Unit 4 Psychology Vocab

Learning

The process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

Habituates

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together; may involve two stimuli or a response and its consequence.

Stimulus

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Respondent behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.

Operant behaviors

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.

Cognitive Learning

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, watching others, or through language.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; a stimulus comes to elicit behavior in anticipation of a second stimulus.

Behaviorism

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

Neutral stimuli (NS)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

Unconditioned response (UR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that unconditionally triggers an unconditioned response.

Conditioned response (CR)

A learned response to a previously neutral, now conditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response after association with an unconditioned stimulus.

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Higher-order conditioning

A procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The diminishing of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Discrimination

The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

Law of effect

Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely.

Operant Chamber

A chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a reinforcer.

Reinforcement

Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows in operant conditioning.

Shaping

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Discriminative Stimulus

A stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers that strengthen the response.

Negative reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing aversive stimuli.

Primary reinforcers

An innately reinforcing stimulus that satisfies a biological need.

Conditioned reinforcers

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through association with a primary reinforcer.

Reinforcement schedules

A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced.

Continuous reinforcement

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedules

Reinforcing a response only part of the time.

Fixed-ratio schedule

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Variable-interval schedules

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Punishment

An event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.

Positive punishment

Adding undesirable consequences to weaken behavior.

Negative punishment

Removing desirables to weaken behavior.

Biofeedback

A system for electronically recording and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state.

Preparedness

A biological predisposition to learn associations that have survival value.

Instinctive drift

The tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biological predisposed patterns.

Cognitive map

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

Latent learning

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

Insight

A sudden realization of a problem's solution.

Intrinsic motivation

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

Extrinsic motivation

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

Problem-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor.

Emotion-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by attending to emotional needs.

Personal control

Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

Learned helplessness

The passive resignation an animal or person learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

External locus of control

The perception that outside forces determine our fate.

Internal locus of control

The perception that we control our own fate.

Self-control

The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification.

Observational learning

Learning by observing others.

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Mirror Neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when we perform or observe actions.

Prosocial

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior.