Comprehensive Guide to Learning and Conditioning Theories in Psychology

Learning

An enduring change in behavior resulting from prior experience.

Associative learning

A form of learning that involves making connections between stimuli and behavioral responses.

Nonassociative learning

A form of learning that involves a change in the magnitude of an elicited response with repetition of the eliciting stimulus.

Habituation

A form of nonassociative learning by which an organism becomes less responsive to a repeated stimulus.

Dishabituation

The recovery of a response that has undergone habituation, typically as a result of the presentation of a novel stimulus.

Sensitization

A form of nonassociative learning by which an organism becomes more sensitive, or responsive, to a repeated stimulus.

Classical conditioning

A passive form of learning by which an association is made between a reflex-eliciting stimulus and other stimuli.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A stimulus that has no prior positive or negative association but comes to elicit a response after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned response (CR)

A response that occurs in the presence of the conditioned stimulus after an association between the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus is learned.

Acquisition

The initial learning of an association between the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli during classical conditioning.

Generalization

The tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus, so that learning is not tied too narrowly to a specific stimulus.

Discrimination

Learning to respond to a particular stimulus but not similar stimuli, thus preventing overgeneralizations.

Extinction

An active learning process in which there is a weakening of the conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance of an extinct behavior after a delay.

Residual plasticity hypothesis

Even after extinction, neural networks of learning persist, and can lead to savings if conditioning is reintroduced.

Timing between events

Critical for learning their association.

Conditioning from a familiar stimulus

More difficult than conditioning from an unfamiliar stimulus.

Blocking

A classical conditioning phenomenon whereby a prior association with a conditioned stimulus prevents learning of an association with another stimulus.

Little Albert

An 11-month-old infant conditioned to fear a white rat by John Watson and Rosalie Rayner.

Neutral stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that initially produces no specific response.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response.

Unconditioned response (UR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Counterconditioning

Counteract undesired associations by conditioning new responses to stimuli.

Conditioned taste aversion

A classically conditioned response where individuals are more likely to associate nausea with food than with other environmental stimuli.

Fear conditioning

Depends on the amygdala, the region next to the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Can lead to anxiety for years after the event due to powerful negative associations.

Scapegoat food

A unique flavor given to patients before chemotherapy to reduce aversion toward other foods.

Classical conditioning in advertising

Used as a tool for persuasion to make audiences interested in a particular product or brand.

Adaptive associations

Formed by an internal mechanism that guides our learning to be more valuable for survival and reproduction.

Operant conditioning

An active form of learning by which an association is made between a stimulus (e.g., a shock) and a voluntary response (e.g., a press of a button).

Antecedent

The stimulus that precedes the behavior and signals a context in which certain behaviors can lead to certain consequences.

Behavior

The voluntary action that takes place.

Consequence

The stimulus after the behavior that either increases or decreases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.

Reinforcement

A consequence that increases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated.

Punishment

A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated.

Primary reinforcers

A consequence that is innately pleasurable and/or satisfies some biological need, such as food, drink, and warmth.

Secondary reinforcers

A learned pleasure that acquires value through experience because of its association with primary reinforcers.

Positive reinforcement

The presentation of a positive stimulus, leading to an increase in the frequency of a behavior.

Negative reinforcement

The removal of a negative stimulus, leading to an increase in the frequency of a behavior.

Positive punishment

The presentation of a negative stimulus, leading to a decrease in the frequency of a behavior.

Negative punishment

The removal of a positive stimulus, leading to a decrease in the frequency of a behavior.

Four types of Operant Conditioning

Distinguished by whether it is positive or negative and whether it is reinforcement or punishment.

Positive

Adding something to the environment (i.e., giving something).

Negative

Subtracting something from the environment (i.e., taking something away).

Behavior modification

Putting reinforcement to work for personal change.

Influence of punishment

Punishment may not always be appropriate or productive; children seem to learn better with reinforcement than with punishment.

Drug cravings

A consequence of the brain's conditioned response to drugs, leading to decreased responsiveness and increased tolerance.

Overdosing

Occurs when drug users take drugs in a new context, potentially leading to a fatal effect.

Premack principle

The idea that activities individuals frequently engage in can be used to reinforce activities that they are less inclined to do.

Delayed reinforcement

Receiving reinforcement after having already performed a behavior some time ago.

Delay discounting

Future consequences have less potency than consequences that are immediate.

