Conditioning Unit 3 Flashcards
Law of Effect
Responses to a situation that are followed by satisfaction are strengthened. Responses that are followed by discomfort are weakened.
Law of Frequency
The more frequently a stimulus and response occur in association with each other, the stronger the S-R habit will become.
Which one of the following statements best describes the view of early behaviorists about how learning can best be studied?
A. Psychologists can determine how learning occurs only if they can identify its physiological basis.
B. Introspection—reporting what and how one is thinking—is likely to yield the most accurate results.
C. To study learning scientifically, researchers must confine their investigations to animal research in a laboratory setting.
D. The study of learning will be more objective and scientific if only observable events are considered.
D. The study of learning will be more objective and scientific if only observable events are considered.
Which one of the following statements best reflects behaviorists’ notion of tabula rasa (“blank slate”)?
A. Organisms inherit few predispositions to behave in particular ways; instead, the behaviors they exhibit are largely the result of environmental experiences.
B. Stimuli that occur after responses are made are usually more influential on an organism’s learning that stimuli that occur before responses are made.
C. The things that organisms learn in a new situation largely override the things that they’ve learned in previous situations; as a result, newly learned behaviors often replace previously learned behaviors.
D. Learning is more a function of what the environment does to the organism than of what the organism does to the environment; in other words, the organism plays a relatively passive role in the learning process.
A. Organisms inherit few predispositions to behave in particular ways: instead, the behaviors they exhibit are largely the result of environmental experiences
Ivan Pavlov conducted a series of studies that led him to propose his theory of classical conditioning. In these studies, Pavlov observed how a dog learned to:
A. Bark when meat was presented
B. Bark when meat was taken away
C. Wake up when an auditory stimulus (e.g., a bell) was presented
D. Salivate to a simple stimulus such as a light or bell
D. Salivate to a simple stimulus as a light or bell
Classical conditioning typically occurs when:
A. A response is followed by two stimuli
B. A response is followed by a single aversive stimulus
C. Two stimuli are presented at about the same time
D. Two responses occur (usually coincidentally) at about the same time
C. Two Stimuli are presented at about the same time.
After repeatedly being hugged by her father when he comes through the door, Julie begins to smile when she hears a key turning to open the door opening by any person. Julie’s behavior can be explained by: A. spontaneous recovery B. generalization C. higher-order conditioning D. stimulus discrimination
B. Generalization
At the dentist’s office, Teresa has a painful experience that leaves her tense and fearful. The next time her mother brings her to the dentist’s office, Teresa begins to get tense and anxious. In this situation, the dentist and dentist’s office are _____; Teresa’s fear of pain is a(n) _____.
A. unconditioned stimuli; conditioned response
B. unconditioned responses; conditioned stimulus
C. conditioned stimuli; unconditioned response
D. conditioned responses; unconditioned stimulus
C. conditioned stimuli; unconditioned response
If students associate failure with punishment, and then associate playing sports with failure, they may begin to fear playing sports through a process of: A. generalization B. spontaneous recovery C. higher-order conditioning D. stimulus discrimination
C. higher-order conditioning
Thorndike’s original law of effect described the ways in which the learning of a response:
A. has an effect on other organisms
B. has an effect on stimuli in the environment
C. has an effect on other responses
D. is affected by the consequences of that response
D. is affected by the consequences of that response.
A child who was once spanked for running into a busy street no longer runs into the street. This can best be explained by which one of the following?
A. Pavlov’s concept of extinction
B. Thorndike’s original law of effect
C. Thorndike’s revised law of effect
D. Skinner’s basic principle of operant conditioning
B. Thorndike’s original law of effect
Which one of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?
A. When Kevin does his homework, his teacher praises him profusely, to the point that it embarrasses him.
B. When Kathleen insults another student while waiting in line for lunch, her teacher moves her to the end of the line.
C. When Lucas complains about a classmate who is picking on him, his teacher allows him to come in from recess on bitterly cold days.
D. When Priscilla answers a teacher’s question incorrectly, Mike teases her unmercifully.
C. When Lucas complains about a classmate who is picking on him, his teacher allows him to come in from recess on bitterly cold days.
What are basic assumptions shared by behaviorists?
- Princples of learning should apply equally to diff. behaviors and to a variety of animal species
- Learning can be studied most objectively when the focus of the study is on stimuli and responses.
- Internal processes tend to be excluded or min. in theorectical explanations.
- Learning involves a beh. change.
- Organisms are born as blank slates.
- Learning is largely the result of environmental events.
Equipotentiality
human beings and animals learn in simliar ways
Neobehaviorist
Behaviorists that are not black-box and insists that there are internal factors that can affect learning (motivation, strength of stimulus)
Determinist
If we have knowledge of an organism’s inherited behaviors, past experiences, and present environmental circumstances, we can predict the next response
* B.F. Skinner
Steps of Classical Conditioning as identified by Pavlov
- Neutral stimulus (no noticeable response)
- The neutral stimulus is presented just before the stimlus that does produce a response (unconditioned stimulus). The response produced is called the unconditioned response.
