PSYC 3220: Fundamentals of Learning, Behavior, and Conditioning

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental concepts, definitions, and experimental paradigms in learning and conditioning, including innate behaviors, classical conditioning, conditioned suppression, habituation, and opponent processes.

Autoshaping (Sign Tracking)

A phenomenon in which an animal directs operant-like behavior toward a stimulus that signals an appetitive outcome (such as a pigeon pecking a keylight that predicts food delivery) even though pecking is not required to receive the outcome.

Appetitive Conditioning

A form of classical conditioning in which the unconditioned stimulus (US) is a pleasant or desirable event, such as food, water, or stimulation of the brain's pleasure centers.

Aversive Conditioning

A form of conditioning where the unconditioned stimulus (US) is unpleasant, painful, or noxious, such as an air puff to the cornea or a foot shock.

Eye-Blink Conditioning

An aversive classical conditioning paradigm used in humans and rabbits where a neutral conditioned stimulus (such as an auditory tone) is paired with a corneal air puff (US) until the tone alone elicits an eye-blink response (CR).

Conditioned Suppression (Conditioned Emotional Response / CER)

A classical conditioning procedure in which a conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (such as foot shock) suppresses an ongoing operant behavior (such as lever pressing for food) due to fear or freezing.

Suppression Ratio

A quantitative metric used to assess the strength of conditioned fear or suppression, calculated as: $\text{Suppression Ratio} = \frac{\text{Bar presses during CS}}{\text{Bar presses during CS} + \text{Bar presses pre-CS}}$ A ratio of $0.5$ indicates no conditioning/fear, values approaching $0$ indicate strong fear/suppression, and values above $0.5$ indicate the CS acts as a safety signal.

Conditioned Compensatory Response

A conditioned response (CR) that is opposite in direction to the unconditioned response (UR), often observed in drug conditioning where environmental cues elicit an anticipatory physiological reaction counteracting the drug's impact.

Reflex

A simple, unlearned, involuntary response of part of the body to a specific stimulus event (e.g., patellar tendon reflex, gag reflex, rooting reflex).

Tropism

An innate behavioral response involving the movement or orientation of an animal's entire body in relation to an external stimulus.

Kinesis

A subtype of tropism consisting of undirected, random movement of the whole body in response to a stimulus (e.g., the movements of a wood louse).

Taxis

A subtype of tropism consisting of directed whole-body movement toward (positive) or away from (negative) a stimulus source (e.g., maggots moving away from light, or moths moving toward light).

Modal Action Pattern (MAP)

A largely inherited series of interrelated, species-typical behavioral acts elicited by a specific releaser stimulus; it typically runs to completion once initiated and requires no prior exposure to role models (formerly called fixed action patterns or instincts).

Releaser

A specific environmental sign stimulus that reliably triggers a modal action pattern (e.g., the red underside of a rival male three-spined stickleback).

Supernormal Stimulus

An artificial or exaggerated stimulus that elicits a stronger behavioral reaction than the natural evolutionary releaser (e.g., an oystercatcher attempting to brood an oversized artificial egg, or jewel beetles attempting to copulate with dimpled beer bottles).

Learning (Chance Definition)

A change in behavior due to experience.

Learning (Domjan Definition)

An enduring change in the mechanisms of behavior involving specific stimuli and/or responses that results from prior experience with those or similar stimuli and responses.

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs in the absence of explicit reinforcement and remains unexpressed in performance until an incentive or reward is provided, as demonstrated by Blodgett (1929) with rats in a maze.

Massed vs. Distributed Practice

Two schedules of motor learning; massed practice consists of continuous training with minimal rest between trials, whereas distributed practice spaces trials with rest intervals, resulting in superior performance and learning on tasks such as the Bachman ladder.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers an innate reflex or physiological response without prior training (e.g., meat powder).

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The unlearned, reflexive physiological reaction produced automatically by an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation elicited by food in the mouth).

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An initially neutral stimulus that, through pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response (e.g., a bell, buzzer, or light).

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response elicited by a conditioned stimulus after classical conditioning has occurred (e.g., salivation to the sound of a bell).

Omission Trial

A conditioning trial in which the unconditioned stimulus (US) is withheld following the conditioned stimulus (CS) to confirm that the conditioned response (CR) occurs to the CS alone.

Extinction

The progressive reduction in magnitude and frequency of a conditioned response that occurs when an established conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented alone without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response following a retention interval or rest period with no additional CS-US training.

Short-Delayed Conditioning

A classical conditioning procedure where the onset of the conditioned stimulus (CS) precedes the unconditioned stimulus (US) by a short interval (typically less than $1\,\text{minute}$), considered the most effective and widely used arrangement.

Trace Conditioning

A conditioning procedure in which the conditioned stimulus (CS) starts and terminates before the unconditioned stimulus (US) is presented, separated by a stimulus-free period known as the trace interval.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A procedure in which an established conditioned stimulus ($\text{CS}_1$) is paired with a new neutral stimulus ($\text{CS}_2$), enabling $\text{CS}_2$ to elicit the conditioned response despite never having been directly paired with the original unconditioned stimulus.

Sensory Preconditioning

A conditioning procedure in which two neutral stimuli ($\text{CS}_1$ and $\text{CS}_2$) are paired together before either is associated with an unconditioned stimulus; subsequent pairing of $\text{CS}_1$ with the US results in $\text{CS}_2$ also eliciting the conditioned response when tested.

Habituation

A decrease in the intensity or probability of a reflex response resulting from repeated, non-reinforced exposure to the eliciting stimulus that cannot be explained by sensory adaptation or motor fatigue.

Sensitization

An increase in the magnitude or probability of a behavioral response resulting from repeated stimulation or presentation of a salient/arousing stimulus.

Dishabituation

The immediate recovery of a habituated response following the presentation of a novel stimulus, demonstrating that the habituation effect is stimulus-specific and not caused by motor exhaustion.

Opponent Process Theory

Solomon and Corbit's homeostatic model positing that an emotional or physiological event triggers a primary 'a-process' followed by a counteracting 'b-process' that restores equilibrium; with repeated exposure, the b-process strengthens, activates faster, and decays more slowly, producing tolerance and withdrawal.

Testing Effect (Test-Enhanced Learning)

The empirical finding demonstrated by Roediger & Karpicke (2006) showing that engaging in retrieval practice through testing yields significantly higher long-term memory retention than equivalent repeated study sessions.

General Behavior Trait

Any broad behavioral tendency strongly influenced by genes (such as introversion or anxiety) that differs from a modal action pattern by exhibiting greater variability across individuals and situations.

Stimulus Control

The phenomenon whereby an operant response occurs at a higher frequency in the presence of a discriminative stimulus ($S^D$) that signals reinforcement than in the presence of an extinction stimulus ($S^\Delta$).