UNIT 2 AP PSYCHoLOgY ahhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior based on experience and interactions with the environment that can include eiither behavior or mental processes, but not changes occurring from maturation

Maturation

Behavior changes that require biological development as well as experience.

Instinctive behavior

The behavior we are born with (does not need to be learned) and must occur in the same form in all members of a species

examples of instinctive behaviors

Inborn, innate, automatic, reflex behaviors

Imprinting

A phase-sensitive learning occurring at a particular age or life stimulus; an organism learning the characteristics of a stimulus.

Example of imprinting

A baby duck following mommy duck

Habituation

Learning to not respond to a stimulus that is repeated, with decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

What is an example of habituation?

Sucking your thumb until you don’t realize you’re doing it

Ivan Pavlov

Russian physiologist and learning theorist famous for discovering classical conditioning, where learning occurs through association.

Classical conditioning

A type of learning where a stimulus gains power to cause a response; a form of learning by association

Stimulus

Anything in the environment that can alert or arouse an organism?

Neutral stimulus

Anything in the environment that does not elicit any particular response.

Response

Any behavior or action

Unconditioned Stimulus

A stimulus that triggers a response reflexively and automatically

Unconditioned Response

An automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus

A previous neutral stimulus that, through learning, gains the power to cause a response

Conditioned Response

The response to the conditioned stimulus

Usually the same behavior as the UR

Response

Any behavior or action

Acquisition

The subject learns a new response to a previously neutral stimulus

How does frequency strengthen the pairing between the CS and the UCS

The more pairings the stronger the acquisition

How does timing strengthen the pairing between the CS and the UCS

Timing between NS and UCS being close in time will strength association

How does intensity strengthen the pairing between the CS and the UCS

The stronger the UCS, the stronger the acquisition of the CR

Extinction (classical conditioning)

Diminishing of a learned response after repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a conditioned response after a rest/pause AND extinction period can unexpectedly return

Generalization

Producing the same response to two similar stimuli

Stimulus Discrimination

The ability to distinguish between two similar signals or stimuli and produce different responses

John Watson

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

Little Albert

11- month old infant conditioned to be frightened of white rats by Watson and Rosalie Rayner

Led to questions about experimental ethics

What are some applications of classical conditioning?

Advertising, social relationships, and emotions.

Edward Thorndike

Author of law of effect, the principle that forms the basis of operant conditioning

Law of effect

Behaviors with favorable consequences will occur more frequently while behaviors with unfavorable consequences will occur less frequently

B. F. Skinner

Behavioral psychologist who developed the fundamental principles and techniques of operant conditioning and devised ways to apply them in the real world.

Operant conditioning

Type of learning in which the frequency of a behavior depends on the consequences that follows that behavior.

Reinforcement

Anything that increases a behavior, whether it is positive or negative.

Punishment

Any consequence that decreases the future likelihood of a behavior

Positive reinforcement

Anything that increases(strengthens) the likelihood of a behavior by following it with a desirable event or state

Negative reinforcement

Anything that increases(strengthens) the likelihood of a behavior by following it with the removal of undesirable event or state

Primary reinforcment

Something that is naturally reinforcing, such as food (if you are hungry), warmth (if you are cold), and water (if you are thirsty)

Secondary reinforcement

Something that you have learned to value, like money.

Positive punishment

Decreasing (weakening) of a behavior following an undesirable event or state

Negative Punishment

Decreasing (Weakening) of a behavior due to a desirable event or state.

Effects of Punishment

Doesn’t prevent the undesirable behavior when away from the punisher

Can lead to fear, anxiety, and lower self-esteem

Children who are punished physically may learn to use aggression as a means to solve problems.

Especially useful if teaching a child not to do a dangerous behavior

Most still suggest reinforcing an incompatible behavior rather than using punishment.

Shaping

A reinforcement of behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired one used in training complex/multi-step behaviors.

Extinction (operant conditioning)

Loss of a behavior when no consequences follows it; the subject no longer responds since the reinforcement or punishment has stopped.

Continous Reinforcement

A schedule of reinforcement in which a reward follows every correct response

Partial reinforcement

In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement in which a reward follows only some correct responses

Fixed-interval schedule

A partial schedule that rewards only the first correct response after some defined period

Variable-interval schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule that rewards the first correct response after an unpredictable amount of time

Fixed-ratio schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule that rewards a response only after some defined number of correct responses

Variable-ratio schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule that rewards an unpredictable number of correct responses.

Martin Seligman

He actually stumbled on learned helplessness

Learned Helplessness

A learned belief that one has no control or is unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

Albert Bandura

A Canadian-American psychologist, a major figure in the study of observational learning and several other important topics

Observational learning

Learning by observing others rather than through direct experience

Model

Person observed in observational learning

Modeling

Process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

What is the Bobo doll experiments?

Children watched an adult model show aggressive behavior toward a bobo doll with three experimental conditions: Model is praised, punished, and one received no consequences for the aggressive behavior.

Vicarious Learning

Learning by seeing the consequences of another person’s behavior

Antisocial Behavior

Negative, disruptive, and unhelpful behavior

Prosocial Behavior

Positive constructive, helpful behavior

Wolfgang Kohler

German psychologist and co-founder of Gestalt psychology and creator of insight learning

Insight learning

A type of learning or problem solving that happens all f a sudden through understanding the relations to various parts of the problem rather than through trial and error.

Edward Tolman

Expanded no the study of insight learning by examining rats’ maze learning

Cognitive Map

A mental representatino of a palce

Where in our brain are cognitive maps constructed?

Hippocampus

Latent learning

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until the learner has an incentive to demonstrate it

Biological constraint

Built in biological limitations in the ability to learn

(Teaching a pig to fly)

Instinctive drift

Instinctive tendencies interfering with learning

(Teaching birds to not peck)

Biofeedback

A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or heart rate.