Learning Theories: Classical and Operant Conditioning

Learning

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

Associative Learning

Learning that certain events occur together.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli and anticipate events.

Respondent Behavior

Automatically responding to stimuli we do not control.

Operant Conditioning

Learning to associate a response and its consequence, producing operant behaviors.

Cognitive Learning

Acquiring mental information that guides behavior.

Observational Learning

Learning new behaviors by observing events and watching others.

Behaviorism

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

Ivan Pavlov

A Russian physiologist who created novel experiments on learning and demonstrated classical conditioning.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An event that occurs naturally in response to some stimulus, such as salivation.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Something that naturally and automatically triggers the unlearned response, such as food in the mouth triggering salivation.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Originally a neutral stimulus that, after association with a US, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response to the originally neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.

Acquisition

The first stage in classical conditioning, associating a neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction

Diminished responding that occurs if the conditioned stimulus appears repeatedly by itself without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a weakened conditioned response following a rest period.

Generalization

The tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to a conditioned stimulus.

Discrimination

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

Importance of Pavlov's Work

Pavlov taught us that significant psychological phenomena can be studied objectively and that classical conditioning applies to all species.

Applications of Classical Conditioning

Techniques used to improve human health and well-being, including behavioral therapy for psychological disorders.

Watson's Application of Pavlov's Principles

Watson applied classical conditioning principles in his studies of 'Little Albert' to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned.

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which a behavior becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to recur if followed by a punisher.

B. F. Skinner

A college English major and aspiring writer who later entered graduate school for psychology, becoming modern behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure.

Operant behavior reinforcement

The behavior of rats or pigeons placed in an operant chamber can be shaped by using reinforcers to guide successive approximations of the desired behavior.

Positive reinforcement

Adds a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior.

Negative reinforcement

Reduces or removes an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior.

Primary reinforcers

Innately satisfying reinforcers that require no learning, such as receiving food when hungry.

Conditioned (or secondary) reinforcers

Reinforcers that are satisfying because we have learned to associate them with more basic rewards, such as money.

Immediate reinforcers

Reinforcers that offer immediate payback, such as a food reward given right after a desired behavior.

Delayed reinforcers

Reinforcers that require the ability to delay gratification, such as a paycheck.

Reinforcement schedule

Defines how often a response will be reinforced.

Continuous reinforcement

Reinforcing desired responses every time they occur, leading to rapid learning but also rapid extinction if rewards cease.

Partial (intermittent) reinforcement

Reinforcing responses only sometimes, resulting in slower initial learning but greater resistance to extinction.

Fixed-ratio schedules

Reinforce behaviors after a set number of responses.

Variable-ratio schedules

Reinforce behaviors after an unpredictable number of responses.

Fixed-interval schedules

Reinforce behaviors after set time periods.

Variable-interval schedules

Reinforce behaviors after unpredictable time periods.

Punishment

Administers an undesirable consequence or withdraws something desirable to decrease the frequency of a behavior.

Negative reinforcement vs. punishment

Negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus to increase behavior, while punishment aims to decrease behavior.

Drawbacks of physical punishment

Includes suppressing unwanted behaviors, failing to provide direction for appropriate behavior, encouraging discrimination, creating fear, and teaching aggression.

Controversy of Skinner's ideas

Critics believed the approach dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and seeking to control their actions.

Application of Skinner's principles

Reinforcement is more humane than punishment; teachers can use shaping techniques and interactive media for immediate feedback.

LearningCurve

An adaptive quizzing tool available in Achieve that provides feedback and allows students to direct the pace of their own learning.

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning where an organism learns associations between its own behavior and resulting events, involving operant behavior that produces rewarding or punishing consequences.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning where an organism forms associations between stimuli—events it does not control—resulting in automatic responses to some stimulus.

Observational Learning

Learning by watching and imitating others, rather than through direct experience.

Neural Mirroring

The ability of the brain's frontal lobes to mirror the activity of another's brain, potentially enabling imitation and observational learning.

Prosocial Modeling

Modeling behavior that is positive, constructive, and helpful, which children tend to imitate.

Antisocial Modeling

Modeling behavior that is negative or harmful, which children may also imitate.

Violence-Viewing Effect

The phenomenon where media violence contributes to aggression, potentially through imitation and desensitization.

