Exam 1 Flashcards
The scientific study of mind and behavior.
Psychology
The modern scientific study of psychology, originating in the late 19th century.
Psychological Science
A branch of medicine concerned with diagnosing and treating mental health problems.
Psychiatry
Basic research and teaching for the purpose of advancing knowledge in psychology.
Academic Psychology
Use of psychological principles and methods to address the problems of the individual society, or industry.
Applied Psychology
Human mental processes concerned with information and knowledge includes thinking, memory, language, intelligence, and perception of the world through the senses.
Cognition
The philosophical movement founded by Rene Descartes which held that beliefs should be formed through the use of reason, rather than relying upon personal experience or the pronouncements of authorities.
Rationalism
The view that the mind and matter(including the body) belong in separate categories and are constructed of different material.
Dualism
A 17th-century philosophical movement which held that the mind had no innate content—personal experience was responsible for the development of all thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge.
British Empiricism
The idea that knowledge should be obtained through personal experience.
Empirical
A defunct psychological school founded by Edward Titchener, a student of Wilhelm Wundt believe that experience could be broken down into separate sensory components or “structures.” used introspection as a tool to investigate the structures of experience.
Structuralism
The psychological school championed by William James which held that the mind could only be understood by referring to the purposes for which it was shaped through evolution.
Functionalism
An association founded in 1892 by G. Stanley Hall and others to advance the interest of psychology as a profession and science.
American Psychological Association
A theory and psychotherapeutic technique founded by Sigmund Freud and based upon the notion that human beings are driven by unconscious conflicts and desires origination primarily in experiences of early childhood.
Psychoanalysis
The early movement in psychology founded by John B. Watson who held that only behavior—not internal mental states—could be studied scientifically.
Behaviorism
The movement in psychology founded during the 1950s primarily by Carl Rodgers and Abraham Maslow as a reaction against psychoanalysis and behaviorism held that human behavior was not determined by unconscious drives or by learning, but that people had free will to choose. emphasized the intrinsic worth and dignity of the human being.
Humanistic Psychology
Literally, “knowledge from within.” Obtaining knowledge or understanding without conscious effort or rational thought and often without conscious awareness is immediate and unexpected may contain nonempirical aspects, it is an empirical way of knowing because its development depends upon a lifetime of personal experiences.
Intuition
A unique, systematic, self-correcting empirical method of obtaining knowledge about the natural world incorporates empirical observation and logical inference and is characterized by specific goals and methods is skeptical in outlook.
Science
A classical sequence of five stops involved in the acquisition of scientific knowledge. In fact, science is often accomplished with variations on this sequence and as such, should more accurately be termed scientific methods.
Scientific Method
A philosophical approach or point of view based upon the scientific method which proposes that compelling evidence of a claim should be presented before one comes to believe in the claim.
Skepticism
A series of interrelated cognitive skills designed to help one see things as they actually are, free from bias and error.
Critical Thinking
A specific testable prediction about what will happen given certain circumstances are often drawn from theories, which are sets of interconnected ideas and statements used to explain facts.
Hypothesis
A set of interconnected ideas and statements used to explain facts.
Theory
The particular aspect or level of a problem to which a theory is addressed.
Level of Analysis
Nonscience performed for non scientific goal, but with the surface appearance of science.
Pseudoscience
When a research study is repeated by other researchers working independently may be exact, following the procedures of the original study to the letter, or they may be conceptual—repeating the essence of the study but by using somewhat different procedures, variables, or operational definitions.
Replication
This term is used differently in different contexts, but it is used here to refer to general strategies that may be used for conducting research. There are three basic categories: descriptive, experimental, and correlation.
Research Methods
A study that characterizes a sample in relation to variables of interest to the researcher answer questions of who, what, when, and how, but cannot determine if one variable influences another. The category “descriptive Research” includes surveys, case studies, and naturalistic.
Descriptive Study
A descriptive research method in which the researcher gathers detailed qualitative information about a single individual.
Case Study
Any research study (generally descriptive research) which collects extremely detailed information that conveys the quality of the research participant’s experience. Qualitative data are very rich but do not easily lend themselves to quantitative (statistical) analysis.
Qualitative data
Any research study in which collects data in a form the may be analyzed statistically. Typically, is conducted using larger samples than is possible in qualitative research projects.
Quantitative Research
A descriptive research method used to obtain self-report data about people’s experiences, attitudes, or feelings.
