Learning Flashcards
Learning
A permanent change in behaviour due to experience.
Classical conditioning
A procedure during which an animal or person learns to associate a reflex response with a new stimulus.
Classical conditioning schedule
The steps in the procedure to condition a new response.
Unconditioned stimulus USC.
The stimulus that produces a reflex response, such as the food for Pavlov’s dog.
Unconditioned response UCR
The reflex response to an unconditioned stimulus presented, such as Pavlov’s dog’s salivation.
Conditioned stimulus CS
A new stimulus presented with the UCS, such as the bell in Pavlov’s experiment.
Conditioned response CR
The response that is learnt now occurs when the CS is presented with the UCS, such as the bell in Pavlov’s dog’s salivation.
Extinction
A conditioned response dies out.
Spontaneous recovery.
A conditioned response that had disappeared suddenly appears again.
Generalisation
The conditioned response is produced when a similar stimulus to the original conditioned stimulus is presented.
Discrimination
(With reference to conditioning) the conditioned response is only produced when a specific stimulus is presented.
Operant conditioning
Learning due to the consequences of behaviour, through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement.
Law of Effect
Behaviours that are followed by rewards are usually repeated; those that are punished are not usually repeated.
Punishment
A stimulus that weakens behaviour because it is unpleasant and we try to avoid it.
Reinforcement
A consequence of behaviour that encourages or strengthens a behaviour. This might be seen as a reward.
Positive reinforcement
A reward or pleasant consequence that increases the likelihood that behaviour or action will be repeated.
Negative reinforcement
When an unpleasant experience is removed after a behaviour or action has been made. This increases the likelihood of that behaviour or action being repeated.
Behaviour shaping.
Changing behaviour in small steps.
Phobia
A persistent and irrational fear of an object, activity or situation. The typical symptoms are intense feelings of fear and anxiety to avoid the object, activity or situation.
Flooding
A treatment for phobias that involves the immediate exposure of the person to the feared object, activity or event, until there is not fear response.
Systematic desensitisation
A treatment for phobias in which the person is taught to relax and then gradually exposed to the feared object, activity or event.
Hierarchy of fears
A series of feared events ranked from least frightening to most frightening.
Aversion therapy
A treatment for addictions, such as drug and alcohol dependency, which makes the addict have an extremely negative reaction to the addictive substance.
Primary reinforcer
A reward, such as food or water, that the animal or person needs in order to survive.
Secondary reinforcer
A reward, such as money or token, that the animal or person can exchange for a primary reinforcer.
Watson and Rayner 1920
Aim- to see if the emotional response to fear could be conditioned in a human being.
Method- Albert was 11 months old. He seemed to like a white laboratory rat and had no fear of any white fury objects. In the conditioning trials the rat was shown to Albert and, as he reached for it, a metal bar was hit very hard with a hammer, behind Albert’s back. This was done several times.
Results- after seven times, when the rat was presented again, Albert screamed and tried to get away. He did this even though the bar was not hit by the hammer and there was no loud noise. Albert also screamed when he was shown a Santa mask and a fur coat.
Conclusion- Watson and Rayner showed that fear responses could be learnt and even very young children can learn in the way suggested by classical conditioning.
