MURTAGH AP PSYCHOLOGY- Myers 4th Edition UNIT 3: Development and Learning Module 3.7: Classical Conditioning

Learning

the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

associative learning

learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Stimulus

any event or situation that evokes a response

respondent behavior

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

operant behavior

behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

cognitive learning

the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

classical conditioning

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Behaviorism

the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

neutral stimulus (NS)

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

unconditioned response (UCR)

in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response.

conditioned response (CR)

in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

conditioned stimulus (CS)

in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response.

acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

higher-order conditioning

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.)

Extinction

In classical conditioning, the diminishing of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus

spontaneous recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

generalization

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

Discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

Preparedness

a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Russian physiologist and learning theorist famous for the discovery of classical conditioning, in which learning occurs through association

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

Founder of behaviorism, the theory that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes.

John Garcia

Researched taste aversion. Showed that when rats ate a novel substance before being nauseated by a drug or radiation, they developed a conditioned taste aversion for the substance.