Survey
A relatively small group of individuals selected to represent a larger group—the population from which the sample is drawn.
Sample
The larger group of interest to a researcher, from which he or she will draw a smaller sample for the purposes of conducting a research study.
Population
Any sampling procedure in which the probability of an individual being selected for the sample is known in advance and selection is on a generally random basis (e.g., simple random sampling.)
Probability Sampling
A sample that is not truly representative of the population from which it was drawn.
Biased Sample
Potential biases caused by the way survey questions, or questionnaires used in other types of research, are worded.
Wording Effects
A descriptive research method used to systematically observe “real life” behavior in a naturalistic setting.
Naturalistic Observation
A method of study in which the researcher measures two or more variables as they already exist to see if there is an association (correlation) between them.
Correlational Research
Any factor whose magnitude or category can vary.
Variable
When a change in one variable can predict change in another variable because the variables are associated in some way. However, the association between the variables may not be causal in nature.
Correlation
When an increase in one variable is associated (correlated) with an increase in another variable.
Positive Correlation
When an increase in one variable is associated (correlated) with a decrease in another variable.
Negative Correlation
A statistic which quantifies the strength and direction of correlation (association) between two variables. The ranges from -1.0 ( a perfect negative correlation) to +1.0 (a perfect positive correlation). A near 0 indicates no association between the variables in question.
Correlation Coefficient
In correlational research, even if two variables are related causally, it may not be clear which variable caused the other to change.
Directionality
In a correlational study, when a variable the researcher had not considered is responsible for observed effects in both of the variables of interest is also referred to as an illusory correlation.
Third Variable Problem
When a change in one variable causes a change in another.
Causal Effect
A research study where the experimenter satisfies all criteria necessary for causality to be inferred in the research results. These criteria usually include random assignment to conditions, manipulation of variables, use of control conditions, and control over confounding variables.
True Experiment
The variable being manipulated in an experiment to determine possible effects on a dependent variable (DV). is “free” to take on any values the investigator decides to give it. These values are known as levels of the
Independent Variable (IV)
The values assigned by the experimenter to the independent variable.
Levels of the Independent Variable
The variable being measured in an experiment to determine if the manipulation of the independent variable has had any effect.
Dependent Variable (DV)
The technical term used to describe the process of making a purposeful change in the independent variable (IV) to measure any resultant change in the dependent variable (DV).
Manipulation (of the independent variable)
In an experiment, making certain that nothing else changes in the independent variable. More generally, the term may encompass any technique used to avoid the influence of confounding variables.
Control
Groups to which participants may be assigned in an experiment. In an experiment with only one independent variable, each level of the independent variable is also known as a condition of the experiment.
Conditions (of an experiment)
When each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any of the conditions of the experiment (i.e., any of the levels of the independent variable).
Random Assignment to Conditions
Those participants in an experiment who do not receive the level of independent variable that is of primary interest to the researchers, but are used instead for comparison purposes.
Control Group
Those participants in an experiment who receive the level of independent variable whose effects on a dependent variable are of primary interest to the researchers.
Experimental Group
In an experiment, any variable that exerts a measurable effect on the dependent variable without the knowledge of the experimenter. Technically, this means that a is one whose values change systematically along with changes in the values of the independent variable.
Confounding Variable
The tendency for some research participants to intuit the hypotheses or purpose of the research study in which they participate, and to adjust their behavior in response to the “demands” of the situation.
Demand Characteristic
The general desire of research participants to please the experimenter or give the experimenter what he or she “wants”.
Good Subject Tendency
In an experiment, when the research participants are unaware of which level of the independent variable they have received and/or are unaware of the nature of the researcher’s hypothesis.
Blind
In an experiment, when both those running the experiment and the research participants are unaware of which level of the independent variable each participant is receiving and/or are unaware of the nature of the researchers’ hypothesis.
Double-Blind
A precise definition of a variable in terms that can be utilized for a research study.
Operational Definition
The degree to which research results may generalize to the world outside the laboratory.
External Validity
Basic Statistics which provide descriptions of a set of data (e.g., percentage, mean, median, mode).
Descriptive Statistics
A descriptive statistic measuring the numerical average in a set of data.
Mean
A descriptive statistic which reports the score above and below which 50% of the sample has scored—that is, the “middle” score.
Median
A descriptive statistic representing the most frequently occurring score in a set of data.
