Chapter 6: Learning Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts of Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, and Cognitive Learning from Chapter 6.

Learning

A relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge due to experience or practice.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which an individual learns to associate a new trigger with an old trigger, causing an automatic, involuntary response.

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning where voluntary behavior is increased or decreased depending on its consequences.

Cognitive Learning

A form of learning that occurs by gathering information, including watching others or learning through language and social interaction.

Ivan Pavlov

Russian physiologist in the early 1900s who discovered classical conditioning through experiments with canine salivation responses.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A natural, meaningful trigger that automatically causes an unconditioned response before any training takes place.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An automatic biological or emotional effect caused naturally by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A learned trigger that begins as a neutral stimulus but produces a conditioned response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned biological or emotional effect produced in response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus.

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency for a stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit the conditioned response.

Stimulus Discrimination

The learned ability to not respond to stimuli that are sufficiently different from the original conditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The disappearance of a learned response, occurring when the unconditioned stimulus is removed in classical conditioning or when reinforcement ceases in operant conditioning.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period without any additional training.

Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)

An emotional reaction, such as fear, that is automatically triggered by a conditioned stimulus and can lead to phobias.

John Watson

Psychologist often considered the father of behaviorism who, along with Rosalie Rayner, demonstrated conditioned emotional responses in the Little Albert experiment.

Conditioned Taste Aversion

A negative biological response, such as nausea, developed toward a specific taste after only a single pairing.

Biological Preparedness

The innate tendency of organisms to learn certain associations more easily and quickly due to their potential survival value.

Thorndike's Law of Effect

Principle formulated by Edward Thorndike in 1905 stating that behaviors followed by pleasant outcomes are repeated, whereas behaviors followed by unpleasant outcomes are not repeated.

Skinner Box

An experimental apparatus designed by B.F. Skinner to manipulate consequences and record operant behaviors in subjects such as rats or pigeons.

Positive Reinforcement

Increasing the frequency of a behavior by presenting or adding a pleasurable stimulus following that behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

Increasing the frequency of a behavior by removing or allowing escape from an unpleasant stimulus following that behavior.

Positive Punishment

Decreasing the frequency of a behavior by adding or applying an unpleasant stimulus after the behavior occurs.

Negative Punishment

Decreasing the frequency of a behavior by removing or taking away a pleasurable stimulus after the behavior occurs.

Shaping

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcement is given for successive approximations of a desired complex behavior until the full task is mastered.

Instinctive Drift

The tendency for animals to revert to genetically controlled behavior patterns regardless of reinforcement history.

Discriminative Stimulus

A specific stimulus that signals to an organism whether a response is likely to be reinforced or punished.

Continuous Reinforcement

A reinforcement schedule where every correct response is reinforced, making it ideal for initially learning a behavior.

Partial Reinforcement

A reinforcement schedule where only some correct responses are reinforced, which slows down the rate of extinction.

Observational Learning

A form of cognitive learning, also called social learning, where behavior is acquired by observing others and modeling their actions.

Bobo Doll Study

A classic 1960s study conducted by Albert Bandura demonstrating that children imitate aggressive acts and verbalizations modeled by adults.

Learning/Performance Distinction

The cognitive learning concept that learning can take place internally before any observable behavior is displayed.