Psychology Chapter 5

Learning

Behaviorism

A theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behaviors, discounting the importance of such mental activity as thinking, wishing, and hoping

classical conditioning

automatic, basic learning

unconditioned stimulus

something that naturally triggers a reflexive response without prior learning or conditioning(food)

unconditioned response

a natural and automatic reaction to a stimulus that does not require learning(saliva)

neutral stimulus

a stimulus that initially does not elicit any innate or learned response from an individual (will become a conditioned stimulus).(bell)

conditioned stimulus

a previously neutral stimulus that becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus through classical conditioning(bell)

conditioned response

a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that is paired with an unconditioned stimulus. (Saliva)

Watson and Baby Albert

Experiment in which Baby Albert was conditioned to be afraid of a rat by playing loud noise behind the baby’s head when the rat came out, where Baby Albert then generalized his fear of other animals including a rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin coat. This proved that we learn many of our fears through classical conditioning

taste aversion

learned association between a particular taste and nausea that often only requires one pairing of a neutral stimulus with the unconditioned response of nausea to sell that connection, often for a very long time

operant conditioning

a form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behavior’s occurrence

B.F. Skinner

Developer of operant conditioning

positive reinforcement

add something to increase behavior

negative reinforcement

take something away to increase behavior.

primary reinforcer

a reinforcer that is innately satisfying; one that does not take any learning on the organism’s part to make it pleasurable

secondary reinforcer

a reinforcer that acquires its positive value through an organism’s experience; a learned or conditioned reinforcer

continuous reinforcement

when a behavior is reinforced every time it occurs

partial reinforcement

a reinforcer follows a behavior only a portion of the time

positive punishment

add something to reduce behavior

negative punishment

take something away to reduce behavior

shaping

Using reinforcement to get someone/something to do something

learned helplessness

Through experience with unavoidable aversive stimuli, an organism learns that it has no control over negative outcomes

observational learning

Learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior

Martha E. Bernal

Born in San Antonio, Texas in 1931 to parents who were immigrants from Mexico. She was the first Latina to earn a Ph.D. in psychology in the US. She advocated for minorities and becoming the leading researcher int he country on training minority psychologists. She worked on improving the training of clinical psychologists on minority mental health issues and she studied the development of identity in Mexican American children.