3.7 -3.9 AP Psych Alberts

Dr. John Garcia

studied taste aversion and its effects on rats

Daisy ate bad mayonnaise and hours later became ill. Daisy now has an aversion to mayonnaise and becomes nauseous at the sight or smell of it.

What is the neutral stimulus and the negative stimulus

neutral stimulus = mayonnaise

negative stimulus = nausea

Higher-order conditioning

the pairing of an existing conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit an additional conditioned response

• ex. pairing sound with a light

Edward Thorndike

law of effect

law of effect

that behaviors that provide a favorable response will be repeated

Spontaneous recovery

when a conditioned response reappears after it has been extinguished for some time

Stimulus Discrimination

When one can distinguish between different stimuli and respond differently to each

Acquisition

the stage in which the association between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is acquired

• ex. bee (CS) pain of the sting (UCS)

Classical conditioning

The acquisition of a learned involuntary response to a stimulus

• Ivan Pavlov

Aversive conditioning

pairing an aversive stimulus with another stimulus

George feeds his dog canned dog food, now the dog begins to salivate whenever George gets the can opener out of the drawer.

UCS? UCR? CR? CS?

UCS = dog food (would naturally lead to a response)

UCR = salivating to the dog food

CR = salivation to the can opener

CS = can opener

John B Watson

Litle Albert

• Classical conditioning

Katarina visits a sandwich ship and has a tuna melt. She gets food sick (nausea and discomfort). Now every time she passed the shop, she feels sick.

UCS? UCR? CR? CS?

UCS= tuna melt (elicits a response w/out any learning)

UCR = becoming sick

CR = feeling sick driving past (learned response)

CS = The sandwich shop

variable ratio schedule of reinforcement

• behaviors that are reinforced some of the time have much higher resistance to extinction than behaviors that are reinforced continuously

Continuous reinforcement

a schedule of reinforcement where behavior is reinforced every time it is performed

Positive punishment

the behavior is encouraged to decrease by adding an aversive stimulus

Negative reinforcement

increases the likelihood of a behavior by removing something unpleasant

• behavior is encouraged by removing an aversive stimulus

Positive reinforcement

increases the likelihood of a behavior by rewarding it with something positive or pleasant

negative punishment

decreases the likelihood of a behavior by taking away something the recipient likes or desires

Intermittent reinforcement

rewarding a behavior at intermittent or irregular times

Primary positive reinforcement

giving a reward that is in itself personally rewarding

secondary reinforcer

one that is not reinforcing in itself, but is one that can be used to trade or purchase another item

variable-ratio schedule

• reinforcement is random and unpredictable

• participants will produce a consistently high number of responses in a short amount of time

• less subject to extinction and more permanent

fixed-interval schedule

• reinforcement occurs after a set amount of time

• produces a slow rate of responding with spikes around the time reinforcement is about to occur

variable-interval schedule

• reinforcement occurs after a random amount of time

• slow but consistent rate of responses

fixed-ratio schedule

• reinforcement occurs after a set number of responses

• produces a higher rate of responding but not as consistent

learned helplessness

when an organism’s actions fil to improve negative situation and it eventually stops trying, even in situations where it would have the power to make a change.

• the organism receives no reinforcement for doing the “right” thing and therefore stops trying

B.F. Skinner

• operant conditioning

• what we do is in response to the rewards and punishments of our environment

Mirror neurons

neurons that are theorized to be located in the frontal lobe that only fire when we observe others

• empathy and imitation

Sensory neurons

neurons that carry sensory information from the body to the spinal cord and brain

• sensory information

Motor neurons

neurons that send messages from the brain to the spinal cord to the body

• motion

Albert Bandura

• Bobo doll study

• social psychology researcher that demonstrated the impact of observational learning on aggression

Social learning works with

modeling and observational learning

Vicarious reinforcement

A person observing another individual getting a reward learns to anticipate the same reward for the same actions without experiencing the reward directly

Wolfgang Kohler

• experiment with monkeys and insight

• insight produces new solutions

Edward Tolman

• Timing rats trying to escape from a maze

• theory of latent learning

Social learning theory

proposes that gender identity develops through observing others and imitating their “male” or “female” behaviors

Gender typing

how one becomes aware of their gender and begins to act according to how they believe a person of that gender should act

Gender roles

how a certain society expects males or females to act

Theory of mind

the ability to understand how one’s own beliefs and expectations may differ from someone else’s