned stimulus.
classical conditioning
a stimulus that gains its capacity to reinforce through its associations with a primary reinforcer, i.e. money.
conditioned reinforcer
a stimulus that produces a response because it is associated with an unconditioned stimulus; i.e. the sound of a tone causing salivation because it is always heard when food is presented.
conditioned stimulus
Thorndike’s theory that successful responses will be more strongly connected to a specific situation than other responses; explains operant conditioning.
connectionism
when a reinforcement is dependent upon the emission of the behavior; i.e. the behavior must be performed before a reinforcement will be issued.
contingent
each individual incidence of a target response produces reinforcement.
continuous reinforcement
conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented before and during presentation of an unconditioned stimulus, terminating when the unconditioned stimulus ends; is the most effective form of conditioning.
delayed conditioning
the idea that individuals have a preferred pattern of distributing their time between a wide variety of activities, and the opportunity to engage in behaviors for which they are most out of equilibrium may be most reinforcing event for that moment.
disequilibrium principle
emotional responses evoked by offensive tastes or smells or by behaviors we judge to be in bad taste; propels us to avoid disease.
disgust reactions
the idea that any arbitrary response could be reinforced with equal potency with any arbitrary reward, and that any conditioned stimulus could be associated with any unconditioned stimulus; this assumption is not true due to our biological predispositions to associate certain consequences with specific behaviors or stimuli.
equipotentiality
phase during which a conditioned stimulus is presented without an unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioning, and in which target behaviors are no longer reinforced in operant conditioning; weakens the association between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli in classical conditioning, and weakens the association between the response and reinforcement in operant conditioning.
extinction
a sexual response induced by exposure to an inanimate object; can be a result of classical conditioning.
fetishism
reinforcement schedule in which the first response is reinforced after a predetermined fixed time interval has been met; the subject starts to respond and increases rate of responding as the subject anticipates the interval might have been met.
fixed interval
schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement occurs after the subject completes a predetermined fixed number of responses; if the ratio is large, individual’s take a break after receiving reinforcement (post-reinforcement pause).
fixed ratio
learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli; is a decrease in response strength as a consequence of repeated exposure to a stimulus; the inverse of sensitization.
habituation
when classical conditioning occurs for novel stimuli that become paired with a conditioned stimulus but are never directly paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
higher order conditioning
the tendency for the behavior of animals trained by operant conditioning to revert to a form naturally or instinctively associated with the reward situation.
instinctive drift
responses followed by positive outcomes will be repeated, whereas those followed by negative outcomes will not.
law of effect
a phenomenon that occurs when subject’s have experienced aversive events and did not have to opportunity to overcome them; can lead to depression.
learned helplessness
a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience; includes motor skills and academic skills.
learning
(also known as time-out) the removal of a subject from a situation in which they are being positively reinforced following a response; decreases the likelihood of that response in the future.
negative punishment
the removal or termination of an unpleasant stimulus or event following a response; increases the likelihood of that response in the future.
negative reinforcement
a stimulus that does not yet elicit a specific response.
neutral stimulus
the delivery of an aversive stimulus or event independent of the subject’s behavior.
noncontingent punishment
learning by watching others; occurs in the absence of reinforcement or the delivery of conditioned or unconditioned stimuli.
observational learning
form of conditioning in which subjects form an association between their behavior and its consequences; their behavior is directed toward manipulating or operating on some feature in the environment.
operant conditioning
reinforcing only a portion of an organism’s responses to increase the probability of that response; results in behaviors that are more resistant to extinction.
partial reinforcement
a phenomenon that occurs in a generalization test when the greatest response rate does not occur in the presence of the initial conditioned stimulus (S+), but occurs in the presence of a novel stimulus that is shifted past the S+ and away from a discrimination stimulus (S-); the peak shift phenomenon only occurs when the S+ and S- stimuli are both on the same dimension such as wavelength or tone frequency.
peak shift
an irrational fear of a particular object or situation.
phobia
the delivery of a reward following the occurrence of a response; increases the likelihood of that response in the future.
positive reinforcement
the opportunity to engage in a higher-probability behavior will serve as reinforcement for any lower-probability behavior.
premack
being biologically predisposed to form certain associations because of their relevance to survival under ancestral conditions.
preparedness
stimulus that satisfies a biological need such as food or water.
primary reinforcer
behavior that is positive and helpful to others.
prosocial
when a presumed “conditioned stimulus” appears to evoke a “conditioned response” when in fact the response is actually an unconditioned reflex or is due to some other phenomenon; conditioning did not actually happen.
pseudoconditioning
the delivery of an aversive stimulus or event following a response; decreases the likelihood of that response in the future.
punishment (or positive punishment)
effect that occurs when a conditioned response is extinguished in a setting that is different from the setting in which the conditioned response was first acquired; when the subjests returns to the original setting, the conditioned response returns.
renewal effect
how long it takes for extinction to occur; is higher the more intermittently and unpredictably the behavior was reinforced during conditioning.
resistance to extinction
eating food with an unfamiliar flavor (one individuals can do without) when all foods and flavors are likely to become associated with the experience of nausea, such as with chemotherapy patients; protects the subject’s appetite for important foods from taste aversion learning.
scapegoat technique
a protocol that determines when the next target response is reinforced.
schedules of reinforcement
an increase in response strength as a consequence of repeated exposure to a stimulus; the inverse of habituation.
sensitization
the systematic application of the principle of reinforcing successive approximations to the target behavior; each time the subject emits a response that more closely resembles the form or topography of a target behavior, they are reinforced until the target behavior is performed.
shaping
conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented synchronously with presentation of an unconditioned stimulus; is an ineffective form of conditioning.
simultaneous conditioning
the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period.
spontaneous recover
when the subject’s response to a similar conditioned stimulus is weaker than that produced by the original conditioned stimulus.
stimulus discrimination
when the subject displays a conditioned response in the presence of a novel stimulus that resembles but is not identical to the original conditioned stimulus.
stimulus generalization
small scale responses such as muscle twitches or eye-blinking; can be conditioned just like more overt behaviors.
suboperants
a response whose occurrence has no bearing on the delivery of reinforcement, but the subject acts as if it does.
superstitious behavior
a conditioned food aversion that arises when the subject forms an association between the flavor of a specific food and the experience of nausea
taste aversion learning
also known as negative punishment) the removal of a subject from positive reinforcement; decreases the likelihood of that response in the future.
time-out
conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented before the presentation of an unconditioned stimulus and terminates before that stimulus is presented; is effective, but somewhat less so than delayed conditioning.
trace conditioning
a response to a stimulus that is not learned but merely a reflex; i.e. salivating at the smell of food.
unconditioned response
a stimulus that elicits a response that is not learned but rather a reflex; i.e. the smell of food eliciting salivation.
unconditioned stimulus
reinforcement schedule in which the first response is reinforced after an unpredictable predetermined time interval has passed; a subject cannot double his rate of reinforcement by doubling his rate of work.
variable interval
reinforcement schedule in which the subject receives reinforcement once they have completed a predetermined number of responses, but this quota changes unpredictably after each successive reinforcement; abolishes the post-reinforcement pause.
variable ratio
