Chapter 6 How We Learn Flashcards
Learning
Change in organism’s behaviour/thought as a result of experience
Habituation
Process of responding less strongly over time to repeated stimuli
Sensitization
Responding to stimulus more strongly over time
Conditioning
Forming associations among stimuli
Serendipity
Accident
Classical conditioning
Form of learning in which animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response
Unconditioned stimulus
Stimulus that elicits an automatic response without prior conditioning
Unconditioned response
Automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned response
Response elicited by a previously neutral stimulus as a result of conditioning
Conditioned stimulus
Initially neutral stimulus which, after conditioning elicits a conditioned response
Acquisition
Learning phase during which a conditioned response is established
Extinction
Gradual reduction/eventual elimination of the conditioned response after the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus
Spontaneous recovery
Sudden reemergence of an extinct conditioned response after a delay following an extinction procedure
Renewal effect
Sudden reemergence of conditioned response following extinction when an animal is returned to the environment in which the conditioned response was acquired
Stimulus generalization
Process by which conditioned stimuli similar but not identical, to the original conditioned stimulus elicit a conditioned response
Stimulus discrimination
Process by which organisms display a less pronounced conditioned response to conditioned stimuli that differ from the original conditioned stimulus
Higher-order conditioning
Developing a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus by virtue of its association with another conditioned stimulus
Occasion setters
Settings that can/may contain conditioned stimulus and cause conditioned response
Latent inhibition
Difficulty in establishing classical conditioning to an already familiar stimulus
Conditioned compensatory response
Conditioned response that is the opposite of the UCR and serves to compensate for the UCR
Fetishism
Sexual attraction to nonliving things
Operant conditioning
Learning controlled by consequences of the organism’s behaviour
Law of effect
Principle asserting that if, in the presence of a certain stimulus, a behaviour results in a satisfying reward, that behaviour is more likely to occur in the presence of that stimulus in the future
Insight
Grasping the underlying nature of a problem
Reinforcement
Outcome/consequence of a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour
Positive reinforcement
Presentation of a stimulus following a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour
Negative reinforcement
Removal of a stimulus following a behaviour that strengthens the possibility of the behaviour
Punishment
Outcome/consequence of a behaviour that weakens the probability of the behaviour
Discriminate stimulus
Stimulus associated with the presence of reinforcement
Schedule of reinforcement
Pattern of reinforcing a behaviour
Continuous reinforcement
Reinforcing a behaviour every time it occurs, resulting in faster learning but faster extinction that only occasional reinforcement
Partial reinforcement
Only occasional reinforcement of a behaviour, resulting in slower extinction that if the behaviour had been reinforced continually
Fixed ratio schedule
Pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses
Fixed interval schedule
Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for the first response following a specified time interval
Variable ratio schedule
Patter in which we provide reinforcement after a variable number of responses, with the number varying randomly around some average
Variable interval schedule
Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for the first response following a variable time interval, with the actual intervals varying randomly around some average
Shaping by successive approximations
Conditioning a target behaviour by progressively reinforcing behaviours that come closer and closer to target
Secondary reinforcer
Neutral object that becomes associated with a primary reinforcer
Primary reinforcer
Item/outcome that naturally increases target behaviour (biological - heat, food, pain)
Latent learning
Learning that’s not directly observable
Cognitive map
Mental representation of how a physical space is organized
Observational learning
Learning by watching others
Mirror neurons
Cell in the prefrontal cortex that becomes activated by specific motions when an animal both performs/observes that action
Conditioned taste aversion
Classical conditioning can lead us to develop avoidance reactions to the taste of food
Equipotentiality
Claim that we can classically condition all CSs equally well to all UCSs
Preparedness
Evolutionary predisposition to learn some pairings of feared stimuli over others owing to their survival value
Illusory correlations
Perception of nonexistent association between two variables
Instinctive drift
Tendency for animals to return to innate behaviours following repeated reinforcement
Sleep-assisted learning
Learning new material while asleep
Discovery learning
Giving students experimental materials and asking them to figure out scientific principles on their own
Direct instructions
Tell people how to solve problems
Learning styles
An individual’s preferred/optimal method of acquiring new info
Reliability
Consistency of measurement
