Ap Psych 3.7 Vocab 10/20

Behavioral Perspective

An approach in psychology that focuses strictly on observable, measurable behaviors and how they are acquired and modified through interactions with the environment rather than internal mental states.

• Example: A teacher using verbal praise and reward tokens to encourage students to raise their hands before speaking.

Associative Learning

A fundamental learning process in which an organism forms connections between two or more events, stimuli, or behaviors that occur together.

• Examples:

  • Classical Conditioning (Association): Linking two environmental stimuli to anticipate events (e.g., seeing lightning and anticipating thunder).

  • Operant Conditioning (Reinforcement & Punishment): Associating a voluntary behavior with a consequence (e.g., studying diligently to receive good grades or avoid reprimands).

Habituation (Non-Associative Learning)

A form of non-associative learning where an organism shows a progressively diminished response to a repeated or prolonged stimulus that carries neither reward nor threat.

• Simple Breakdown / Example: Getting used to something over time, such as no longer noticing the hum of an air conditioner or the ticking of a clock after staying in a room for a while.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning pioneered by Ivan Pavlov in which an organism learns to link two stimuli, enabling the presentation of a previously neutral stimulus to evoke an involuntary, anticipatory response.

• Example: Pavlov's dogs learning to salivate at the sound of a metronome or tone after it was repeatedly paired with meat powder.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

In classical conditioning, any stimulus that naturally and automatically evokes a reflexive or physiological response without any prior conditioning or learning.

• Clarification: Another way to think of a stimulus is as an environmental "trigger" or "signal."

• Example: Meat powder placed on a dog's tongue, which automatically triggers salivation.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The unlearned, naturally occurring automatic reaction or reflex elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

• Example: Salivating immediately upon tasting food, or blinking when a sudden puff of air hits the eye.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, acquires the ability to elicit a learned, conditioned response on its own.

• Example: The sound of a bell or metronome after being repeatedly paired with the delivery of food.

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned reaction elicited by a conditioned stimulus alone, established through the associative conditioning process.

• Example: A dog salivating purely in response to hearing a bell tone, prior to any food being presented.

Acquisition

The initial learning phase in classical conditioning during which a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus to establish the conditioned association.

• Example: The training trials where Pavlov presented the tone immediately before presenting meat powder until the dog began reliably salivating to the tone.

Extinction

The gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented alone without the unconditioned stimulus.

• Example: Ringing the bell repeatedly without providing any food, leading the dog to gradually stop salivating to the bell.

Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response following a rest interval or period of non-exposure, demonstrating that extinction inhibits rather than erases the learned association.

• Example: A dog whose salivation response to a bell had extinguished hears the bell a few days later and suddenly salivates again.

Stimulus Discrimination

The learned ability of an organism to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other similar stimuli, displaying the conditioned response only to the specific conditioned cue.

• Example: A dog salivating only to a specific tone of $1000\,\text{Hz}$ that predicts food, while ignoring higher or lower tones that are never paired with food.

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency of an organism to exhibit the conditioned response to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus, without having been directly conditioned to those new stimuli.

• Example: In the "Little Albert" experiment, Albert was conditioned to fear a white laboratory rat and generalized that fear to other white, furry objects such as rabbits, dogs, and a Santa mask.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A classical conditioning process in which an established conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus, transforming the new stimulus into an additional conditioned stimulus without involving the original unconditioned stimulus.

• Layering of Associations: Creating chained or layered associations.

• Example: Pairing a flashing light with Pavlov's conditioned bell until the light alone causes salivation, even though light was never directly paired with food.

Counterconditioning

A behavioral conditioning procedure that replaces an unwanted learned response with a new, desirable response by pairing the trigger stimulus with an incompatible, positive experience.

• Example: Helping a child overcome a fear of rabbits by presenting the rabbit at a safe distance while the child eats their favorite snack, gradually associating the rabbit with comfort.

Taste Aversion

A specialized classical conditioning response where an organism develops a strong avoidance of a specific food or taste after associating it with nausea, illness, or gastrointestinal distress.

• Example: Eating a particular soup, becoming sick hours later from an unrelated stomach virus, and subsequently feeling nauseated whenever smelling or viewing that soup.

One-Trial Conditioning

A form of rapid learning where an enduring association is created after only a single exposure to the paired stimuli, bypassing the typical requirement for multiple reinforcement trials.

• Example: Developing an immediate, lasting aversion to seafood after getting food poisoning just once, or an immediate phobia after an acute traumatic event.

Biological Preparedness

The evolutionary predisposition of organisms to learn certain associations much more rapidly and easily than others, particularly those critical for survival and danger avoidance.

• Example: Animals rapidly developing taste aversions to ingestible substances that cause sickness, but struggling to associate visual or auditory cues with internal nausea.