Chapter 7: Learning Flashcards
What is us learning to expect and prepare for significant events such as food or pain an example for?
Classical conditioning
What is us learning to repeat acts that bring rewards and to avoid acts that bring unwanted results an example for?
Operant conditioning
“We learn new behaviors by observing events and people, and through language, we learn things we have neither experienced nor observed” is an example of what?
Cognitive learning
What is learning?
The process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.
On average, behaviors become habitual after how many days?
66 days
What is associative learning?
Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning).
What is classical conditioning?
The learning of associating two stimuli and thus anticipating events
What is operant conditioning?
Th learning of associating a response (our behavior) and its consequence
What is a stimulus?
Any event or situation that evokes a response
What is respondent behavior?
Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.
What is operant behavior?
Behavior that operates on the environment (there is no obvious triggering stimulus), producing a consequence.
What is cognitive learning?
The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.
Why are habits, such as having something sweet with that cup of coffee, so hard to break?
Habits form when we repeat behaviors in a given context and, as a result, learn association - often without our awareness. For example, we may have eaten a sweet pastry with a cup of coffee often enough to associate the flavor of the coffee with the treat, so that the cup of coffee alone just doesn’t seem right anymore!
Illustrate classical conditioning with Pavlov’s classic experiment?
To illustrate with Pavlov’s classic experiment, the first stimulus (a tone) comes to elicit behavior (drooling) in anticipation of the second stimulus (food).
What is behaviorism?
The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).
What is a neutral stimulus (NS)?
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.
What is Pavlov’s famous dog experiment?
He tested whether a dog would start salivating when he hears a bell ring after having heard the bell ring and gotten food before. His experiment proved the existence of classical conditioning.
What is an unconditioned response (UR)?
In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth).
What is an unconditional stimulus (US)?
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers an unconditioned response (UR).
What is a conditioned response (CR)?
In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).
What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?
In classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).
An experimenter sounds a tone just before delivering an air puff that causes your eye to blink. After several repetitions, you blink to the tone alone. What is the NS? The US? The UR? The CS? The CR?
NS = tone before conditioning
US = air puff
UR = blink to air puff
CS = tone after conditioning
CR = blink to tone
What is acquisition (in classical conditioning)?
The initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response.
What is acquisition (in operant conditioning)?
The strengthening of a reinforced response.
What is extinction?
The diminishing of a conditioned response.
When does extinction occur in classical conditioning?
When an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS)
When does extinction occur in operant conditioning?
When a response is no longer reinforced
What is spontaneous recovery?
The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.
If the aroma of a baking cake sets your mouth to watering,
what is the US? The CS? The CR?
The cake (including its taste) is the US. The associated aroma is the CS. Salivation to the aroma is the CR.
The first step of classical conditioning, when an NS becomes a CS, is called ______________. When a US no longer follows the CS, and the CR becomes weakened, this is called _______________.
Acquisition; extinction
What is generalization (stimulus generalization)?
The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.
When does stimulus generalization occur in operant conditioning?
In operant conditioning, generalization occurs when responses learned in one situation occur in other, similar situations
What is discrimination in classical conditioning?
In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
What is discrimination in operant conditioning?
In operant conditioning, the ability to distinguish responses that are reinforced from similar responses that are not reinforced
In horror movies, sexually arousing images of women are sometimes paired with violence against women. Based on classical conditioning principles, what might be an effect of this pairing?
If viewing an attractive nude or seminude woman (a US) elicits sexual arousal (a UR), then pairing the US with a new NS (violence) could turn violence into a CS that also becomes sexually arousing (a CR).
Knowing Pavlov’s principles, why do counselors advise their clients to steer clear of people and settings that may trigger drug cravings?
Because former drug users often feel a craving when they are again in the drug-using context—with people or in places they associate with previous highs.
Who was “Little Albert” and what was the famous experiment associated to him?
Watson worked with then 11-month-old “Little Albert” and conditioned him to fear white rats. He did this by presenting a white rat and every time Albert was about to touch the rat, Watson produced a loud noise (humans are generally fearful of loud noises, not so of white rats).
In Watson and Rayner’s experiments, “Little Albert” learned to fear a white rat after repeatedly experiencing a loud noise as the rat was presented. In these experiments, what was the US? The UR? The NS? The CS? The CR?
US = loud noise
UR = fear of loud noise
NS = rat before pairing to noise
CS = rat after pairing to noise
CR = fear of rat
Learning is defined as “the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring _____________ or _______________.”
information; behaviors
Two forms of associative learning are classical conditioning, in which the organism associates _______________, and operant conditioning, in which the organism associates _______________.
two or more stimuli; a response and a consequence
In Pavlov’s experiments, the tone started as a neutral stimulus, and then became a(n) ________________ stimulus.
conditioned
Dogs have been taught to salivate to a circle but not to a square. This process is an example of ________________.
discrimination
After Watson and Rayner classically conditioned Little Albert to fear a white rat, the child later showed fear in response to a rabbit, a dog, and a furry coat. This illustrates what?
Generalization
“Sex sells!”is a common saying in advertising.Using classical conditioning terms, explain how sexual images in advertisements can condition your response to a product.
A sexual image is a US that triggers a UR of interest or arousal. Before the ad pairs a product with a sexual image, the product is an NS. Over time the product can become a CS that triggers the CR of interest or arousal.
What is operant conditioning?
A type of learning in which a behavior becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to recur if followed by a punisher.
With classical conditioning, we learn associations between events we ____________ (do/do not) control. With operant conditioning, we learn associations between our behavior and _____________ (resulting/random) events.
do not; resulting
What is Thorndike’s law of effect?
Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely.
An operant chamber is also known as what?
Skinner box
What is an operant chamber (Skinner box)?
In operant conditioning research, a chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can press to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking.