Free operant responses

Allow the animal to respond at any time and as many times as needed without intervention.

Shaping

The process by which random behaviors are gradually changed into a desired target behavior.

Reinforcement of successive approximations

Starting with the behavior that is vaguely similar to the target behavior and reinforcing behaviors that are closer to the desired end behavior.

Continuous reinforcement schedule

A reinforcement schedule in which a behavior is rewarded every time it is performed.

Partial reinforcement schedules

A reinforcement schedule in which a behavior is rewarded only some of the time.

Fixed-ratio schedule

A reinforcement schedule in which a specific number of behaviors are required before reward is given.

Variable-ratio schedule

A reinforcement schedule in which an average number of behaviors are required before a reward is given.

Fixed-interval schedule

A reinforcement schedule based on a fixed amount of time after a behavior before an award is given.

Variable-interval schedule

A reinforcement schedule based on an amount of time between rewards that varies around a constant average.

Contingent reinforcement

A specific response is reinforced because it yields a desired change in the environment.

Noncontingent reinforcement

A reward delivered on a fixed-interval schedule no matter what behavior the organism is engaging in.

Superstitious conditioning

A form of operant conditioning in which a behavior is learned because it was coincidentally reinforced, but has no actual relationship with reinforcement.

Latent learning

Learning that occurs without either incentive or any clear motivation to learn.

Learning curves

We acquire knowledge or skill incrementally through trial and error.

Insight learning

A form of learning that occurs without trial and error and thus without clear reinforcement.

Multistore model of memory

A model proposing that information flows from our senses through three storage levels in memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

Storage

The capacity to maintain information over a certain period of time.

Sensory memory

A storage level of memory that holds sensory information on the order of milliseconds to seconds.

Echoic memory

A rapidly decaying store of auditory sensory information that lasts for 2-10 seconds.

Iconic memory

A rapidly decaying store of visual sensory information, limited to about 1/3 of a second.

Long-term memory

A storage level of memory where information can be held for hours to many years and potentially a lifetime.

Short-term memory

A storage level of memory where information can be held briefly, from seconds to less than a minute.

Working memory

Manipulation of information that retrieves information about what we already know about the world to recognize and interpret what is coming in through senses.

Short-term memory capacity

We can hold about seven (7 +/- 2) items in verbal short-term memory at one time.

Short-term memory duration

Short-term memory holds information for less than 30 seconds.

Memory patterns

The stronger the memory patterns are, the longer the duration of storage.

Amnesia effects

People with amnesia have largely intact short-term memory.

Parkinson's disease effects

People with Parkinson's disease have impaired short-term memory but intact long-term memory.

Alzheimer's disease effects

People diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease have impaired short-term memory and long-term memory.

Information transfer

Information can be forgotten or transferred to long-term memory.

Recalling names

Recalling someone's name when introduced but not after the class.

Working memory span

How many items can be juggled and manipulated in the mind.

Serial position curve

Recall varies as a function of position within a study list.

Recency effect

The words toward the end of the list are still active in short-term and working memory and can be recalled easily.

Primacy effect

Increased recall for the items at the beginning of the list may be due to increased processing, such as extra rehearsal and elaboration.

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory, preventing new long-term memories from forming.

Retrograde amnesia

A form of amnesia in which access to memories prior to brain damage is impaired, but the individual can store new experiences in long-term memory.

Deep encoding

Semantic encoding that operates on the meaning of events and yields better memory than merely processing what a stimulus sounds like or looks like.

Self-referential encoding

Encoding based on an event's relation to our self-concept, which leads to enhanced memory for the event.

Shallow encoding

Encoding based on sensory characteristics, such as how something looks or sounds.

Priming

The increased ability to process a stimulus because of previous exposure.

Episodic memory

The explicit recollection of personal experience that requires piecing together the elements of that time and place.

Semantic memory

Explicit memory supporting knowledge about the world, including concepts and facts.

Flashbulb memory

A vivid memory for an emotionally significant event, thought to be permanent and detailed.

Consolidation

The process by which memories are solidified, which does not require conscious effort and happens during sleep.

Cognition

The scientific study of mental activities and how they operate.

Memory Consolidation

The process that leads to stronger memory retention, facilitated by the amygdala and hippocampus.

Visual priming

Supported by decreased neural activity for previously seen images in visual cortical regions.

Traumatic memories

Emotionally arousing events that may be perceived as more vivid and are associated with confidence in the memory.