Chapter 7: Learning (slides)

Learning

Acquisition of new knowledge, skills, or responses through experience that produces relatively permanent changes in the learner.

Habituation

Reduced response to a repeated or prolonged stimulus.

Sensitization

Increased response to a stimulus following exposure to a strong or surprising stimulus.

Classical conditioning

Learning where a neutral stimulus produces a response after pairing with a natural stimulus; discovered by Ivan Pavlov.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Stimulus that naturally produces a response.

Unconditioned response (UR)

Natural reflexive response elicited by the US.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Originally neutral stimulus that elicits a response after conditioning.

Conditioned response (CR)

Learned response to a CS that resembles the UR.

Acquisition

Phase where the CS and US are presented together to form an association.

Extinction

Gradual elimination of a learned response when the US is no longer paired with the CS.

Spontaneous recovery

Reappearance of a previously extinguished response after a rest period.

Second-order conditioning

A previously established CS is paired with a new neutral stimulus, allowing the neutral stimulus to also elicit a CR.

Generalization

CR occurs even when the CS is altered slightly from the original.

Discrimination

Ability to distinguish between similar stimuli and respond differently.

Rescorla-Wagner model

States that classical conditioning occurs when an animal learns to expect the US; introduces cognition into conditioning.

Fear conditioning

Conditioning that produces behavioral and physiological fear responses; involves the amygdala.

Taste aversion

Conditioning in which a single pairing of food with illness produces long-term aversion; biologically prepared and highly adaptive.

Biological preparedness

Tendency for organisms to learn certain associations more easily based on evolutionary survival.

Drug overdose paradox

Experienced drug users overdose when using in a new context because conditioned compensatory responses do not occur.

Law of effect

Behaviors followed by satisfying outcomes are repeated; behaviors followed by unpleasant outcomes decrease.

Operant conditioning

Behavior is shaped by consequences; pioneered by Edward Thorndike and B.F. Skinner.

Operant behavior

Behavior that impacts the environment and produces consequences.

Reinforcer

Stimulus that increases likelihood of a behavior.

Positive reinforcement

Adding a desirable stimulus to increase behavior.

Negative reinforcement

Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase behavior.

Punisher

Stimulus that decreases likelihood of a behavior.

Positive punishment

Adding an unpleasant stimulus to decrease behavior.

Negative punishment

Removing a desirable stimulus to decrease behavior.

Primary reinforcers

Reinforcers satisfying biological needs (food, water, shelter).

Secondary reinforcers

Reinforcers associated with primary ones via conditioning (money, trophies, praise).

Overjustification effect

External rewards undermine intrinsic motivation.

Immediate reinforcement

Most effective; reinforcement loses power with delay.

Immediate punishment

Most effective; delayed punishment is less effective unless severity increased or verbal cues bridge delay.

Discriminative stimulus

Stimulus that indicates a response will be reinforced.

Stimulus control

Develops when behavior reliably occurs only under specific conditions.

Intermittent reinforcement

Behavior only sometimes reinforced; produces high resistance to extinction.

Fixed-interval schedule (FI)

Reinforcement given after fixed time intervals.

Variable-interval schedule (VI)

Reinforcement after unpredictable time intervals.

Fixed-ratio schedule (FR)

Reinforcement after a fixed number of responses.

Variable-ratio schedule (VR)

Reinforcement after a varying number of responses; produces highest response rate (e.g., gambling).

Shaping

Reinforcing successive approximations toward a desired behavior.

Superstitious behavior

Accidental reinforcement causes mistaken causal beliefs.

Latent learning

Learning that occurs without reinforcement but appears later when needed.

Cognitive map

Mental representation of spatial layout; demonstrated by Tolman.

Pleasure centers

Brain areas (medial forebrain bundle, hypothalamus, nucleus accumbens) associated with reward; dopaminergic pathways are key.

Reward prediction error

Dopamine neurons fire based on difference between expected and actual reward; critical for learning.

Observational learning

Learning by watching others; does not require direct reinforcement.

Bandura's Bobo doll study

Showed children imitate adult aggression and are sensitive to consequences of observed actions.

Diffusion chain

Individuals learn behavior by watching a model, then serve as models for others.

Observational learning in animals

Pigeons learn pecking; monkeys learn snake fear through observation; supports biological preparedness.

Enculturation hypothesis

Animals raised by humans show enhanced imitation and tool-use learning.

Mirror neurons

Neurons active during both action and observation; located in frontal & parietal lobes; key for imitation and prediction.

Implicit learning

Learning occurring without awareness of process or products.

Artificial grammar learning

Participants form intuition about grammatical patterns without explicit knowledge; supports implicit learning.

Serial reaction time task

Implicit learning demonstrated by faster responses to repeated sequences without conscious awareness.

Implicit learning characteristics

Stable across lifespan, independent of IQ, culturally influenced, and relatively preserved in amnesia.

Distributed practice

Spacing learning over time; improves retention compared to cramming.

Interleaved practice

Mixing varied problems or materials; improves strategy selection and learning.

Practice testing

One of the most effective learning techniques; enhances retention and comprehension.

Judgments of learning

Subjective assessments of learning accuracy; often overconfident; improved by self-testing.

Learning loss

COVID-19 disruptions caused measurable declines in learning, especially among vulnerable groups.