Memory

Learning that persists over time, measured through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.

Memory Models

Frameworks used by psychologists to explain how the brain forms and retrieves memories, including processes like encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Information-Processing Model

A model that involves three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval, explaining how information is processed in the brain.

Parallel Processing

The brain's ability to process multiple things simultaneously.

Connectionism Model

An information-processing model that views memories as products of interconnected neural networks.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

A memory model that includes three processing stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Working Memory

The active processing that occurs when short-term memories combine with long-term memories.

Automatic Processing

The subconscious process that allows information to slip into long-term memory without conscious attention.

Working Memory

The active 'scratch pad' processing that occurs at the stage when our short-term memories combine with our long-term memories.

Automatic Processing

Processing that occurs behind the scenes to allow information to slip into long-term memory without the need to consciously attend to it.

Explicit Memories

Conscious memories of facts and experiences that form through effortful processing, requiring conscious effort and attention.

Implicit Memories

Memories of learned skills and classically conditioned associations that happen without our awareness, through automatic processing.

Incidental Information

Information about space, time, and frequency, and familiar or well-learned information, such as sounds, smells, and word meanings, that we process automatically.

Sensory Memory

Feeds some information into working memory for active processing.

Iconic Memory

A very brief (a few tenths of a second) sensory memory of visual stimuli.

Echoic Memory

A 3- or 4-second sensory memory of auditory stimuli.

Short-Term Memory Capacity

About seven bits of information, plus or minus two, but this information disappears from memory quickly without rehearsal.

Effortful Processing Strategies

Effective strategies such as chunking, mnemonics, and hierarchies that boost our ability to form new memories.

Distributed Practice

Sessions that produce better long-term recall, also known as the spacing effect.

Testing Effect

The finding that consciously retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information enhances memory.

Depth of Processing

Affects long-term retention, with shallow processing encoding words based on their letters or sound, and deep processing encoding words based on their meaning.

Self-Reference Effect

The phenomenon where we more easily remember material when we learn and rephrase it into personally meaningful terms.

Anterograde Amnesia

An inability to form new memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

An inability to retrieve old memories.

Encoding Failure

Normal forgetting that happens because we have never encoded information.

Storage Decay

Normal forgetting that occurs because the physical memory trace has faded.

Retrieval Failure

Normal forgetting that happens because we cannot retrieve what we have encoded and stored.

Proactive Interference

When prior learning interferes with recall of new information.

Retroactive Interference

When new learning disrupts recall of old information.

Motivated Forgetting

Forgetting that occurs, but researchers have found little evidence of repression.

Misinformation Effect

The phenomenon where exposure to misleading information can corrupt our stored memories of what actually happened.

Source Amnesia

When we attribute a memory to the wrong source, which helps explain déjà vu.

Misinformation effect

A phenomenon where a person's recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate due to post-event information.

Source amnesia

The inability to remember where, when, or how one has learned something, leading to confusion about the origin of a memory.

Repressed memories

Memories of traumatic events that are unconsciously blocked from awareness.

Recovered memories

Memories that are brought back to consciousness, often during therapy, which were previously repressed.

Childhood sexual abuse

A form of abuse that is recognized as occurring, leading to discussions about memory reliability and recovery.

Eyewitness descriptions

Accounts given by witnesses of an event, which can be distorted by memory influences and suggestive questioning.

Suggestive interviewing techniques

Methods of questioning that can lead to the creation of false memories in witnesses.

Memory strategies

Techniques such as rehearsal, meaningful material, retrieval cues, mnemonic devices, and self-testing to improve memory.

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Metacognition

Cognition about our cognition, involving tracking and evaluating our mental processes.

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people that help simplify and order our understanding of the world.

Prototypes

Best examples or mental representations of a category that help in forming concepts.

Algorithm

A methodical rule or procedure that guarantees a solution to a problem.

Heuristic

A simpler, speedier mental shortcut used to make judgments and solve problems, though more error-prone than algorithms.

Insight

A sudden flash of inspiration that provides a solution to a problem, not based on strategy.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.

Fixation

An obstacle to problem solving that prevents taking a fresh perspective on a problem.

Intuition

Effortless, immediate, automatic feelings or thoughts used instead of systematic reasoning.