Learning Processes and Conditioning

This set of flashcards covers key terms and concepts related to learning processes, including nonassociative, associative, and operant conditioning.

Learning

A relatively enduring change in behavior resulting from experience.

Memory

How we acquire, store, and retrieve knowledge about facts, events, places, and skills.

Conditioning

The process in which environmental stimuli and behavioral responses become connected.

Nonassociative Learning

Learning to adjust responses to a repeated stimulus, involving habituation and sensitization.

Habituation

A decrease in behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Sensitization

An increase in behavioral response after exposure to a stimulus, often due to threatening or painful stimuli.

Associative Learning

Learning about the link between two stimuli or events that go together.

Social Learning

Learning by instruction or observing how others behave.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that already produces a response.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that elicits a response without prior learning.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response to a conditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

A response that does not have to be learned, such as a reflex.

Extinction

The process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reemergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a pause.

Prediction Error

The difference between expected and actual outcomes in classical conditioning.

Stimulus Generalization

Learning that occurs when stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus produce the conditioned response.

Stimulus Discrimination

Differentiation between two similar stimuli when only one is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

A learning process in which the consequences of an action determine the likelihood that it will be performed in the future.

Reinforcer

A stimulus that follows a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated.

Positive Reinforcement

The administration of a stimulus to increase the probability of a behavior being repeated.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of a stimulus to increase the probability of a behavior being repeated.

Positive Punishment

The administration of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior recurring.

Negative Punishment

The removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior recurring.