[Week 8] Conditioning and Learning

Question 1

Blocking

Answer 1

In classical conditioning, the finding that no conditioning occurs to a stimulus if it is combined with a previously conditioned stimulus during conditioning trials. Suggests that information, surprise value, or prediction error is important in conditioning.

Question 2

Categorize

Answer 2

To sort or arrange different items into classes or categories.

Question 3

Classical conditioning

Answer 3

The procedure in which an initially neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus, or CS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (or US). The result is that the conditioned stimulus begins to elicit a conditioned response (CR). Classical conditioning is nowadays considered important as both a behavioral phenomenon and as a method to study simple associative learning. Same as Pavlovian conditioning.

Question 4

Conditioned compensatory response

Answer 4

In classical conditioning, a conditioned response that opposes, rather than is the same as, the unconditioned response. It functions to reduce the strength of the unconditioned response. Often seen in conditioning when drugs are used as unconditioned stimuli.

Question 5

Conditioned response (CR)

Answer 5

The response that is elicited by the conditioned stimulus after classical conditioning has taken place.

Question 6

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 6

An initially neutral stimulus (like a bell, light, or tone) that elicits a conditioned response after it has been associated with an unconditioned stimulus.

Question 7

Context

Answer 7

Stimuli that are in the background whenever learning occurs. For instance, the Skinner box or room in which learning takes place is the classic example of a context. However, “context” can also be provided by internal stimuli, such as the sensory effects of drugs (e.g., being under the influence of alcohol has stimulus properties that provide a context) and mood states (e.g., being happy or sad). It can also be provided by a specific period in time—the passage of time is sometimes said to change the “temporal context.”

Question 8

Discriminative stimulus

Answer 8

In operant conditioning, a stimulus that signals whether the response will be reinforced. It is said to “set the occasion” for the operant response.

Question 9

Extinction

Answer 9

Decrease in the strength of a learned behavior that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus (in classical conditioning) or when the behavior is no longer reinforced (in instrumental conditioning). The term describes both the procedure (the US or reinforcer is no longer presented) as well as the result of the procedure (the learned response declines). Behaviors that have been reduced in strength through extinction are said to be “extinguished.”

Question 10

Fear conditioning

Answer 10

A type of classical or Pavlovian conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus (CS) is associated with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US), such as a foot shock. As a consequence of learning, the CS comes to evoke fear. The phenomenon is thought to be involved in the development of anxiety disorders in humans.

Question 11

Goal-directed behavior

Answer 11

Instrumental behavior that is influenced by the animal’s knowledge of the association between the behavior and its consequence and the current value of the consequence. Sensitive to the reinforcer devaluation effect.

Question 12

Habit

Answer 12

Instrumental behavior that occurs automatically in the presence of a stimulus and is no longer influenced by the animal’s knowledge of the value of the reinforcer. Insensitive to the reinforcer devaluation effect.

Question 13

Instrumental conditioning

Answer 13

Process in which animals learn about the relationship between their behaviors and their consequences. Also known as operant conditioning.

Question 14

Law of effect

Answer 14

The idea that instrumental or operant responses are influenced by their effects. Responses that are followed by a pleasant state of affairs will be strengthened and those that are followed by discomfort will be weakened. Nowadays, the term refers to the idea that operant or instrumental behaviors are lawfully controlled by their consequences.

Question 15

Observational learning

Answer 15

Learning by observing the behavior of others.

Question 16

Operant

Answer 16

A behavior that is controlled by its consequences. The simplest example is the rat’s lever-pressing, which is controlled by the presentation of the reinforcer.

Question 17

Operant conditioning

Answer 17

Process in which animals learn about the relationship between their behaviors and their consequences. Also known as instrumental conditioning.

Question 18

Pavlovian conditioning

Answer 18

Same thing as classical conditioning.

Question 19

Prediction error

Answer 19

When the outcome of a conditioning trial is different from that which is predicted by the conditioned stimuli that are present on the trial (i.e., when the US is surprising). Prediction error is necessary to create Pavlovian conditioning (and associative learning generally). As learning occurs over repeated conditioning trials, the conditioned stimulus increasingly predicts the unconditioned stimulus, and prediction error declines. Conditioning works to correct or reduce prediction error.

Question 20

Preparedness

Answer 20

The idea that an organism’s evolutionary history can make it easy to learn a particular association. Because of preparedness, you are more likely to associate the taste of tequila, and not the circumstances surrounding drinking it, with getting sick. Similarly, humans are more likely to associate images of spiders and snakes than flowers and mushrooms with aversive outcomes like shocks.

Question 21

Punisher

Answer 21

A stimulus that decreases the strength of an operant behavior when it is made a consequence of the behavior.

Question 22

Quantitative law of effect

Answer 22

A mathematical rule that states that the effectiveness of a reinforcer at strengthening an operant response depends on the amount of reinforcement earned for all alternative behaviors. A reinforcer is less effective if there is a lot of reinforcement in the environment for other behaviors.

Question 23

Reinforcer

Answer 23

Any consequence of a behavior that strengthens the behavior or increases the likelihood that it will be performed it again.

Question 24

Reinforcer devaluation effect

Answer 24

The finding that an animal will stop performing an instrumental response that once led to a reinforcer if the reinforcer is separately made aversive or undesirable.

Question 25

Renewal effect

Answer 25

Recovery of an extinguished response that occurs when the context is changed after extinction. Especially strong when the change of context involves return to the context in which conditioning originally occurred. Can occur after extinction in either classical or instrumental conditioning.

Question 26

Social Learning Theory

Answer 26

The theory that people can learn new responses and behaviors by observing the behavior of others.

Question 27

Social models

Answer 27

Authorities that are the targets for observation and who model behaviors.

Question 28

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 28

Recovery of an extinguished response that occurs with the passage of time after extinction. Can occur after extinction in either classical or instrumental conditioning.

Question 29

Stimulus control

Answer 29

When an operant behavior is controlled by a stimulus that precedes it.

Question 30

Taste aversion learning

Answer 30

The phenomenon in which a taste is paired with sickness, and this causes the organism to reject—and dislike—that taste in the future.

Question 31

Unconditioned response (UR)

Answer 31

In classical conditioning, an innate response that is elicited by a stimulus before (or in the absence of) conditioning.

Question 32

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Answer 32

In classical conditioning, the stimulus that elicits the response before conditioning occurs.

Question 33

Vicarious reinforcement

Answer 33

Learning that occurs by observing the reinforcement or punishment of another person.