Learning: Respondent and Operant Conditioning (week 7)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering respondent (classical) conditioning and operant conditioning principles, experiments, schedules, and clinical applications based on PSYC502 lectures.

Learning

Any enduring change in the way an organism responds based on its experience, characterised by adaptation and memory, which is inferred from observed behaviour.

Non-associative Learning

A simple form of learning in which an organism's response to a single repeated stimulus changes over time, without forming a connection between two different stimuli or between a behaviour and its consequence.

Habituation

A decrease in the strength or probability of a reflexive response after the repeated presentation of the eliciting harmless stimulus, serving to filter out irrelevant information.

Sensitisation

An increase in responsiveness caused by repeated exposure to a strong or significant stimulus, which enhances the organism's detection of important information.

Respondent Conditioning

A stimulus-response learning approach (also known as Classical or Pavlovian conditioning) in which an association is formed between two or more stimuli such that a response is elicited in the presence of a particular stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that innately and automatically elicits a reflexive, unconditioned response without any prior learning history.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The unlearned, involuntary reflexive response that is automatically elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that initially produces no specific response related to the reflex of interest prior to conditioning.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that acquires the ability to elicit a conditioned response through repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response that occurs upon the presentation of a conditioned stimulus alone, without the unconditioned stimulus.

Automatic Response

An involuntary reflex elicited automatically by specific stimuli, such as the eyeblink response, startle response, withdrawal response to pain, or pupillary light reflex.

Acquisition (Respondent Conditioning)

The developmental phase of classical conditioning where repeated pairings of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus increase the probability that the CS alone will elicit the CR along a negatively accelerated curve.

Extinction (Respondent Conditioning)

The progressive decrease in the probability and strength of the conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response following a period of rest or delay without additional pairing trials.

Delayed Conditioning

A respondent conditioning procedure in which the onset of the US is delayed after the onset of the CS by less than one second, and both stimuli are removed simultaneously, producing rapid learning.

Trace Conditioning

A classical conditioning timing arrangement where the CS is removed prior to the presentation of the US so that both are never present simultaneously, typically resulting in poorer conditioning.

Backwards Conditioning

A timing procedure where the conditioned stimulus is presented after the unconditioned stimulus has already terminated, producing little to no conditioning or even inhibitory conditioning.

Simultaneous Conditioning

A conditioning procedure where the onset and offset of the CS and US occur strictly at the exact same time, which is less effective than short-delay conditioning.

Stimulus Generalisation

The tendency for stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus to elicit the conditioned response, with greater physical similarity producing stronger responding.

Generalisation Gradient

A graphic depiction of response strength plotted across a continuum of stimulus similarity to the CS, where narrow curves reflect high discrimination and flat lines indicate no discrimination.

Conditioned Taste Aversion

A specialized form of respondent learning where an organism learns to avoid a specific food after a single pairing followed by gastrointestinal illness, even across delays of several hours.

Biological Preparedness

The evolutionary predisposition of organisms to readily form associations between specific stimulus modalities and outcomes (e.g., taste paired with illness, or fear conditioned to snakes and spiders).

Phobia

An irrational, obsessive, and persistent fear of a specific object, place, or situation that develops via classical conditioning or observational learning.

Systematic Desensitisation

A counter-conditioning treatment for phobias in which a patient is taught deep muscle relaxation and then exposed gradually to items ranked from least to most fear-evoking on a fear hierarchy.

Counter Conditioning

A therapeutic conditioning procedure that reverses an organism's established response to a stimulus by pairing that stimulus with an incompatible physiological or psychological state.

Aversive Counter-Conditioning

A conditioning therapy (also known as aversion therapy) that pairs an unwanted habit or behaviour with an aversive stimulus to create an aversive conditioned response and reduce cravings.

Conditioned Compensatory Response

A conditioned response that operates in the opposite direction of the unconditioned response to preserve physiological homeostasis, often observed in drug tolerance and temperature regulation.

Drug Tolerance

A phenomenon wherein regular drug intake in a consistent setting results in environmental cues serving as a conditioned stimulus that elicits compensatory bodily responses against the drug's effects.

Single Subject Design

An experimental framework (such as the ABAB reversal design) that collects rigorous data across baseline and intervention phases within a single subject to establish valid, replicable functional relationships.

