EXAM 1: LEARNING PROCESS

Association

A connection between the representations of two events (two stimuli or a stimulus and a response) such that the occurrence of one of the events activates the representation of the other.

Dualism

The view of behavior according to which actions can be separated into two categories: voluntary behavior controlled by the mind and involuntary behavior controlled by reflex mechanisms.

Empiricism

A philosophy according to which all ideas in the mind arise from experience.

Fatigue

A temporary decrease in behavior caused by repeated or excessive use of the muscles involved in the behavior.

Hedonism

The philosophy proposed by Hobbes according to which the actions of organisms are determined by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain.

Learning

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

Maturation

A change in behavior caused by physical or physiological development of the organism in the absence of experience with particular environmental events.

Nativism

A philosophy according to which human beings are born with innate ideas.

Nervism

The philosophical position adopted by Pavlov that all behavioral and physiological processes are regulated by the nervous system.

Nonsense syllable

A three-letter combination (two consonants separated by a vowel) that has no meaning.

Performance

An organism's activities at a particular time.

Reflex

A mechanism that enables a specific environmental event to elicit a specific response.

a process

Same as the primary process in the opponent process theory of motivation.

afferent neuron

A neuron that transmits messages from sense organs to the central nervous system. Also called sensory neuron.

appetitive behavior

Behavior that occurs early in a natural behavior sequence and serves to bring the organism in contact with a releasing stimulus. (See also general search mode and focal search mode.)

b process

Same as the opponent process in the opponent process theory of motivation.

consummatory behavior

Behavior that serves to bring a natural sequence of behavior to consummation or completion. Consummatory responses are usually species-typical modal action patterns.

drug tolerance

Reduction in the effectiveness of a drug as a result of repeated use of the drug.

efferent neuron

A neuron that transmits impulses to muscles. Also called a motor neuron.

fatigue

A temporary decrease in behavior caused by repeated or excessive use of the muscles involved in the behavior.

focal search mode

The second component of the feed- ing behavior sequence following general search, in which the organism engages in behavior focused on a particular location or stimulus that is indicative of the presence of food. Focal search is a form of appetitive behavior that is more closely related to food than general search.

food handling and ingestion mode

The last component of the feeding behavior sequence, in which the organism handles and consumes the food. This is similar to what ethologists referred to as consummatory behavior.

general search mode

The earliest component of the feeding behavior sequence, in which the organism engages in nondirected locomotor behavior. General search is a form of appetitive behavior.

habituation effect

A progressive decrease in the vigor of elicited behavior that may occur with repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus.

habituation process

A neural mechanism activated by repetitions of a stimulus that reduces the magnitude of responses elicited by that stimulus.

interneuron

A neuron in the spinal cord that transmits impulses from afferent (or sensory) to efferent (or motor) neurons.

modal action pattern (MAP)

A response pattern exhibited by most, if not all, members of a species in much the same way. Modal action patterns are used as basic units of behavior in ethological investigations of behavior.

motor neuron

Same as efferent neurons.

opponent process

A compensatory mechanism that occurs in response to the primary process elicited by biologically significant events. The opponent process causes physiological and behavioral changes that are the opposite of those caused by the primary process. Also called the b process.

primary process

The first process in the opponent process theory of motivation that is elicited by a biologically significant stimulus. Also called "a process".

reflex

A close relation between an eliciting stimulus and a resulting response that is mediated by a neural circuit (the reflex arc) that links afferent neurons activated by the stimulus with efferent neurons that trigger response output. As a consequence, the eliciting stimu- lus usually produces the reflex response, which rarely occurs otherwise.

releasing stimulus

Same as sign stimulus.

sensitization effect

An increase in the vigor of elicited behavior that may result from repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus or from exposure to a strong extraneous stimulus.

sensitization process

A neural mechanism that increases the magnitude of responses elicited by a stimulus.

sensory adaptation

A temporary reduction in the sensitivity of sense organs caused by repeated or excessive stimulation.

Sensory Neuron

Same as afferent neuron.

Sign stimulus

A specific feature of an object or animal that elicits a modal action pattern. Also called releasing stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery

Return of responding to base- line levels produced by a period of rest after habituation or sensitization.

S-R system

The shortest neural pathway that connects the sense organs stimulated by an eliciting stimulus and the muscles involved in making the elicited response.

state system

Neural structures that determine the gen- eral level of responsiveness, or arousal of the organism.

Supernormal stimulus

A sign stimulus whose features have been artificially enhanced or exaggerated to produce an abnormally large modal action pattern.

autoshaping

Same as sign tracking.backward conditioning A procedure in which the CSis presented shortly after the US on each trial.

compound-stimulus test

A test procedure that identi- fies a stimulus as a conditioned inhibitor if that stimulus reduces the response elicited by a conditioned excitatory stimulus. Also called the summation test.

conditional or conditioned response (CR)

The response that comes to be made to the CS as a result of classical conditioning.

conditional or conditioned stimulus(CS)

A stimulus that does not elicit a particular response initially, but comes to do so as a result of becoming associated with an US.

conditioned suppression

Suppression of ongoing behavior (e.g., drinking or lever pressing for food) produced by the presentation of a CS that has been conditioned to elicit fear through association with an aversive US.

conditioning trial

A training episode involving presentation of a CS with (or without) a US.