Mode
Statistics which help determine the probability that research results reflect actual relationships among variables, or which quantify the magnitude of this relationship.
Inferential Statistics
An inferential statistical procedure that allows one to determine the probability that one’s research results reflect actual relationships among variables and are not due to chance factors.
Statistical Significance
An inferential statistic that estimates the magnitude of the relationship between variables.
Effect Size
A term used by Gerd Gigerenzer and his colleagues to describe a basic arithmetic understanding of the nature of statistical claims, particularly those used in health sciences.
Statistical Literacy
Mental processes and events encompassing consciousness, emotion, motivation, and cognition(thought, memory, language, and so forth.)
Mind
All the potentially observable or measurable activities of a living organism.
Behavior
How genes and environments contribute to differences among people in attributes, abilities, personality, and behavior.
Behavior genetics
Biological origins of behavior, focusing on the endocrine, immune, and nervous systems.
Biopsychology (psychobiology)
The study of similarities and differences between human and non human animals.
Comparative psychology
Thinking, learning and memory, intelligence, language, and other aspects of cognition.
Cognitive Psychology
Cultural differences (and similarities) within and between societies.
Cross-cultural and ethnic psychology
Change and continuity across the life span, from birth to death.
Developmental psychology (human development)
How people learn in educational settings; evaluation of educational programs.
Education psychology
The study of nonhuman animal behavior in controlled laboratory settings.
Experimental psychology
How the structure and chemistry of the brain affect behavior; includes subspecialties such as cognitive neuroscience and behavioral neuroscience.
Neuroscience
Individual differences among people in characteristic behavior.
Personality Psychology
How situations affect the behavior of individuals, and how the behavior of individuals affects situations; includes the study of the self, group behavior, interpersonal relationships, attitude and belief formation, prejudice, and so forth.
Social Psychology
Causes and treatments of serious mental health problems and ordinary personal, work, and school-related problems.
Clinical and Counseling Psychology
The application of psychological methods and knowledge in the legal sphere (for example, in criminal investigations and litigation).
Forensic Psychology
The interaction of psychology and health; includes the study of immune functions, emotion and health problems such as eating disorders and addiction. One subspecialty is sports psychology.
Health Psychology
These psychologists help to train workers, increase productivity and job satisfaction, assist in career choice, and administer tests in organizational settings.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
School psychologists are trained to conduct testing in school settings, advise administrators, and offer counseling to students and teachers.
School Psychology
Based on experiences.
Empirical
Knowledge is taken on faith rather than experience.
Nonempirical
A set of orderly rules for correct behavior, particularly within some specific discipline or workplace.
Ethics
An institutional ethics body that must approve and monitor research studies involving human and animal participants.
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
When those participating in a research study have thorough understanding of the study’s potential risks and benefits is a cornerstone of the ethical conduct of research involving human beings.
Informed consent
When the purpose of a study, its procedures, and its potential value are explained to a participant after his or her participation is complete is particularly important in studies which have involved some measure of deception.
Debriefing
The multidisciplinary study of the nervous system.
Neuroscience
The cell type that transmits information throughout the nervous system.
Neuron
A neuron primarily responsible for communication to the muscles and organs.
Motor Neuron
A neuron that transmits sensory information to the brain.
Sensory Neuron
Communicates only with adjacent neuron.
Interneuron
The branch-like projections of neurons that receive electrochemical stimulation from other neurons.
Dendrites
Openings that are embedded in the dendrites of neurons to which neurotransmitters bind during the process of neuronal communication.
Synaptic Receptors
The bulb-like end of the neuron containing the cell nucleus. Energy for the neuron is generated here, and waste is eliminated.
Cell body(soma)
A narrow extension in many neurons that transmits electrical neural impulses from cell body to terminal.
Axon
A bundle of axons (usually enclosed in a myelin sheath) that forms a communication channel within the central nervous system (brain or spine).
Tract
An enclose bundle of axons forming a communication channel within the peripheral nervous system (outside of the brain or spine).
Nerve
Fatty substance surrounding the axon of some neurons. Myelin increases the speed of neuronal transmission.
Myelin sheath
The gap between myelin sheaths of axon segments.
Node of Ranvier
The small bulb-like structure at the end of neuron axons that contains the vesicles from which neurotransmitters are released.
Terminal
The juncture of the presynaptic and postsynaptic neuron.
