LEARNING AND CONDITIONING

LEARNING AND CONDITIONING

1. learning

   • A relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience.

2. beahaviourism

   • an approach to psychology that emphasizes the study of observable behavior and the role of the environment as a determinant of behavior

3. conditioning

   • a learning process in which an organism's behavior becomes dependent on the occurrence of a stimulus in its environment

4. unconditioned stimulus

   • A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning

5. spontaneous recovery

   • The reappearance of a learned response after its apparent extinction

6. higher-order conditioning

   •  Process by which a neutral stimulus takes on conditioned properties through pairing with a conditioned stimulus

7. stimulus generalization

   • Process by which a conditioned response becomes associated with a stimulus that is similar but not identical to the original conditioned stimulus

8. unconditioned response

   • the classical conditioning term for a reflexive response elicited by a stimulus in the absence of learning

9. conditioned stimulus

   • an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response

10. extinction

    • the weakening and disapearance of a learned response;in classical conditioning, it occurs when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired withe unconditioned stimulus

11. classical conditioning

    • Conditioning process in which an originally neutral stimulus, by repeated pairing with a stimulus that normally elicits a response, comes to elicit a similar or even identical response; aka Pavlovian conditioning

12. conditioned response

    • in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral,but now conditioned stimulus 

13. punishment

    • A consequence that decreases the likelihood of a behavior.

14. primary punishers

    • a stimulus that is inherently punishing; ex. electric shock

15. primary reinforcer

    • any reinforcer that is naturally reinforcing by meeting a basic biological need, such as hunger, thirst, or touch

16. operant conditioning

    • A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

17. countercondiitoning

    • based on classical conditioning, a behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors

18. stimulus discrimination

    • in operant conditioning, the tendency of a response to occur in the presence of one stimulus but not in the presence of other, similar stimuli that differ from it on some dimension

19. reinforcement

    • in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

20. secondary reinforcer

    • Use of a stimulus that has acquired reinforcing properties through association with other reinforcers

21. secondary punisher

    • a stimulus that has acquired punishing properties through association with other punishers

22. positive reinforcement

    • Presentation of a stimulus after a particular response in order to increase the likelihood that the response will recur

23. negative reinforcement

    • A reinforcement procedure in which a response is followed by the removal, delay, or decrease in intensity of an unpleasant stimulus

24. continuous reinforcement

    • reinforcing the desired response every time that it occurs

25. latent learning

    • A form of learning that is not immediately expressed in an overt response

26. social-cognitive theories

    • Theories that emphasize how behavior is learned and maintained through observation and imitation of others, positive consequences, and cognitive processes such as plans, expectations, and beliefs.

27. discriminative stimulus

    • A stimulus that signals when a particular response is likely to be followed by a certain type of consequence

28. intermittent schedule for reinforcement

    • a reinforcement schedule in which a particular response is sometimes but not always reinforced

29. shaping

    • An operant-conditioning procedure in which successive approximations of a desired response are reinforced
    • successive approximations
      • in the operant-conditioning procedure of shaping, behaviors that are ordered in terms of increasing similarity or closeness to the desired response.

30. indistinctive drift

    • During operant conditioning, the tendency for an organism to revert to instinctive behaviour

31. observational learning

    • Learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others.