Learning Flashcards
Learning
The relatively permanent or stable change in behavior as the result of experience.
Theory of Association
Kurt Lewin; grouping things together based on the fact that they occur together in time and space. Organisms associate certain behaviors/cues with certain rewards/situations.
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov; teaching an organism to respond to a neutral stimulus by pairing it with another stimulus. EX dogs.
Watson
founded school of behaviorism; believed everything could be explained by stimulus-response chains by means of conditioning. Only value on objective/observable elements.
Skinner
Proved Thorndike’s Law of Effect/Watson’s theories; developed concepts of operant conditioning to show that behavior is shaped by reinforcement.
Law of Effect
Thorndike; proposes cause/effect chain of behavior around reinforcement.
Neutral Stimulus (NS)
A stimulus that does not produce a specific response on its own (ex. Pavlov–>bells)
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
non-neutral stimulus. (ex. Pavlov–>food)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
The neutral stimulus once it is paired with the UCS to elicit a response.
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
Naturally occurring response to the UCS. (ex. Pavlov–>salivation in response to food)
Conditioned Response (CR)
Response that the CS elicits after conditioning. (Same as UCR, but in response to different stimulus).
Simultaneous Conditioning
UCS and CS presented at same time.
Higher Order/Second Order Conditioning
Conditioning technique in which a previous CS acts as a UCS. (Ex. pairing Pavlov’s bells with another stimulus)
Forward Conditioning
CS is presented before the UCS
Delayed Conditioning
Type of forward conditioning; presentation of CS begins before that of UCS and lasts until the UCS is presented.
Trace Conditioning
Type of forward conditioning; CS is presented and terminated before the UCS is presented.
Backward Conditioning
CS is presented after UCS is presented. Ineffective.
Instrumental Conditioning
Operant conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Influencing a response through reinforcement strategies–ex Skinner Box
Shaping
Gradually training an organism to produce a desired response by reinforcing any responses similar to the desired response
Differential reinforcement of successive approximations
Shaping
Primary Reinforcement
A natural reinforcement; something that is reinforcing on its own without requiring learning (eg food/water)
Secondary Reinforcement
A learned reinforcer; eg money, prestige, awards. Usually learned from society
Positive Reinforcement
Positive event that increases the likelihood of a particular response. Ex-giving a dog a treat for completing a behavior
Negative Reinforcement
Reinforcement through the removal of a negative event (still increases desired behavior). Ex. stopping a continuous shock when a monkey rides a tricycle.
Punishment
Promotes extinction of an undesirable behavior by adding a negative stimulus when the unwanted behavior is performed.
Continuous Reinforcement Schedule
Every correct response is met with reinforcement. Leads to quickest learning, but learned behavior is quickly discontinued when reinforcement fails to occur.
Fixed Ratio Schedule
Reinforcement is delivered after a consistent number of responses. Vulnerable to extinction when rewards stop coming as scheduled.
Variable ratio schedule
Reinforcement is delivered after a random number of responses. Learning is slow but with lowest rate of extinction.
Fixed interval schedule
Reinforcement is delivered after a certain period of time passes, regardless of number of correct responses. Not necessarily a good motivator.
Variable interval schedule
Reinforcement is delivered after random time periods. Second most effective strategy. Ex. waiting for bus.
Token Economy
artificial mini-economy with motiviation occuring by means of secondary reinforcers. Ex. ticket exchange at Western Psych
Primary/Instinctual drives
Hunger, thirst, etc
Secondary/acquired drives
ex. money
Exploratory drive
Theorized. Motivation to try something new/explore environment.
Congruity Theory
if there are two contradicting people, sets of information, or concepts on which a judgment must be made by a single observer, the observer will experience pressure to change his or her judgment on one of the sides. However, if the two sets of information are similar or congruent, then there will be no problem, and the observer will not experience pressure of any form.
Performance = Drive x Habit
Clark Hull; individuals are first motivated by drive, and then act according to old successful habits.
Expectancy Value Theory
Edward Tolman; people are motivated by goals that they think they might meet.
