Module 26 - How We Learn and Classical Conditioning

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

The process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information on behaviors

Question 2

Habituation

Answer 2

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated exposure to a stimulus

Question 3

Associative learning

Answer 3

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (operant conditioning)

Question 4

Stimulus

Answer 4

Any event or situation that evokes a response

Question 5

Respondent behavior

Answer 5

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus (classically conditioned through associative learning)

Question 6

Operant behavior

Answer 6

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

Question 7

Cognitive learning

Answer 7

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, watching others, or through language

Question 8

Behaviorism

Answer 8

The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists agree with (1) but not (2)

Question 9

Neutral stimulus (NS)

Answer 9

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

Question 10

Unconditioned response (UR)

Answer 10

In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditional stimulus (US)

Question 11

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Answer 11

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers an unconditioned response (UR)

Question 12

Conditioned response

Answer 12

In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

Question 13

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 13

In classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditional stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR)

Question 14

Acquisition

Answer 14

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. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response

Question 15

Higher-order conditioning (second-order conditioning)

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Extinction

Answer 16

The diminishing of a conditioned response (CR); occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) doesn’t follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced

Question 17

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 17

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

Question 18

Generalization

Answer 18

The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

Question 19

Discrimination

Answer 19

In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

Question 20

Classical conditioning

Answer 20

A type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli (that we don’t control)