Synapse
The miniscule space over which neurons pass their neurotransmitters, from the terminal of presynaptic neuron to the dendrites of the postsynaptic neuron.
Synaptic Gap
Cell type that builds the myelin sheath that surrounds the axon of some neurons, and helps to develop and maintain neuron synapses.
Glia
The electrical impulse that conveys information from one neuron to another, or from the neuron to bodily muscles and glands.
Action Potential
The “default” resting setting of a neuron—the setting that would be maintained if no action potentials were fired.
Resting Potential
An atomic particle that carries primarily a positive or negative electrical charge.
Ion
The resting potential balance between primarily negatively charged ions within a neuron and positively charged ions without.
Polarization
A disruption of the resting potential balance between negatively and positively charged ions within and outside of the neuron begins the process of the firing of an action potential.
Depolarization
Chemical substances that carry neural signals from one neuron to another across a neuronal synapse.
Neurotransmitter
The “sending” neuron in neuronal communication.
Presynaptic Neuron
The “receiving” neuron in neuronal communication.
Postsynaptic Neuron
When the presynaptic neuron reabsorbs some of the neurotransmitter molecules it has released, following binding of the neurotransmitter to receptor sites in the postsynaptic neuron.
Reuptake
Any substance that mimics the action of a neurotransmitter and binds to the neurotransmitter receptor.
Agonist
Any substance that blocks the receptors of a particular neurotransmitter, decreasing the availability and effects of the neurotransmitter.
Antagonist
Regulation of muscular activity, learning, and memory.
Acetylcholine
Regulates how we respond to rewarding activities (the “reward system: and experiences of pleasure); affects attention, learning, and memory processes; and helps regulate bodily movement.
Dopamine
Opiate-like neurotransmitters that provide analgesic (pain relief) and a sense of well-being.
Endorphins
Tends to inhibit the firing of neurons and keeps overexcitation of neurons in check; ____-agonist drugs induce relaxations, intoxicating effects, relief from anxiety.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
Tends to increase the speed and rate of neural transmission throughout the nervous systems; increase efficiency of learning and memory.
Glutamate
Affects attention and impulsivity, learning and memory; helps regulate involuntary responses to stress.
Norepinephrine
Affects mood (possibly including depression), sleep, nausea/vomiting, appetite, sexual behavior; may affect aggression.
Serotonin
Helps regulate the experience of pain.
Substance P
Reduces blood pressure and other indicators of stress; may be involved in promoting maternal behavior, bonding between mother and infant, and feeling of love.
Oxytocin
A neurotransmitter that binds to the same receptor sites as opioid drugs and is associated with relief from pain.
Endorphin
The brain and spinal cord. Organizes and interprets the information received from peripheral nervous system (PNS) and sends commands back to the PNS to take actions or make adjustments to bodily functions.
Central Nervous System (CNS)
Thin, tubular bundle of nerve tracts contained in the vertebrae of the spinal column.
Spinal Cord
Cell bodies, unmyelinated axons, dendrites, and glia.
Gray Matter
Axons with myelin sheaths.
White Matter
Automatic motor actions in response to stimulation. Spinal reflexes bypass the brain entirely.
Spinal Reflexes
Circuits of neurons that generate routine, rhythmic movements and are controlled entirely by the spine with no input from the brain.
Central Pattern Generators
Cranial and spinal nerves that allow communication to take place between the brain and body. Consists of two divisions: somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system.
Peripheral Nervous System
The nerves that regulate voluntary actions and convey sensory information to the brain.
Somatic Nervous System
A part of the peripheral nervous system consists of sympathetic and parasympathetic subsystems that regulate involuntary activities of muscles, glands, and organs.
Autonomic Nervous System
Division of autonomic nervous systems that mobilizes the body for arousal, particularly in the response to a threat of some sort, but also in response to certain other conditions.
Sympathetic Nervous System
Division of the autonomic nervous system that returns the body to resting state following arousal and maintains that resting state.
Parasympathetic Nervous System
Brain imaging technique that uses radio waves and protons within a magnetic field to produce detailed images of the brain or other neural tissue.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
A lower geographic area of the brain containing the cerebellum, medulla, pons, and reticular formation.
Hindbrain
A small, lower geographic area of the brain containing the inferior and superior colliculi, among other structures.
