Chapter 6: Learning Flashcards
Learning
A relatively permanent change in the state of the learner due to experience.
Habituation
A general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding.
Classical conditioning
When a stimulus evokes a response because of being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response.
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism.
Unconditioned response (UR)
A reflexive reaction that is reliably elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
A stimulus at first does not produce the response that is eventually conditioned by pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned response (CR)
A reaction to a conditioned stimulus produced by pairing it with an unconditioned stimulus.
Acquisition
The phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together.
Second-order conditioning
Conditioning where the US is a stimulus that acquires its ability to produce learning from an earlier procedure in which it was used as a CS.
Extinction
The gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is no longer followed by the US.
Spontaneous recovery
The tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction a rest period.
Excitatory association
A process that increases the likelihood of a response.
Inhibitory association
A process that decreases the likelihood of a response.
Generalization
An increase in responding to a stimulus because of its simularity to a CS that was paired with a US.
Discrimination
The capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli.
Contingency
The organism has an expectation about how well the CS signals the appearance of the US.
Biological preparedness
A propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over others.
Operant conditioning
A type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behavior determine whether it will be repeated in the future.
Law of effect
The principle that behaviors that are followed by a ‘satisfying state of affairs’ tend to be repeated and those that produce an ‘unpleasant state of affairs’ are less likely to be repeated.
Operant behavior
Behavior that has some impact on the environment, which, in turn, changes because of that impact.
Reinforcer
Any stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behavior that led to it.
Punisher
Any stimulus or event that functions to decrease the likelihood of the behavior that led to it.
Overjustification effect
Circumstances when external rewards can undermine the intrinsic satisfaction of performing a behavior.
Fixed interval (FI) schedule
Reinforcement will become available when a fixed time period has elapsed following the previous reinforcement. The first response after this interval will produce the reinforcer.
Variable interval (VI) schedule
Reinforcement will become available when a time period has elapsed following the previous reinforcement, but unlike the FI schedule, the length of the waiting period varies from one reinforcer to the next.
Fixed ratio (FR) schedule
Reinforcement will be delivered after a specific number of responses have been made.
Variable ratio (VR) schedule
Reinforcement will be delivered after a specified average number of responses have been made.
Intermittent reinforcement
An operant conditioning relationship in which only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement.
Intermittent reinforcement effect
Operant behaviors that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement.
Shaping
Learning that results from reinforcement of successive approximations to i final desired behavior.
Latent learning
A condition in which something is learned but it is not manifested as a behavioral change until sometime in the future.
Cognitive map
A mental representation of the physical features of the environment.
Spatial representation
The capacity to encode, process and store information about the shape and layout of the physical environment.
Observational learning
Learning takes place by watching the actions of others.
Implicit learning
Learning that takes place largely independent of awareness of the process and the products of information acquired.
