20/Learning Concepts and Classical Conditioning

Flashcards on Basic Learning Concepts and Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

Learning to expect and prepare for significant events such as the arrival of food or pain.

Operant Conditioning

Learning to repeat acts that bring rewards and to avoid acts that bring unwanted results.

Cognitive Learning

Learning new behaviors by observing events and people, and through language, we learn things we have neither experienced nor observed.

Associative Learning

Linking two events that occur close together.

Conditioning

The process of learning associations.

Stimulus

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Respondent Behavior

Associate stimuli that we do not control, and we respond automatically.

Operant Behaviors

Behaviors which operate on the environment to produce consequences.

Behaviorism

The view that psychology should be an objective science based on observable behavior, without reference to inner thoughts or feelings.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An unlearned, automatic response to a stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Acquisition

The initial learning of an association between a neutral stimulus (NS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US).

Extinction

Diminished responding that occurs when the CS no longer signals an impending US.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a weakened CR after a pause, suggesting that extinction was suppressing the CR rather than eliminating it.

Generalization

The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS.

Discrimination

The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (which predicts the US) and other irrelevant stimuli.