Learning Flashcards
What is learning?
The process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviours
What is associative learning?
Learning that certain events occur together
What is a stimulus?
Any event/situation that evokes a response
What is the difference between respondent and operant behaviour?
- Respondent Behaviour that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus
- Operant Behaviour that operates on the environment, producing consequences
What is behaviourism?
View that psychology should be an objective science that studies behaviour without reference to mental processes
What is a neutral stimulus?
Stimulus that elicits not response before conditioning
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
Stimulus that unconditionally, naturally and automatically, triggers an unconditioned response
What is an unconditioned response?
An unlearned, naturally response
What is a conditioned stimulus?
Originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an UCS, comes to trigger a conditioned response
What is a conditioned response?
A learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus
What are the 3 stages Pavlov proposed?
1) Acquisition
2) Extinction
3) Generalisation
What is the acquisition stage?
The initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus an unconditioned stimulus to that neutral stimulus begins triggering a response
What is the extinction stage?
Diminishing of a conditioned response, when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus
What is spontaneous recovery?
The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
What is the generalisation stage?
The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses
What are behaviour change programs that focus on classical conditioning?
- Stimulus Control: involves reduction or removal of cues that prompt undesirable behaviours, introduction or amplification of cues that prompt desirable behaviours
- Exposure Therapy: Expose people to things they fear and avoid
What is classical conditioning?
A type of learning which we link 2 or more stimuli
What is operant conditioning?
A type of learning in which a behaviour becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to recur if followed by a punisher
What is reinforcement?
Any event that strengthens the behaviour it follows
What is positive reinforcement?
- Increasing behaviours by presenting positive reinforcers
- Any stimulus, when presented, after a response, strengthens the response
What is negative reinforcement?
- Increasing behaviours by stopping or reducing negative stimuli
- Any stimulus, when removed after a response, strengthens the response
What is shaping?
Reinforcers guide behaviour toward closer and closer approximations of desired behaviour
What is the difference between a primary and conditioned reinforcer?
- Primary: An innately reinforcing stimulus, one that satisfies a biological need
- Conditioned: Stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer
What is a reinforcement schedule?
Pattern that defines how often a response (desired) will be reinforced
What is the difference between continuous and intermittent reinforcement schedules?
- Continuous: reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
- Intermittent: reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisitions of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement
What are the 4 reinforcement schedules?
- Fixed ratio schedule
- Variable ratio schedule
- Fixed interval schedule
- Variable interval schedule
What is punishment?
An event that tends to decrease the behaviour that it follows
What is positive punishment?
Administer an aversive stimulus
What is negative punishment?
Withdraw a rewarding stimulus
What are behaviour change programs that focus on operant conditioning?
- Positive reinforcement/ punishment: reward to increase likelihood that a desirable behaviour will recur
- Displacement/ Substitution: reinforcing an alternative desired behaviour
What is preparedness?
A biological predisposition to learn association
What is latent learning?
Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
What is observational learning?
Our behavioural responses are influenced by the observation of others
What is modelling?
Refers to process of observing and imitating a specific behaviour
What are the 4 stages of observational learning?
1) Attention
2) Retention
3) Reproduction
4) Motivation
