Chapter 6: Learning

Chapter 6: Learning

1. Classical Conditioning

   • Ivan Pavlov
   • Leaning connections between events that occur in an organism's environment
   • Phobias are irrational fears of specific objecs or situations
   • Unconditioned stimulus - Stimulus that automatically leads to an observable response without any previous conditioning.
     • Unconditioned response - Observable response that is produced automatically, prior to training. Is a result of an unconditioned stimulus
   • Conditioned stimulus - A stimulus that is paired with an unconditional response during conditioning
     • Conditioned response - Aquired response produced by the conditoining stimulus in anticipation of the unconditional response

2. Operant conditioning

   • A form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences of their own voluntary action
   • Law of effect - if a response in a a particular situationis followed by a satisfying consequence, it will be strengthened; if followed by an unsatisfying consequence, it will be weakened

3. Observable learning

   • Practical applications
     • When the subject learns and mimics what they have perceived. For example, a child watching television mimics the violence they see.
   • Mirror neurons - Neurons that are activated when performing an action, or obeserving another individual performing the same action.