Unit 6 Vocab Flashcards
What is learning?
The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.
What is habituation?
An organism’s decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it.
What is associative learning?
Learning that certain events occur together, which may involve two stimuli or a response and its consequences.
What is a stimulus?
Any event or situation that evokes a response.
What is cognitive learning?
The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.
What is classical conditioning?
A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events.
What is behaviorism?
The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.
What is a neutral stimulus (NS)?
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.
What is an unconditioned response (UR)?
An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (US).
What is an unconditioned stimulus (US)?
A stimulus that unconditionally triggers a response.
What is a conditioned response (CR)?
A learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).
What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?
An originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.
What is acquisition in classical conditioning?
The initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.
What is higher-order conditioning?
A procedure where the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus.
Example: An animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone.
What is extinction?
The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs 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 generalization?
The tendency for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.
What is discrimination in classical conditioning?
The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
What is operant conditioning?
A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.
What is the law of effect?
Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely.
What is an operant chamber?
A chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer.
Also known as a Skinner box.
What is reinforcement?
Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
What is shaping?
An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer approximations of the desired behavior.
What is a discriminative stimulus?
A stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement.
What is positive reinforcement?
Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers.
What is negative reinforcement?
Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli.
Note: Negative reinforcement is not punishment.
What is a primary reinforcer?
An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.
What is a conditioned reinforcer?
A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer.
What is a reinforcement schedule?
A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced.
What is continuous reinforcement?
Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.
What is partial (intermittent) reinforcement?
Reinforcing a response only part of the time, resulting in slower acquisition but greater resistance to extinction.
What is a fixed-ratio schedule?
A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.
What is a variable-ratio schedule?
A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.
What is a fixed-interval schedule?
A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.
What is a variable-interval schedule?
A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.
What is punishment?
An event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.
What is biofeedback?
A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state.
What is respondent behavior?
Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.
What is operant behavior?
Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.
What is a cognitive map?
A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment.
Example: After exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.
What is latent learning?
Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
What is insight?
A sudden realization of a problem’s solution.
What is intrinsic motivation?
A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.
What is extrinsic motivation?
A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.
What is coping?
Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods.
What is problem-focused coping?
Attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.
What is emotion-focused coping?
Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs.
What is learned helplessness?
The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.
What is external locus of control?
The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.
What is internal locus of control?
The perception that you control your own fate.
What is self-control?
The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.
What is observational learning?
Learning by observing others, also called social learning.
What is modeling?
The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.
What are mirror neurons?
Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so.
What is prosocial behavior?
Positive, constructive, helpful behavior; the opposite of antisocial behavior.
