Understanding Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning

Learning

any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice.

Observational Learning

watch others, learn new behaviors.

Associative Learning

learning that certain events occur together.

Classical Conditioning

learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex.

Operant Conditioning

learning that involves a response and its consequence.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary response.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

an involuntary response to a naturally occurring or unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

starts as a neutral stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned (reflex) response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Response (CR)

learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus.

Acquisition

the repeated pairing of the NS and the UCS; the organism is in the process of acquiring learning.

Stimulus Generalization

the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response.

Stimulus Discrimination

the tendency to stop making a generalized response to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus because the similar stimulus is never paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction

the disappearance or weakening of a learned response following the removal or absence of the unconditioned stimulus or the removal of a reinforcer.

Spontaneous Recovery

the reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred.

Higher-order Conditioning

occurs when a strong conditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to become a second conditioned stimulus.

Blocking

the first conditioned stimulus blocks the learning of a new conditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)

emotional response that has become classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli.

Pavlov

Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning through his work on digestion in dogs.

CS - tone

Conditioned stimulus example.

CR - run to the ice cream truck

Conditioned response example.

UCS - air puff

Unconditioned stimulus example.

UCR - blink

Unconditioned response example.

Examples of CER

A fear of dogs or the emotional reaction that occurs when seeing an attractive person.

Conditioned Taste Aversion

Development of a nausea or aversive response to a particular taste because that taste was followed by a nausea reaction, occurring after only one association.

Biological Preparedness

The tendency of animals to learn certain associations, such as taste and nausea, with only one or few pairings due to the survival value of the learning.

Stimulus Substitution

Original theory in which Pavlov stated that classical conditioning occurred because the conditioned stimulus became a substitute for the unconditioned stimulus by being paired closely together.

Cognitive Perspective

Modern theory in which classical conditioning is seen to occur because the conditioned stimulus provides information or an expectancy about the coming of the unconditioned stimulus.

Contingency

One must reasonably predict the appearance of the other.

Operant Conditioning

The learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses.

Edward Thorndike's Law of Effect

Law stating that if a response is followed by a pleasurable consequence, it will tend to be repeated, and if followed by an unpleasant consequence, it will tend not to be repeated.

David Premack Principle

Identify what is reinforcing to the subject.

B. F. Skinner's Contribution

Behaviorist; wanted to study only observable, measurable behavior.

Radical Behaviorism

A perspective that focuses solely on observable behavior.

Operant

Any behavior that is voluntary.

Reinforcement

Any event or stimulus that, when following a response, increases the probability that the response will occur again.

Primary Reinforcer

Any reinforcer that is naturally reinforcing by meeting a basic biological need, such as hunger, thirst, or touch.

Secondary Reinforcer

Any reinforcer that becomes reinforcing after being paired with a primary reinforcer, such as praise, tokens, gold stars, or money.

Positive Reinforcement

The reinforcement of a response by the addition or experiencing of a pleasurable stimulus.

Negative Reinforcement

The reinforcement of a response by the removal, escape from, or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus.

Shaping

The reinforcement of simple steps in behavior that lead to a desired, more complex behavior.

Successive Approximations

Small steps in behavior, one after the other, that lead to a particular goal behavior.

Chaining

Shaping a sequence of events.

Extinction

Occurs if the behavior (response) is not reinforced.

Spontaneous recovery

Re-occurrence of a once extinguished response (also happens in classical conditioning).

Continuous reinforcement

The reinforcement of each and every correct response.

Partial (intermittent) reinforcement

A response that is reinforced after some, but not all, correct responses - very resistant to extinction.

Fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement

Schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is always the same. FR-5 would indicate that every 5th response would be given reinforcement.

Variable ratio schedule of reinforcement

Schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is different for each trial or event. VR-5 would indicate that a response would be given on average of every 5th response 1st through 10th.

Fixed interval schedule

Schedule of reinforcement in which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is always the same. FI-5 would indicate that reinforcement would be given every five minutes.

Variable interval schedule of reinforcement

In which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is different for each trial or event. VI-5 would indicate that ON AVERAGE, every 5 minutes reinforcement would be given.

Punishment

Any event or object that, when following a response, makes that response less likely to happen again.

Positive Punishment

The punishment of a response by the addition or experiencing of an unpleasant stimulus.

Negative Punishment

The punishment of a response by the removal of a pleasurable stimulus.

Effective Punishment

Punishment should immediately follow the behavior it is meant to punish and should be consistent.

Discriminative stimulus

Provides the organism with a cue for making a certain response in order to obtain reinforcement.

Instinctive drift

Tendency for an animal's behavior to revert to genetically controlled patterns.

Behavior modification

the use of operant conditioning techniques to bring about desired changes in behavior.

Token economy

type of behavior modification in which desired behavior is rewarded with tokens.

Time-out

a form of mild punishment by removal in which a misbehaving animal, child, or adult is placed in a special area away from the attention of others.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

modern term for a form of behavior modification that uses shaping to mold a desired behavior or response.

Cognitive Learning Theory

focus was on behavior; later recognized that cognitive processes have a place in the science of psychology.

Latent learning

learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful.

Cognitive map

a mental representation of the layout of one's environment.

Observational learning

learning new behavior by watching a model perform that behavior.

Modeling

the process of observing and imitating behaviors.

Mirror Neurons

fire when performing and observing others doing the activity (imitation and empathy).

Learning/performance distinction

referring to the observation that learning can take place without actual performance of the learned behavior.

Prosocial Effects

positive, constructive, and helpful behavior that can be modeled to help people.

Antisocial Effects

negative and hurtful behavior that we tend to pick up.

Intrinsic motivation

the desire to perform a behavior for its own sake.

Extrinsic motivation

the desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

Overjustification

may discourage the learner from performing a task due to excessive rewards.

Insight

the sudden perception of relationships among various parts of a problem, allowing the solution to the problem to come quickly.

Learned Helplessness

when one continues to fail they end up quitting eventually.