CS-US interval

Same as interstimulus interval.

evaluative conditioning

Changing the hedonic value or liking of an initially neutral stimulus by having that stimulus associated with something that is already liked or disliked.

explicitly unpaired control

A procedure in which both CS and US are presented, but with sufficient time between them so that they do not become associ- ated with each other.

goal tracking

Conditioned behavior elicited by a CS that consists of approaching the location where the US is usually presented.

inhibitory conditioning

A type of classical condi- tioning in which the CS becomes a signal for the absence of the US.

interstimulus interval

The amount of time that elapses between the start of the CS and the start of the US during a classical conditioning trial. Also called the CS-US interval.

intertrial interval

The amount of time that elapses between two successive trials.

latency

The time elapsed between a stimulus (or the start of a trial) and the response that is made to the stimulus.

lick-suppression procedure

A procedure for testing fear conditioning in which presentation of a fear- conditioned CS slows down the rate of drinking.

long-delayed conditioning

A conditioning procedure in which the US occurs more than several minutes after the start of the CS, as in taste-aversion learning.

magnitude of a response

A measure of the size, vigor, or extent of a response.

object learning

Learning associations between different stimulus features of an object, such as what it looks like and how it tastes

probability of a response

The likelihood of making the response, usually represented in terms of the percentage of trials on which the response occurs.

pseudo-conditioning

Increased responding that may occur to a stimulus whose presentations are intermixed with presentations of a US in the absence of the establish- ment of an association between the stimulus and the US.

random control procedure

A procedure in which the CS and US are presented at random times with respect to each other.

retardation of acquisition test

A test procedure that identifies a stimulus as a conditioned inhibitor if that stimulus is slower to acquire excitatory properties than a comparison stimulus.

short-delayed conditioning

A classical conditioning procedure in which the CS is initiated shortly before the US on each conditioning trial.

sign tracking

Movement toward and possibly contact with a stimulus that signals the availability of a positive reinforcer, such as food. Also called autoshaping.

simultaneous conditioning

A classical conditioning procedure in which the CS and the US are presented at the same time on each conditioning trial.

summation test

Same as compound-stimulus test.

temporal coding hypothesis

The idea that Pavlovian conditioning procedures lead not only to learning that the US happens but exactly when it occurs in relation to the CS. The CS represents (or codes) the timing of the US.

test trial

A trial in which the CS is presented without the US. This allows measurement of the CR in the absence of the UR.

trace conditioning

A classical conditioning proce- dure in which the US is presented after the CS has been terminated for a short period.

trace interval

The interval between the end of the CS and the start of the US in trace-conditioning trials.

unconditional or unconditioned response (UR)

A response that occurs to a stimulus without the necessity of prior training.

unconditional or unconditioned stimulus (US)

A stimulus that elicits a particular response without the necessity of prior training.

blocking effect

Interference with the conditioning of a novel stimulus because of the presence of a previously conditioned stimulus.

comparator hypothesis

The idea that conditioned responding depends on a comparison between the associative strength of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the associative strength of other cues present during training of the target CS.

conditioned compensatory-response

A conditioned response opposite in form to the reaction elicited by the US and that therefore compensates for this reaction.

conditioned diminution of the UR

A reduction in the magnitude of the response to an unconditioned stimulus caused by presentation of a CS that had been conditioned with that US.

CS-preexposure effect

Interference with conditioning produced by repeated exposures to the CS before the conditioning trials. Also called latent-inhibition effect.

drug tolerance

Reduction in the effectiveness of a drug as a result of repeated use of the drug.

higher-order conditioning

A procedure in which a previously conditioned stimulus (CS1) is used to condition a new stimulus (CS2).

latent-inhibition effect

Same as CS-preexposure effect.

relative-waiting-time hypothesis

The idea that con- ditioned responding depends on how long the organ- ism has to wait for the US in the presence of the CS, as compared to how long the organism has to wait for the US in the experimental situation irrespective of the CS.

stimulus-response (S-R) learning

The learning of an association between a stimulus and a response, with the result that the stimulus comes to elicit the response directly.

stimulus-stimulus (S-S) learning

The learning of an association between two stimuli, with the result that exposure to one of the stimuli comes to activate a repre- sentation, or "mental image," of the other stimulus.

sensory preconditioning

A procedure in which one biologically weak stimulus (CS2) is repeatedly paired with another biologically weak stimulus (CS1). Then, CSl is conditioned with an unconditioned stimulus. In a later test trial, CS2 also will elicit the conditioned response, even though CS2 was never directly paired with the US.

stimulus salience

The significance or noticeability of a stimulus. Generally, conditioning proceeds more rap- idly with more salient conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.

stimulus substitution

The theoretical idea that as a result of classical conditioning participants come to respond to the CS in much the same way that they respond to the US.

US-preexposure effect

Interference with condition- ing produced by repeated exposures to the unconditioned stimulus before the conditioning trials.

US devaluation

Reduction in the attractiveness of an unconditioned stimulus, usually achieved by aversion conditioning or satiation.