Psych- classical conditioning

Learning

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

Associative learning

learning that certain events occur together

ex. either classical or operant conditioning 

Stimulus

an event or situation that evokes a response

Conditioning

the process of learning associations

What kind of behaviors do we exhibit within classical conditioning?

respondent behaviors

ex. we associate stimuli that we do not control, and we automatically respond 

What kinds of behaviors do we exhibit within operant conditioning?

operant behaviors

ex. we associate a response (our behavior) and its 
consequence 

Cognitive learning

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

Observational learning

a form of cognitive learning in which we learn from others’ experiences

Which psychologist demonstrated associative learning through experiments with dogs?

Ivan Pavlov

Classical conditioning

a type of learning where one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

ex. makes associations

Which school of thought does classical conditioning belong to?

behaviorism

What were the two main points that behaviorism emphasized?

1. psychology should be an objective science that

2. studies behavior without reference to mental processes

ex. modern psychologists agree with point 1 but not 2

Neutral stimulus (NS)

a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response

ex. not learned

Unconditioned response (UR)

an unlearned and naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (such as food in the mouth)

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

an originally neutral stimulus, that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR) 

Conditioned response (CR)

a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

What are the five main conditioning processes?

• acquisition

• extinction

• spontaneous recovery

• generalization

• discrimination

Acquisition 

the initial learning of an association 

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response that occurs when the CS no longer signals an US

Spontaneous recovery

the reappearance of a weakened stimulus after a pause

Generalization 

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses 

Discrimination

the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli

Who was John B. Watson?

a psychologist who focused on classical conditioning

What were the “Little Albert” experiments?

experiments performed by Watson to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned

ex. in this case the fear of rats 

Within Pavlov’s salivation experiments with dogs, what were the different stimuli and responses?

US: the food

UR: salivation to the food

NS: sound of the bell

CS: sound of the bell

CR: salivation to the bell