Midbrain
The second largest structure in the central nervous system, located in the hindbrain. coordinates sensory inputs and affects balance by assisting visual-spatial perception. It is also involved at least to some degree in attention, learning, and memory, and appropriate expression of emotion.
Cerebellum (“little brain”)
The large, upper geographic area of the brain controlling the “higher” brain functions. Consists of two cerebral hemispheres, each of which contains a limbic systems, cerebral cortex, and thalamus.
Forebrain
The forebrain is divided nearly symmetrically into left and right hemispheres connected by the bundle of axons known as the corpus collosum. The structures of each hemisphere correspond almost exactly to those in the opposite hemisphere, although there are also subtle, but important, differences left and right.
Cerebral Hemispheres
Bundle of axons (white matter) that connects the right and left cerebral hemispheres.
Corpus Callosum
A group of large structures and smaller nuclei that regulate mood, emotion, memory, and basic drives. Includes at least the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia, and nucleus accumbens.
Limbic System
A lower forebrain structure that conveys sensory information to the cerebral cortex and receives instructions from the cortex regarding the regulation of sensory and emotional signals.
Thalamus
The outer layers of hemispheres of the forebrain. Interprets raw sensory information, initiates voluntary movement, and is home to higher cognitive processes.
Cerebral Cortex
Four large divisions of the cerebral cortex into which specific brain structures are grouped named after for the skull bones beneath which they lie: occipital, parietal, temporal, and frontal.
Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex
Cerebral cortex lobe containing the primary visual cortex (VI) and visual association areas.
Occipital Lobe
Lobe of cerebral cortex containing the somatosensory cortex and somatosensory association areas.
Parietal Lobe
Lobe of cerebral cortex containing the auditory cortex, auditory association areas, and Wernicke’s area.
Temporal Lobe
The unique specializations of the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex.
Hemispheric Specialization
A surgical procedure used to treat epilepsy, where the corpus callosum is severed of partially severed.
Split-Brain Surgery (callosotomy)
The brain’s ability to change in response to learning, practice, and sensory input; and the ability of specialized regions of the brain to adapt if necessary to perform tasks for which they are not ordinarily used.
Plasticity
A brain imaging technology by which recordings are made of magnetic are made of magnetic fields generated by neural activity.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
The system of glands and the hormones they produce.
Endocrine System
A bodily organ that synthesizes and/or releases hormones.
Gland
A chemical synthesized and/or released by a gland.
Hormone
Gland situated in the brain that releases the hormone melatonin, important in regulating the sleep/wake cycle.
Pineal Gland
Gland situated in the brain that secretes a variety of hormones and triggers other glands to secrete their hormones. Help regulate blood pressure, body growth, aspects of pregnancy, childbirth and lactation, and the functioning of sex and reproductive organs.
Pituitary Gland
Branch of neuroscience that studies the neural basis of behavior. Behavioral neuroscientists study the entire nervous system, not just the brain, and they may use nonhuman as well as human animals for study.
Behavioral Neuroscience
Pseudoscientific theory that proposed that personality characteristics could be determined by skilled examinations of bumps on the top of the skull.
Phrenology
Literally, “pieces of information.” Singular: datum.
Data
An early neuroscientific theory proposing that all parts of the cortex contributed equally to all aspects of mind.
Equipotentiality
Branch of neuroscience that focuses on the human brain to reveal the neural basis of cognition and emotion.
Cognitive Neuroscience
The use of MRI whereby continuous images of the brain are generated while a research participant engages in specific tasks.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
These researchers demonstrated that the reticular formation of the brain stem was essential to consciousness.
Moruzzi and Magoun (1949)
Through their study of “Patient H. M.” Scoville and Milner showed that damage to the hippocampus could impair or destroy the ability to form new memories—helping to establish that memory has a neural basis.
Scoville and Milner (1957)
By electrically stimulating various cortical regions of the brains of research participants—and nothing their reactions—these researchers helped “map” locations of the brain that correspond to specific body parts.
Penfield and Perot (1963)
In 1972, Godfrey Hounsfield developed computerized tomography (CT or “CAT scan”), the forerunner of contemporary brain imaging technologies such as MRI and PET.
Hounsfield (1972)
In 1996, Robert Sapolsky finally demonstrated scientifically what many had suspected was true about the damaging effects of chronic stress on the brain.
Sapolsky
A long-standing debate over whether innate biology or environmental experience is the most critical factor in the development of human behavioral characteristics.
