Psychology Chapter 6: Learning

Front 1

Learning Defined

Back 1

Any relative permanent change in behavior that occurs because of experience

Front 2

Conditioning

Back 2

a kind of learning that involves associations between environmental stimuli and responses

Front 3

Classical Conditioning

Back 3

-The organism learns to associate two stimuli together
-One produces a response that originally was only produced by the other
-Classic example of dog/bell and salivation

Front 4

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Back 4

Elicits the unconditional response (food)

Front 5

Unconditioned Response (UR)

Back 5

Response which is automatically produced (salivate)

Front 6

Conditional Stimulus (CS)

Back 6

Originally neutral stimulus that elicits a behavior after being paired with a US (bell)

Front 7

Conditioned Response (CR)

Back 7

Response elicited by the conditioned stimulus (salivate to bell)

Front 8

Extinction

Back 8

repeat the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus over time and the conditioned response will disappear

Front 9

Spontaneous Recovery

Back 9

after a response has been extinguished it may spontaneously reappear after the passage of time with exposure to the conditioned stimulus

Front 10

Higher Order Conditioning

Back 10

pairing a neutral stimulus with the conditioned stimulus will create another conditioned stimulus, although a weaker conditioned response. This process is more likely to show extinction. (Food with bell, bell with light)

Front 11

Stimulus generalization

Back 11

After a stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus for some response, other, similar stimuli may produce the same reaction. [Cat running to an electric drill, thinking it’s the can opener that usually provides food]

Front 12

Stimulus discrimination

Back 12

one learns to realize the differences between similar stimuli. [Fire alarm compared with alarm clock; similar stimuli yet you react differently]
Paired association: ugly person with shampoo and becoming pretty; “shampoo makes you pretty.”

Front 13

Garcia effect

Back 13

one really bad experience can cause an intense learning situation you remember for your whole life. Schreier got really sick from red wine when she was a kid, and she still thinks it’s gross even though that experience got no reinforcement over the years.

Front 14

Operant Conditioning/Instrumental Learning

Back 14

Behavior is dependent on its consequences

Front 15

Law of Effect

Back 15

a satisfying result strengthens a behavior.

Front 16

B.F. Skinner

Back 16

all behavior is explained by looking outside the individual. People (and animals) tend to repeat behaviors which have positive consequences; decrease behaviors which have negative consequences.

Front 17

Neutral Consequence

Back 17

Not more or less likely to see behavior patterns change

Front 18

Reinforcement

Back 18

anything which will make a response more likely to occur

Front 19

Punishment

Back 19

anything which will make a response less likely to occur

Front 20

Primary reinforcers

Back 20

satisfy biological needs like food, water and sex

Front 21

Secondary reinforcers

Back 21

satisfy through association with primary reinforcers: money, praise, grades

Front 22

Punishments

Back 22

are inherently unpleasant and decrease the likelihood of a response

Front 23

Positive punishment

Back 23

something unpleasant occurs (spanked, mouth washed out with soap)

Front 24

Negative punishment

Back 24

something pleasant is removed (no TV, no dessert)

Front 25

Continuous Learning schedules

Back 25

Reward/punishment occurs each time the behavior occurs

Front 26

Intermittent/Partial Learning schedules

Back 26

Reward/punishment occurs when a response occurs only some of the time

Front 27

Ratio schedules

Back 27

deliver reinforcements after a certain fixed number of responses

Front 28

Fixed ratio schedules

Back 28

reinforcement after a fixed number of responses (every 4x)

Front 29

Variable ratio schedules

Back 29

reinforcement after some average number of responses, but the number changes (on average 7)

Front 30

Interval schedules

Back 30

deliver reinforcement after a certain amount of time has passed and the desired behavior has occurred

Front 31

Fixed interval

Back 31

reinforcement occurs only after a fixed amount of time has passed since the past reinforcer (5 minutes)

Front 32

Variable interval

Back 32

Reinforcement occurs only if a variable amount of time has passed since the previous reinforcer (on average 5 minutes, could be 3 or 7 minutes)

Front 33

Shaping

Back 33

A technique used which reinforces behavioral tendencies in a desired direction. Uses successive approximation—reinforcing responses that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior

Front 34

Observational Learning

Back 34

believe there is higher level cognitive process to how we learn, impacts attitudes, beliefs and expectations (Children learn and then imitate behaviors, television violence.) Pro social behavior can also be learned through modeling. Lessons from Lassie Study

Front 35

Latent Learning

Back 35

We develop cognitive schemas or maps which are used only when the situation warrants (Tolman and his rats).