learning

week 8

learning

any relatively permanent change in the way an organism responds based on its experience

stimulus

something in the environment that elicits a response

habituation

refers to the decreasing strength of a reflex response after repeated presentations of the stimulus

classical conditioning

a procedure by which a previously NS comes to elicit a response after it is paired w/ a stimulus that automatically elicits that response

unconditioned stimulus

stimulus that produces the response in an unconditioned reflex

unconditioned response

an organism’s unlearned, automatic response to a stimulus

conditioned response

a response that has been learned

conditioned stimulus

a stimulus that evokes a CR

acquisition

the initial stage of learning in which the CR becomes associated w/ the CS

phobias

irrational fears of specific objects or situation

interstimulus interval

the duration of time b/w presentation of the CS and the UCS

• factor affecting CC

long-term potentiation

refers to the tendency of a group of neurons to fire more readily after consistent stimulation from other neurons

operant conditioning

learning to operate on the environment to produce a consequence

reinforcement

conditioning process that increases the probability that a response will occur

punishment

a conditioning process that decreases the probability that a behaviour5 will occur

superstitious behaviour

a phenomenon that occurs when the learner erroneously associates an operant and an environmental event

extinction

occurs if enough conditioning trials pass in which the operant is not followed by the consequence previously associated with it

continuous reinforcement schedule

when the environmental consequences are the same each time an organism emits a behaviour

response contingency

a connection might exist between a behaviour and a consequence

discriminative stimulus

a stimulus that signals the presence of particular contingencies of reinforcement

shaping

the process of teaching a new behavior by reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the desired response

successive approximations

a process of rewarding those behaviours that move the subject progressively closer to the desired behaviour

biofeedback

a procedure for monitoring autonomic physiological processes and learning to alter them at will

chaining

involves putting together a sequence of existing responses in a novel order

characteristics of the learner

• capitalising on past behaviours

• enduring characteristics of the learrner

• species-specific behaviour & prepardness

cognitive-social theory

a theory of learning that emphasises the role of thought and social learning in behaviour

latent learning

learning that has occurred but is not currently manifest in behaviour

insight

the sudden understanding of the relation between a problem and a solution

social learning

learning in which individuals learn many things from the people around them w/ or w/o reinforcement

observational learning

learning by observing the behaviour of others

modelling

a social learning procedure in which a person learns to reproduce behaviour exhibited by a model

law of association

basic principles used to account for learning and memory,

• describe the conditions under which one thought becomes connected w/ another

• reokaced w/ the law of prediciton

law of contiguity

proposes that two events will become connected in the mind if they are experienced close together in time

• such as thunder and lightning

law of similarity

states that objects that resemble each other are likely to become associated.

• such as two people with similar faces

law of effect

an animal’s tendency to reproduce a behaviour depends on that behaviour’s effect on the environment and the consequent effect on the animal

stimulus generalisation

occurs when an organism learns to respond to stimuli that resemble the CS with a similar response

discrimination

occurs when an organism learns to respond to a restricted range of stimuli.