Learning Flashcards
Learning
The way in which we acquire new behaviors
Stimulus
Anything that an organism can respond to
Habituation
The decrease in response to a repeated stimulus
Dishabituation
The recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred
Associative Learning
The creation of pairing between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response. Can be divided into classical condition and operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Credited to Pavlov; creating associations between two unrelated stimuli; taking advantage of a reflexive, unconditional stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus
Neutral stimuli
Stimuli that do not produce a reflexive response
Acquisition
The process of conditioning a neutral stimulus into inducing a reflexive response
Extinction
Habituation to the conditioned stimulus
Spontaneous Recovery
After extinction, the condition response will sometimes occur weakly to the conditioned stimulus
Generalization
A stimulus similar enough to the conditioned stimulus will produce the conditioned response
Discrimination
The distinguishing between two similar stimuli, so that one does not cause the conditioned response
Operant Conditioning
Linking voluntary behaviors with consequences to alter the frequency of these behaviors; credited to B.F. Skinner, father of behaviorism
Reinforcement
Increasing the likelihood of a behavior
Positive reinforcement
Adding a positive consequence to increase the likelihood of a behavior
Negative reinforcement
Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior
Escape learning
Learning to reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists
Avoidance learning
Learning to prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen
Primary reinforcer
A reinforcer that an organism responds to naturally
Secondary reinforcer
A reinforcer that has been conditioned as a stimulus to allow the organism to respond
Discriminative Stimulus
A stimulus that indicates that reward is potentially available
Punishment
Decreasing the likelihood of a behavior
Positive punishment
Adding an unpleasant consequence to decrease the likelihood of a behavior
Negative punishment
Removing a pleasant stimulus or something otherwise positive to decrease the likelihood of a behavior
Fixed-Ratio schedule
Reinforcing a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior
Variable-Ratio schedule
Reinforcing a behavior after a varying number of performances of that behavior; fastest for learning and most resistant to extinction
Fixed-Interval schedule
Reinforcing a behavior the first time it is performed after a specified time period has elapsed; least effective
Variable-Interval schedule
Reinforcing a behavior the first time it is performed after a varying time period has elapsed
Shaping
The process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors in order to achieve a complex behavior
Latent Learning
Learning that occurs without a reward but is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced
Problem Solving
Analyzing the problem or situation in front of you and take decisive action to solve the problem
Preparedness
The predisposition to learn behaviors that coincide with their natural behaviors
Instinctive Drift
The difficulty in overcoming instinctual behaviors; even if overcome, animals will slowly return to their instinctual behaviors
Observational Learning
The process of learning a new behavior by watching others; uses mirror neurons
Mirror neurons
Neurons that fire when performing an action, when observing someone else perform a reaction, when we experience an emotion, and when we observe someone else experiencing an emotion; are part of learning by imitation
Modeling
Learning through observing and imitating others
Insight Learning
Solving a problem using the skills of the past; the “aha” moment
