Introduction to Learning: Habituation, Associative Learning, and Classical Conditioning

Vocabulary flashcards covering the introductory concepts of learning, including habituation, sensory adaptation, cognitive forms of learning, operant conditioning, and the specific components of classical conditioning.

Habituation

The simplest form of learning, characterized by a decrease in an attentional response after the repeated presentation of a stimulus.

Sensory adaptation

A physiological reduction in the ability to report a sensation that occurs when sensory receptors stop transducing and sending messages to the brain.

Infant visual habituation control procedure

A research method used to rule out fatigue or sleepiness in infants by presenting a new visual pattern after they have stopped looking at a repeated pattern.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

A psychological disorder characterized by high environmental vigilance, difficulty habituating to stimuli, and an exaggerated startle response.

Associative learning

A form of learning more complex than habituation that involves learning that two or more things go together, specifically categorized into classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning

A form of associative learning in which an organism learns to produce an existing, reflex-like response to a new stimulus in a new situation.

Pavlov

A Russian physiologist studying digestive enzymes in dogs who is credited with discovering classical conditioning after noticing dogs salivated to the arrival of a lab caretaker before receiving food.

Operant conditioning

A type of associative learning involving voluntary behavior, where behaviors are associated with subsequent consequences that make the behavior more or less likely to occur in the future.

Observational learning

A cognitive form of learning where an individual observes someone modeling a behavior and later imitates that behavior based on cognitive processes such as memory, motivation, and expected rewards.

Latent learning

A cognitive form of learning in which knowledge is acquired but remains dormant or hidden without being demonstrated until a later time.

Cognitive map

A mental representation or spatial abstraction of an environment (such as a school campus) that allows an organism to successfully navigate unfamiliar paths.

Stimulus

Any environmental energy that an organism's sensory receptors can detect and to which it may or may not respond.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

An unlearned stimulus that reliably and automatically elicits a reflex-like response without prior experience or training.

Unconditioned response (UR)

An unlearned, reflex-like response that is biologically elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, acquires the ability to elicit a learned, reflex-like response.

Conditioned response (CR)

A learned response elicited by a conditioned stimulus that typically anticipates the unconditioned stimulus and is often weaker than the unconditioned response.

Twitmeyer

A graduate student in Pennsylvania who independently discovered classical conditioning while studying the patellar reflex when an auditory warning tone caused subjects to move their leg even when the hammer dropped failed to occur.