6.7-6.11 (TEXTBOOK)

Conditioned compensatory response

Learned bodily response that opposes an expected drug effect, helping the body prepare for the drug.

Conditioned drug craving

Desire for a drug elicited by cues previously associated with its use.

Drug tolerance

Reduced response to a drug after repeated use, requiring more of it to produce the same effect.

Context-specific tolerance

Tolerance partly tied to familiar drug-taking cues that trigger compensatory responses.

Drug overdose

Harmful or potentially fatal drug exposure; unfamiliar surroundings can increase risk when usual compensatory cues are absent.

Evaluative conditioning

Change in liking for a stimulus after it is paired with something positive or negative, as in advertising.

Aversion conditioning

Pairing an unwanted stimulus or behavior with an unpleasant experience to produce avoidance.

Conditioned taste aversion

Learned avoidance of a flavor associated with illness, used in applications such as predator management.

Anticipatory nausea

Nausea triggered by cues associated with previous nausea-producing experiences, such as chemotherapy.

Scapegoat food

Distinctive food eaten before nausea-producing treatment so that an aversion develops to that food rather than to regularly eaten foods.

Operant conditioning / instrumental learning

Learning in which associations between voluntary behaviors and their consequences influence future behavior.

Edward Thorndike

Psychologist whose puzzle-box experiments helped establish principles of operant conditioning.

Trial-and-error learning

Learning by trying different actions and gradually repeating those that produce desirable outcomes.

Law of effect

Behaviors followed by satisfying consequences become more likely, while behaviors followed by unpleasant consequences become less likely.

Antecedent

Situation or event preceding a behavior that signals its possible consequences.

Behavior

Action an organism performs that can produce consequences.

Consequence

Outcome following a behavior that influences whether it will recur.

ABCs of operant conditioning

Antecedent, behavior, and consequence—the context, action, and outcome involved in learning.

Reinforcement

Consequence that increases the likelihood of a behavior recurring.

Punishment

Consequence that decreases the likelihood of a behavior recurring.

Primary reinforcers

Naturally reinforcing outcomes that meet biological needs, such as food or water.

Secondary / conditioned reinforcers

Outcomes that gain reinforcing value through learned associations with other reinforcers, such as money.

Positive reinforcement

Adding a stimulus after a behavior to increase that behavior.

Negative reinforcement

Removing or reducing an unpleasant stimulus after a behavior to increase that behavior.

Positive punishment

Adding a stimulus after a behavior to decrease that behavior.

Negative punishment

Removing a desirable stimulus after a behavior to decrease that behavior.

Positive in operant conditioning

Adding a stimulus, regardless of whether it is pleasant or unpleasant.

Negative in operant conditioning

Removing a stimulus, regardless of whether the behavior increases or decreases.

Behavior modification

Applying learning principles to increase desirable behaviors or decrease undesirable behaviors.

Positive feedback

Information indicating successful performance that can help reinforce effective behavior.

Negative feedback

Information indicating errors or unsuccessful performance that can guide behavioral adjustments.

Contingent reinforcement

Providing reinforcement only when a specified behavior or outcome occurs.

Premack principle

Using a more frequent or preferred behavior to reinforce a less frequent behavior.

Immediate reinforcement

Reinforcement delivered directly after a behavior, making the connection between action and consequence easier to learn.

Delayed reinforcement

Reinforcement delivered after a time gap, which can weaken its influence on the preceding behavior.

Immediate punishment

Punishment delivered directly after a behavior, making its connection to that behavior clearer.

Delayed punishment

Punishment delivered after a time gap, making its connection to the behavior harder to learn.

Delayed gratification

Forgoing an immediate reward to obtain a later reward.

B. F. Skinner

Psychologist who developed methods for studying operant conditioning and emphasized how consequences shape behavior.

Skinner box / operant chamber

Apparatus that records an animal’s responses and delivers consequences, such as food after a lever press.

Free-operant responding

Behavior an organism can perform repeatedly at its own pace without waiting for separate trials.

Shaping

Reinforcing progressively closer approximations to a target behavior.

Successive approximations

Intermediate behaviors that increasingly resemble the desired behavior during shaping.

Target behavior

Specific behavior a trainer or researcher aims to establish.

Clicker training

Training that pairs a click with reinforcement, allowing the click to precisely mark a desired behavior.

Instinctive drift

Tendency for learned behavior to shift toward a species’ instinctive behaviors, even when those behaviors interfere with reinforcement.

Biological constraints on learning

Inherited tendencies that make some behaviors easier to learn and others harder to establish or maintain.