Me 3.7a Classical Conditioning: Basic Concepts Flashcards
adaptability
Our capacity to learn new behaviours to cope with the changing world.
classical conditioning
an unconscious process where an automatic, conditioned response becomes associated with a specific stimulus.
association
a mental connection between concepts, events, or mental states that usually stems from specific experiences
how do habitual behaviours form?
Habits can form when we repeat behaviours in a given context.
associative learning
learning that certain events occur
together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning)
conditioning
the process of learning associations
respondent behaviour
behaviour that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.
operant conditioning
a method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behaviour.
operant behaviours
behaviour that operates on the environment, producing consequences (learning through reinforcement & punishment)
cognitive learning
the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.
behaviourism
the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies observable actions without reference to internal mental processes.
Neutral Stimulus
something which does not trigger a specific reaction
Unconditioned Stimulus
biologically relevant stimulus that naturally elicits a response without prior association or conditioning
(cause)
Unconditioned Response
an unlearned response that occurs naturally in reaction to the unconditioned stimulus
(response)
Conditioned Stimulus
learned cause of behaviour (cause)
Conditioned Response
learned behaviour (response)
Acquisition
in classical conditioning, the initial stage —when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned
response. (the initial learning of an association)
Higher-order conditioning
For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that alight predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone.
second-order conditioning
Same thing as higher-order conditioning.
extinction
the diminishing of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus. (suppresses, not
spontaneous recovery
the reappearance of a (weakened) CR after a pause
generalisation
the tendency to respond to similar stimuli too.
discrimination
The ability to distinguish between one stimulus and another.
