Learning (Modules 23-25) Flashcards
Learning
A relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience
What does it mean that we learn by association?
Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence.
Ex. When we smell cookies, eat the cookies and feel satisfaction, we expect satisfaction when we smell the cookies next time.
Habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation
Ex. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
Associative Learning
Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (operant conditioning)
What is the difference between classical and operant conditioning?
Classical conditioning is the association of two stimuli (beep on pager and arrival of food) while operant conditioning is the association of behaviors and their consequences (doing homework and receiving a good grade).
Cognitive Learning
Awareness of the associations being learned, strengthens likes and dislikes
Person associated with classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov
Classical Conditioning
A type of learning in which one learned to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
Behaviorism
View the psychology should 1) be an objective science that 2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Today, scientists typically agree with 1, but not 2.
Psychology associated with behaviorism
John B. Watson
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally – naturally and automatically – triggers a response
UCS in Pavlov’s dogs
Food stimulus
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
In classical conditioning, the unlearned, natural response to an unconditioned stimulus
UCR in Pavlov’s dogs
Salivation in response to food
Neutral Stimulus (NS)
In classical conditioning, a stimulus not yet associated with another stimuli (becomes a conditioned stimulus upon association)
NS in Pavlov’s dogs
Tone
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with the unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response
CS in Pavlov’s dogs
Tone
Conditioned Response (CR)
In classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral, but not conditioned, stimulus
CR in Pavlov’s dogs
Salivation in response to tone
Acquisition
In classical conditioning, the initial stage when one links the neutral stimulus to the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.
What is the biological reason that humans and animals can be conditioned?
Conditioning helps humans and animals prepare for good and bad events. It helps animals survive and reproduce by responding to cues that help it gain food, avoid dangers, find mates, and produce offspring.
Higher-order conditioning
AKA second-order conditioning. A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.
Ex. An animal learns that a tone means food. That animal might learn that a light predicts tone and eventually salivates at the sight of the light alone.