The Law of Effect

Edward Thorndike's temporal law stating that actions followed by a satisfying state of affairs become more likely to recur, while actions followed by an annoying state of affairs become less likely to recur.

Escape Latency

The duration of time an animal takes from being placed inside an apparatus (such as Thorndike's puzzle box) until emitting the response required to open the door and escape.

Adventitious Reinforcement

The accidental delivery of a reinforcer immediately following a behaviour by chance rather than causal contingency, establishing superstitious responding.

Superstitious Behaviour

A persistent pattern of responses emitted because an organism has experienced non-contingent, time-based reinforcement that coincided by chance with those actions.

Operant Conditioning

A learning paradigm where voluntary behaviour is modified by its consequences, increasing through reinforcement or decreasing through punishment.

Three-Term Contingency

B.F. Skinner's structural model for operant behaviour consisting of an Antecedent, a Behaviour, and a Consequence ($\text{Antecedent} \rightarrow \text{Behaviour} \rightarrow \text{Consequence}$).

Discriminative Stimulus ($S^D$)

An antecedent stimulus that sets the occasion for a behaviour by signalling whether reinforcement or punishment is available.

Stimulus Control

The degree to which the presence or absence of an antecedent discriminative stimulus regulates the likelihood that a particular operant behaviour will occur.

Shaping

A procedure used to establish a novel behaviour by reinforcing successive approximations toward the target behaviour while extinguishing earlier, less accurate approximations.

Positive Reinforcement

The delivery of an appetitive stimulus immediately following a response, which increases the future frequency or likelihood of that response.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal or prevention of an aversive stimulus immediately following a response, which increases the future frequency or likelihood of that response.

Positive Punishment

Type I punishment in which an aversive stimulus is presented following a response, leading to a decrease in the future frequency or likelihood of that response.

Negative Punishment

Type II punishment in which an appetitive stimulus is removed following a response, leading to a decrease in the future frequency or likelihood of that response.

Primary Reinforcers

Innate, biologically significant reinforcers (such as food, water, warmth, oxygen, and sexual stimulation) that naturally increase behaviour during states of deprivation without prior training.

Secondary Reinforcers

Conditioned reinforcers that gain reinforcing value through repeated pairings with primary or already established reinforcers, including tangible objects, activities, and social praise.

Generalised Reinforcer

A versatile conditioned reinforcer (such as money or tokens) that is paired with multiple primary or secondary reinforcers and does not depend upon a single state of deprivation.

Motivating Operations

Environmental events or biological states that temporarily alter the value of a reinforcer; comprising Establishing Operations (increase value, e.g., deprivation) and Abolishing Operations (decrease value, e.g., satiation).

Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule

An intermittent schedule of reinforcement where a reinforcer is delivered after a fixed number of correct responses have been emitted since the previous reinforcer.

Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule

An intermittent schedule of reinforcement where the first response emitted after a fixed duration of time has elapsed since the last reinforcer is reinforced, producing a scalloped pattern.

Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule

An intermittent reinforcement schedule where reinforcement occurs after a fluctuating, unpredictable number of responses that averages out to a set value, generating rapid and steady responding.

Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule

An intermittent reinforcement schedule where reinforcement is given for the first response emitted after a variable amount of time has elapsed, yielding steady, moderate rates of behaviour.

Cumulative Response Curves

Graphic records illustrating the distinct response patterns generated across schedules: FR showing post-reinforcement pauses and high terminal runs, VR producing steep steady lines, FI displaying scallops, and VI showing steady slopes.

Extinction Burst

A temporary, transient surge in the rate, intensity, or variability of an operant response immediately following the complete cessation of reinforcement.

Partial Reinforcement Effect

The phenomenon whereby behaviours established or maintained on intermittent (partial) reinforcement schedules persist longer and demonstrate significantly greater resistance to extinction than those reinforced continuously.

Observational Learning

A form of vicarious learning conceptualized by Albert Bandura (1977) in which an organism acquires or alters behaviours by observing the actions and consequences of social models.

Four Key Processes in Observational Learning

Bandura's four cognitive-behavioural steps required for effective modelling: Attention (noticing the model), Retention (remembering the behaviour), Reproduction (physical capability to execute it), and Motivation (expecting favourable outcomes).