Learning "Quest" Review Flashcards
Behaviorism
The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to the mental processes. Most researchers today agree with the first part of this but not the second.
Classical conditioning
The experience that causes a relativley permanent change in behavior by associating two previously unrelated things that occur in the same environment.
We learn to associate two stimuli and thus anticipate events. The first stimulus evokes a behavior in anticipation of the second stimulus.
Ex. The dogs learned to associate the bell with food, so the bell caused the dogs to drool in anticipation of the food.
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
A stimulus that naturally triggers an unconditioned (unlearned) response.
Ex. food naturally causes the dogs to drool.
Unconditioned response (UCR)
An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus.
Ex. salivation occurs when food is presented to dogs.
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
An originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.
Ex. The ringing of the bell when paired with food triggered the dog’s salivation.
Conditioned response
A learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.
Ex. The dog salivated when the bell rang
Pavlov’s Experiment
Pavlov fed his dogs, and he noticed that they salivated at the sight and taste of food. He then started ringing a bell whenever he fed the dogs, and he noticed that they started salivating at the sound of the bell. Even when there was no food, the dogs would still salivate at the sound of the bell.
Baby Albert experiment
Baby albert was shown a bunch of animals and he thought they were really cute and fun. Then, when the white rat was put out in front of Baby Albert, a loud noise was played in his ears. After this, when Albert was shown the white rat or anything that resembled it even remotely, Baby Albert would cry. This proved that generalization existed because the the animals similar to the white rate triggered the response.
Acquisition
The first stage of classical conditioning when a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are linked, and the neutral stimulus begins triggering a conditioned response.
Ex. neutral stimulus = bell, unconditioned stimulus = food, conditioned response = salivating at sound of bell.
Extinction
The diminishing of a conditioned response when a conditioned stimulus is not followed by an unconditioned stimulus.
Ex. the dog will stop drooling eventually if the person ringing the bell stops giving the dog food when the bell rings.
Spontaneous recovery
The reappearance of a conditioned response that had been weakened after a pause from the conditioned stimulus.
Ex. After Pavlov’s dogs stopped drooling when he rang the bell but did not give any food, he rang it again a few hours later and they started drooling again.
Stimulus generalization
The tendancy, once a response has been conditioned, for other stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to trigger similar responses.
Ex. the ringing of a phone alarm and the ringing of the bell might both cause the dogs to salivate.
Stimulus discrimination
The learned ability, after a response has been conditioned, to differentiate between the conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not trigger the response.
Ex. The ringing of a phone alarm may not cause the dogs to salivate, while the ringing of the bell does cause the dogs to salivate.
Operant conditioning
The experience that causes a permanent change in behavior that is being subject to “rewards (+/- reinforcement) or punishments”.
BF Skinner
The father of operant conditioning that said if you want to make a person do something, you must reinforce or punish them through operant conditioning.