Nature-Nurture Debate
A fundamental way that organisms change. Learning is difficult to define precisely, but it involves relatively enduring change in knowledge and/or behavior resulting from specific experiences.
Learning
Factual knowledge that can be articulated and transmitted to others. Explicit knowledge is “knowing that,” as compared with procedural knowledge, which is “knowing how.”
Explicit Knowledge
Knowledge that is applied to the performance of a task.Procedural knowledge reflects skills and abilities—”knowing how” as compared with “knowing that” (explicit knowledge)
Procedural Knowledge
A simple type of nonassociative learning that occurs when a stimulus comes to elicit decreasing response from an organism as a result of the organism’s repeated exposure to the stimulus over time. “I got used to it” expresses the idea of habituation.
Habituation
A simple type of nonassociative learning that occurs when a stimulus comes to elicit increased response from an organism as a result of the organism’s repeated exposure to the stimulus over time.
Sensitization
Changes in an organism’s knowledge or behavior that result from the association of two or more events or stimuli, or of a stimulus and a response. The most common forms of associative learning are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and vicarious conditioning (observational learning).
Associative Learning
A type of associative learning discovered by Ivan Pavlov. Classical conditioning occurs when an innate (or otherwise reflexive( response known as the unconditioned response (UCR) is triggered by a neutral stimulus as a result of repeated pairings of the neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). The UCS is a stimulus that would naturally trigger the reflexive response without a conditioning procedure.
Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian Conditioning)
A stimulus that has no natural relationship to an innate response it nonetheless eventually comes to elicit through classical conditioning. For example, a tone has no natural relationship to the human eye-blink response, but a person can be conditioned to blink when hearing a tone if the tone has been repeatedly paired with puffs of air blown at the eye.
Neutral Stimulus
In classical conditioning, the UCS is the stimulus that naturally triggers the innate (or otherwise reflexive) response, known as the unconditioned response (UCR).
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
In classical conditioning, the UCR is the innate or otherwise reflexive response triggered without conditioning by an unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
In classical conditioning, the CS is the originally neutral stimulus that comes to elicit the innate, unconditioned response (UCR) after conditioning.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
In classical conditioning, the term conditioned response (CR) is used to describe the innate unconditioned response (UCR) after it been has come to be elicited by the a neutral stimulus.
Conditioned Response (CR)
In classical conditioning, acquisition is the process of acquiring a conditioned response.
Acquisition
A form of classical conditioning in which an organism is first conditioned to a neutral stimulus; and then that stimulus is used to condition the organism to a new neutral stimulus. For example, a dog conditioned to salivate upon hearing a tone by pairing the tine with food, may then be conditioned to associate the tone with a new neutral stimulus—a bell. The dog will then salivate upon hearing the bell, even if the bell was new actually paired with the unconditioned stimulus of food.
Second-order Conditioning
When a learned behavior ceases to be performed. In classical conditioning, extinction will occur when the conditioned stimulus occurs repeatedly without being paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
Extinction
When an extinguished behavior reemerges (but in a somewhat weaker form) after the organism has rested from exposure to the classically conditioned stimulus. Spontaneous recovery differs from renewal, where an extinguished behavior reemerges specifically because the organism is placed in a context different from the one in which extinction occurred.
Spontaneous Recovery
In classical conditioning, renewal is a resurgence of an extinguished behavior if the animal is placed in a different context from the one in which extinction originally occurred and the original conditioned stimulus (CS) is once again presented.
Renewal
In classical conditioning, when an animal displays a conditioned response (CR) to a neutral stimulus that is similar, but not identical, to the conditioned stimulus (CS).
Generalization
In classical conditioning, when one neutral stimulus produces a conditioned response, but another, similar neutral stimulus does not.
Discrimination
Those taking the functionalist perspective on learning believe that learning mechanisms such as classical conditioning evolved because they fulfilled functions—in this case, preparing the organism for what is to come. Theorists taking this perspective believe that learning mechanisms evolved because they increased the survival and reproductive success of organisms that possessed them.
Functionalist Perspective
Edward Thorndike’s discovery that behaviors which lead to a satisfying state of affairs are “stamped in,” which behaviors that lead to an unsatisfying or annoying state of affairs are “stamped out.” The law of effect formed the basis for B. F. Skinner’s discoveries or operant conditioning principles.
