Intro to Psych: Classical Conditioning Terms

Learning

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

Reflex

an unlearned, involuntary response

Stimulus

anything that causes a response

Classical Conditioning

learning to make an involuntary response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the response

Unconditioned Stimulus

naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary and unlearned response

Unconditioned Response

an involuntary and unlearned response to a naturally occurring or unconditioned stimulus

Neutral Stimulus

stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response. paired with unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus

stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with Unconditioned Stimulus. previously neutral stimulus that becomes able to produce a Conditioned Response.

Conditioned Response

the behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus. a learned reflex-like response triggered by Conditioned stimulus.

Acquisition

initial period of learning in which an organism connects a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus

Extinction

decrease in the conditioned response (CR) when the Unconditioned Stimulus is no longer presented with the Conditioned Stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

return of a previously extinguished conditioned response following a rest period

Stimulus Discrimination

when an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar to the original training Conditioned Stimulus.

Stimulus Generalization

when an organism demonstrates the conditioned

response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus (even though never paired with Unconditioned Stimulus)