AP Psychology: Unit 4 Flashcards

Behavioral Perspective

Focuses on how behavior is learned through interaction with the environment.

Classical Conditioning

Learning by linking two things together to create a new response.

Association

Connecting two events or stimuli in your mind.

Acquisition

The process of learning when the connection between a stimulus and response is made.

Associative Learning

Learning by making connections between things.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

Something that naturally causes a reaction (like food causing salivation).

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The automatic reaction to a stimulus (like salivating to food).

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Something that is learned to cause a reaction (like a bell after conditioning).

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus (like salivating to a bell).

Extinction

When a learned behavior disappears because the stimulus is no longer paired.

Spontaneous Recovery

When a behavior that was "gone" suddenly comes back.

Stimulus Discrimination

Telling the difference between similar things and responding only to the correct one.

Stimulus Generalization

Reacting the same way to things that are similar to the original stimulus.

Higher-Order Conditioning

Using a conditioned stimulus to create a new conditioned stimulus.

Counterconditioning

Changing a bad reaction to a good one through new pairings.

Taste Aversion

Avoiding a certain food after getting sick from it once.

One-Trial Conditioning

Learning something in one try, like associating food with sickness.

Biological Preparedness

We're naturally ready to learn some associations, like fearing snakes.

One-Trial Learning

Learning something important after just one experience.

Habituation

Getting used to something and reacting less to it over time.

Operant Conditioning

Learning based on rewards and punishments.

Reinforcement

Anything that makes a behavior happen more often.

Punishment

Anything that makes a behavior happen less often.

Law of Effect

Behaviors followed by good things are repeated; bad outcomes make them less likely.

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something good to increase a behavior (like giving candy).

Negative Reinforcement

Taking away something bad to increase a behavior (like stopping a loud noise by pressing a button).

Primary Reinforcers

Things that motivate behavior because they satiate an individual's basic survival needs, like food or water.

Secondary Reinforcers

A stimulus that reinforces a behavior after it has been associated with a primary reinforcer, like praise or money.

Reinforcement Discrimination

Knowing when you will or won't get a reward, like being told to choose an apple from a bowl of fruits.

Reinforcement Generalization

Reacting the same way to similar situations where you've been rewarded before.

Shaping

Rewarding small steps toward the desired behavior.

Instinctive Drift

Animals going back to their natural instincts even after being trained.

Superstitious Behavior

Accidentally linking a behavior to a reward, even if they aren't connected.

Learned Helplessness

Giving up after repeatedly failing to escape or solve a problem.

Reinforcement Schedules

Rules for when and how often rewards are given.

Continuous Reinforcement

Rewarding every time a behavior happens.

Partial Reinforcement

Rewarding only some of the time.

Fixed Interval

Rewarding after a set amount of time.

Variable Interval

Rewarding after different amounts of time.

Fixed Ratio

Rewarding after a set number of behaviors.

Variable Ratio

Rewarding after a random number of behaviors (very addictive, like gambling).

Scalloped Graph

A pattern of pauses and bursts of activity seen with fixed interval rewards.

Social Learning Theory

Learning by watching others.

Vicarious Conditioning

Learning by seeing others get rewarded or punished.

Modeling

Copying the behavior of someone else.

Insight Learning

A sudden "aha!" moment where you figure something out.

Latent Learning

Learning that's hidden until you need to use it.

Cognitive Maps

Mental pictures of places to help you navigate.

Procosical

Actions that benefit other people or society as a whole.

Antisocial

Behavior that disregard the rights and well-being of others.

Intrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

Extrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

Problem Focused Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly—by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

Emotion Focused Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction.

Watson

Founder of behaviorism; showed fear could be learned through classical conditioning in the "Little Albert" experiment.

Skinner

Studied operant conditioning; showed how behavior is controlled by reinforcement and punishment using the Skinner box.

Bandura

Showed that people learn by observing others; famous for the Bobo doll experiment and social learning theory.

Garcia

Discovered taste aversion and biological preparedness; showed that some associations are learned faster than others.

Pavlov

Discovered classical conditioning; trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by pairing it with food.