Law of Effect
A form of conditioning in which the consequences of a behavior affect the probability that the behavior will be repeated in the future.
Operant Conditioning (Operant Learning, instrumental learning)
B. F. Skinner’s version of behaviorism, also referred to as experimental analysis of behavior. Radical behaviorists propose that all behavior is lawful—and any given behavior can be analyzed empirically by examining the reinforcements and punishments which follow the behavior. The term “radical” has been applied to this school of psychology because radical behaviorists believe that psychology can only be a science of behavior and never a science of “mind.”
Radical Behaviorism
The apparatus B. F. Skinner designed to study operant learning in rats. THe operant chamber includes a container of food pellets in a container mounted to the outside of the cage, designed so that the pellets will be delivered to the rat when the rat presses down a lever near its food tray. The cage is placed within a soundproof, temperature controlled, ventilated chamber.
Operant Chamber (“Skinner Box”)
When the consequence of a behavior increases the likelihood that the behavior will continue of be repeated in the future.
Reinforcement
When the consequence of a behavior decreases the likelihood that it will continue or be repeated in the future.
Punishment
When a behavior is reinforced through the addition or presentation of something that increases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated. Generally it is something pleasant or rewarding that is added or presented.
Positive Reinforcement
When a behavior is reinforced through the removal of something that decreases the likelihood of the behavior. Generally it is something aversive or unpleasant that is removed in negative reinforcement.
Negative Reinforcement
When the consequence of a behavior is the addition or presentation of something that decreases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated. Generally it is something unpleasant or aversive that is added or presented.
Positive Punishment
Successive reinforcement of those operant behaviors that come increasingly closer to the behavior one ultimately wishes to reinforce.
Shaping by Successive Approximation (Shaping for Short)
When the consequence of a behavior is the removal of something reinforcing, generally something rewarding.
Negative Punishment
Any behavior of an organism that produces a consequence that is either reinforcing or punishing. In radical behaviorist experimental research, the operant behavior is the behavior the experimenter is attempting to shape or condition.
Operant Behavior
Any consequence of behavior that is intrinsically reinforcing to virtually any member of the species being conditioned. Primary reinforcers are intrinsically reinforcing because they are essential for the survival or reproduction of the of the organism (examples: food, water, sex, air, shelter, etc.).
Primary Reinforcer
A reinforcer that has become associated through conditioning with one or more primary reinforcers (Examples: money and status).
Secondary Reinforcer
When a behavior is reinforced periodically rather than continuously. Partial reinforcement can be determined by the passage of time (an interval schedule) or the number of times an organism performs a behavior (a ratio schedule).
Partial Reinforcement
When a behavior is reinforced every time it occurs.
Continuous Reinforcement
The name given to research findings which show that conditioned behaviors are more enduring and difficult to extinguish when they are reinforced periodically rather than continuously.
Partial Reinforcement Effect
A partial reinforcement schedule that provides reinforcement for the first operant behavior after a specific interval of time has passed.
Fixed-Interval (FI) schedule
A partial reinforcement schedule that provides reinforcement at unpredictable time intervals.
Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule
A partial reinforcement schedule that provides reinforcement after a specific number of operant behavioral responses.
Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule
A partial reinforcement schedule that provides reinforcement after an unpredictable number of behavioral responses.
Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule
A mental representation of the structure, location, or attributes of some phenomenon.
Cognitive Map
Learning that occurs without obvious reinforcement, and that is not apparent in behavior.
Latent Learning
The psychological school founded by Edward Tolman.Cognitive behaviorists agree with radical behaviorists that behavior is lawful and can be analyzed using concepts of reinforcement and punishment, but they disagree that this analysis must necessarily exclude cognition. Cognitive behaviorists pioneered the concepts of cognitive maps and latent learning.
Cognitive Behaviorism
When an instinctive pattern of behavior interferes with the operant conditioning of a behavior.
Instinctive Drift
Learning through the observation of others. Mechanisms of observational learning include modeling and vicarious reinforcement.
Observational Learning
Learning through imitation of the behaviors of individuals whom one admires.
Modeling
Learning through observing the rewarding or punishing consequences of other people’s behavior.
Vicarious conditioning
A neuron that fires both when an animal performs an action and when the animal observes another performing the same action. Mirror neurons are associated with imitation of others’ behavior, and comprehension of others’ thoughts, intentions, and emotions.
Mirror Neurons