Need for achievement (nAch)
Studied by Murray and McClelland. May manifest in need to pursue success or avoid failure.
Approach-avoidance conflict
Neil Miller; state one feels when a certain goal has both pros and cons. The closer one is to the goal, the more one focuses on the cons, and the further, on the pros.
Hedonism
theory that individuals are motivated solely by what brings the most pleasure and the least pain.
Premack principle
idea that people are motivated to do what they do not want to do by rewarding themselves afterwards with something they like to do.
Yerkes-Dodson Effect
Medium level of arousal usually optimal for performance; for simple tasks high arousal is ideal, and low arousal is ideal for complex tasks (too much may cause the individual to become too anxious)
Stimulus
any event that an organism reacts to.
Stimulus discrimination
the ability to discriminate between different but similar stimuli
Stimulus generalization
to make the same response to a group of similar stimuli
Undergeneralization
the failure to generalize a stimulus
Response learning
form of learning in which one links together chains of stimuli and responses/learning what to do in response to particular triggers, ex. leaving a building in response to a fire alarm.
Perceptual/concept learning
learning about something in general. Ex. learning about history rather than a response
Aversive conditioning
uses punishment to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.
Avoidance conditioning
teaches an organism how to avoid something it does not want
Escape conditioning
teaches an organism to perform a desired behavior to get away from a negative stimulus.
Autonomic conditioning
Evoking responses of the autonomic nervous system through training
State dependent learning
What a person learns in one state is best recalled in that state.
Extinction
Reverse of conditioning; encouraging an organism to stop doing a particular behavior, generally by withholding reinforcement or by disassociating the behavior from a particular clue.
Spontaneous recovery
Reappearance of an extinguished response, even in the absence of further conditioning
Latent learning
Learning that takes place without reinforcement. Ex. watching someone pay chess and later being able to play.
Incidental learning
Unrelated items are grouped together–ex pets that learn to dislike riding in cars because they associate doing so with going to the vet
Superstitious Behavior
Someone “learns” that a specific action caused an event, but the two are unrelated. Ex. “lucky shirts”
Chaining
act of linking together a series of behaviors that ultimately result in reinforcement (one behavior triggers the next). ex. learning the alphabet
Habituation
The decreasing responsiveness to a stimulus as a result of increasing familiarity with the stimulus.
Sensitization
increased sensitivity to the environment following the presentation of a strong stimulus
Overshadowing
classical conditioning concept referring to an animal’s inability to infer a relationship between a particular stimulus and response due to the presence of a more prominent stimulus.
Autoshaping
experiments in which an apparatus allows an animal to control its reinforcements through behaviors such as bar pressing or key pecking
Social learning theory
individuals learn through their culture what is acceptable/unacceptable behaviors
Observational learning
learning by watching
Modeling
Learning and behaving by imitating others (Bobo doll, Bandura)
Preparedness
The concept that certain associations are learned more easily than others
Garcia effect
Strong connection formed by animals between food/drink and nausea. Ex. when humans become sick from eating a particular food and are never able to eat it again.
Continuous vs Discrete Motor Tasks
Continuous task continues naturally once started (riding a bike); discrete task is divided into different parts that do not facilitate the recall of each other (ex. setting up a chess board)
Positive transfer
previous learning that makes it easier to learn another task later
Negative transfer
previous learning that makes it more difficult to learn another task
Age and learning
Humans are primed to learn between 3 and 20. Between 20 and 50, ability to learn is consistent. After 50, ability to learn drops.
Learning curve
When learning something new, the rate of learning usually changes over time. Ex. when learning a language someone may quickly learn vocab and basic sentence structure, but rate of learning decreases when they encounter complex constructions
Thorndike
wrote the first educational psychology textbook in 1903
Aptitude
set of characteristics that are indicative of a person’s ability to learn
Cooperative learning
involves students working together on a project in small groups
Scaffolding learning
occurs when a teacher encourages a student to learn independently and only provides assistance with topics beyond the student’s capability.
