Theories of Learning Exam 1 Study Guide

What is the definition of psychology?

Science that studies human behavior and thinking

Who solved the mind-body problem and how did he resolve it?

Rene Descartes

What is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions about the nature of knowledge and of knowing?

epistemology

What is the definition of a theory?

A collection of related statements whose main function is to summarize and explain observation

What is defined as an educated guess that can be tested?

hypothesis

What are all relatively permanent changes in potential behaviors that result from experience but are not caused by fatigue, maturation, drugs, injury, or disease?

learning

What is the definition of laws?

Statements whose accuracy is beyond reasonable doubt

What is defined as “more private and more personal than principles or laws”?

beliefs

What is defined as statements that relate to some predictability in nature or behavior?

principles

What are the purposes of a theory?

Simplify and organize observations

What is Occam’s razor?

When there are two competing theories that both explain observations

What are the rules of the Scientific Method?

Ask a question, develop a hypothesis, collect relevant observations, test the hypothesis, reach/share a conclusion

What is manipulated in an experiment?

Independent variable

What is the effect of the control or manipulation

Dependent variable

What is defined as the assumption that names are explanations?

Nominal fallacy

What is defined as a subject’s response to being studied (like the Hawthorne effect)?

Subject bias

What is the definition of Experimenter bias?

Experimenter subjectivity may skew research interpretations

What is the least amount of change in stimulation that would be noticeable?

Just noticeable difference (JND)

Who developed Classical Conditioning?

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

What is the definition of Classical Conditioning?

Involves the repeated pairing of two stimuli so that a previously neutral stimulus eventually elicits a response similar to the original elicited by a non-neutral stimulus

What type of learning says that learning always begins with an unlearned response (UR) that can reliably be elicited by a specific stimulus (the US)?

Classical conditioning/reflex

What is defined as the occurrence of things both simultaneously and in the same space (often used to explain classical conditioning)?

contiguity

What is defined as a more complex concept having to do with the effects of a stimulus?

reinforcement

There are numerous variations in contiguity, which is where the CS starts and ends at the exact same time as the US?

simultaneous pairing

There are numerous variations in contiguity, which is where the CS is presented before the US and continues during the presentation of the US?

delayed pairing

There are numerous variations in contiguity, which is where the CS starts and ends before the US?

trace pairing

What is defined as the formation of the stimulus-response association that typically requires a number of pairings of CS and US?

acquisition

What is the transfer of a response from one stimulus to a similar stimulus?

Stimulus generalization

What is defined as responses, stimuli, and reinforces linked in complex ways?

higher order conditioning

Who believed that emotional behavior is simply another example of classical conditioning?

John Watson

Watson believed that all _____________ were born with the same emotional reflexes.

people

(T/F) it is possible to condition positive emotional reactions to neutral stimuli

True

Who demonstrated that counterconditioning can be used to reverse the associated reactions using a small boy named Peter?

Mary Cover Jones

More complex learning simply requires the conditioning of more stimulus-response sequences, eventually leading to what Watson called ________ 

habits

Who developed the Law of One-Shot Learning?

Edwin Guthrie

What theory says a combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement?

One-Shot Learning

Guthrie says when a particular combination of stimuli reliably leads to a particular combination of responses, we have a ___________?

habit

What technique for breaking habits involves presenting the stimulus repeatedly to elicit continued repetition of the undesired response?

Fatigue technique

What techniques for breaking habits involves presenting the stimulus when the response cannot occur?

Incompatible stimuli technique

Who developed Connectionism?

Edward L. Thorndike

Thorndike devised ___________ boxes to put cats in and experiment on them.

Puzzle boxes

Thorndike believed cats learned through _______________________ not insight?

Trial and error

What law says that bonds between stimuli and responses are strengthened through being exercised frequently, recently, and vigorously?

law of exercise

What law says responses just before satisfying states of affairs are more likely to be repeated?

Law of Effect

What subsidiary law applies to satisfiers and annoyers and to the nature of the responses that will be emitted by a person?

Law of set or attitude

What subsidiary law says a person placed in a novel situation may react with responses that might be used in other similar situations?

Law of Response by Analogy

Who developed the Hypothetico-Deductive System?

Clark Hull

Who proposed to develop a logical, scientific, and mathematical system that would fully explain human learning and behavior? 

clark hull

What is defined as the information the psychologist needs to correctly predict how a person will respond?

Input variables (stimuli)

What determines whether a response will occur for a stimulus?

Intervening variables

What are the two fundamental assumptions Skinner’s theory is based on?

Human behavior follows certain laws

Causes of behavior are outside the person and can be observed/studied

Who developed Radical behaviorism?

Skinner

What type of learning is where the responses elicited by a stimulus are labeled respondents (the organism involuntarily reacts to the environment)?

Operant learning

What type of learning is where the responses simply emitted by an organism are labeled operants (the organism voluntarily acts on the environment)?

Operant Learning

How many distinct habits might a rat display inside a Skinner box?

14

Skinner defines a _______________ as an event that follows a response and that changes the probability of a response’s occurring again

reinforcer

What occurs when the consequences of the behavior, when added to a situation after a response, increase the probability of the response occurring again in similar circumstances?

positive reinforcement

What occurs when the probability of a response’s occurring increases as a function of something being taken away from a situation?

Negative reinforcement

The effect of _________________ is the suppression or weakening of the behavior.

punishment

What is it called when a positive contingency is removed?

Positive punishment

What is it called when a negative contingency follows a behavior?

Negative punishment

What is a procedure that increases the probability of a behavior?

Negative reinforcement

What is defined as reinforcement that occurs only some of the time and has longer extinction times but is less efficient for early training?

Intermittent reinforcement

What is the elimination of behavior through the passage of time?

forgetting

What is the technique used to train animals to perform acts that are not ordinarily in their repertoire?

shaping

What involves the linking of sequences of responses and according to Skinner is what makes up most human behaviors?

chaining

What process is using both generalization and discrimination?

fading

This involves making similar responses in different situations.

generalization

What is defined involves making different responses in similar but different situations?

discrimination

What are the examples of sources of reinforcement (e.g. categories of reinforcers)?

Consumables, manipulatives, visual/auditory stimuli, social stimuli, tokens