- After being paried with an UCS, the previously neutral stimulus now causes a response and becomes conditioned stimulus (CS).
Associative Bias
Associations b/w certain kinds of stimuli are more likely to be made than are associations b/w others
Contiguity
Classical conditioning occurs when the UCS and would be CS are presented at approx. the same time.
Contingency
the potential CS must occur when the UCS is likely to follow
An example:
Extinction
Repeated presentations of the CS without the UCS led to weaker and weaker CR
- The bell was rang without the food; eventually no longer salivated with the bell
Spontaneous Recovery
Recurrence of a CR when a period of extinction is followed by a rest period. The response is typcially weaker the 2nd time.
The author was a afraid of bees due to stings. She flew off the handle when she saw one. Later in a diff. setting, she forgot and flew off the handle again.
Stimulus Discrimination
Differentation b/w 2 stimuluses
Counterconditioning
To successfully eliminate an unproductive CR then the existing CS-CR association needs to be overpowered by a different, stronger CS-CR association.
systematic desenitization
therapeutic, uses counterconditioning to treat conditioned anxiety responses
A response that is followed by a reinforcer is strengthened and thefore more likely to occur again
operant conditioning
Reinforcer
a stimulus or event that increases the frequency of a response it follows
Reinforcement-the act of following a response with a reinforcer
Transituational generality
any type of reinforcer is likely to increase many different behaviors in many different situations.
The following 3 key conditions influence the likelihood that operant conditioning will take place:
- The reinforcer must follow the response.
- The reinforcer should follow immediately.
- The reinforcer must be contingent on the response.
Satisfies a built in need or desire
primary reinforcer
a previously neutral stimulus that has become reinforcing to a learner through repeated association with another reinforcer
secondary reinforcer or conditioned reinforcer
presentaiton of a stimulus after a response
positive reinforcement
Material reinforcer
an actual object such as a food or toy
social reinforcer
gesture or sign
activity reinforcer
an opportunity to engage in a favorite activity
Premack Principle
David Premack (1959, 1963); When an opportunity to make a normally high-frequency response is contingent on 1st making a normally low-frequency response, the high-frequency response will increase the frequency of the low-frequency resposne
Learners will perform less-preferred tasks so that they can engage in more preferred tasks.
Token reinforcer
small, insignificant item that a learner can accumulate and eventually use to purchase desired objects or privelledges
Positive feedback
material and socail reinforcers that learners are doing well or making progress
Effective in providing guidance
Intrinsic reinforcers
good feelings
Negative reinforcement
increases a response through the removal of an unpleasant one
Ex: Car makes an irritating noise with key in ignition. The key is removed and there is no longer an irritating noise.
Shaping
Reinforcing the 1st response that in any way approximates the desired behavior and then continue to reinforce it until the learner i smkaing the first response frequently.
Generalization
When a learner has learned to respond in a certain way in the presence of one stimulus, it may respond in the same way in the presence of other stimuli
Kindegarteners learn to raise their hands to ask a question and may do this in 1st grade as well but maybe not at the dinner table at home.
a response will be reinforced in the presence of one stimulus but not in the presence of another one
stimulus discrimination
Assigning easier tasks and then building up to more difficulty tasks
behavioral momentum
Learning to stay away from an aversive stimulus
Avoidance learning
* Must have a signal: pre-aversive stimulus
Active Avoidance learning
The learner purposively makes a response to avoid an aversive event
Passive Avoidance learning
people learn that not behaving in a certain way allows them to avoid an aversive event
What 2 forms does punishment take?
Punishment I: the presentation of a stimulus
* Ex.-failing grade
Punishment 2: the removal of a stimulus
* Ex.-grounding a teenage daughter for missed curfew
The punished individual must make things better than they were beforehand
restitutional overcorrection
having an individual repeat an action, but this time doing it correctly
postivie-practice overcorrection
The amount of reinforcement is increased
elation effect
the amount of reinforcement is decreased
depression effect
Introspection
People were asked to look inside their heads and describe what they were thinking
This was the primary method of investigating learning and other psychologial phenonmena
a misbehaving individual must return the environment to the same state of affairs that it was in before the misbehavior
restitution
ex.- a child who makes a mess must clean it up
The presentation of a stimulus after the response
Positive reinforcement
The person must makes things better than they were beforehand
restitutional overcorrection
ex.- a student who starts a food fight must mop the lunch room
Having an individual repeat an action but doing it correctly
positive-practice overcorrection
ex.-a student who runs in the hallway maybe asked to back up and walk that hallway
Ineffective punishment
physical, psychological, extra classwork, out of school suspension, missing recess
Ineffective punishment
physical, psychological, extra classwork, out of school suspension, missing recess
