Module 26: How We Learn & Classical Conditioning

What is learning?

The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

What do we learn by?

Association

Around how long does it take for a behavior to become habitual?

66 days

What is habituation?

An organism’s decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it

What is associative learning?

Learning that certain events occur together

What is conditioning?

The process of learning associations

What are the two types of conditioning?

Classical and operant conditioning

What do we learn to do in classical conditioning?

Associate two stimuli and anticipate events

What is a stimulus?

Any event or situation that evokes a response

What do we learn to do in operant conditioning?

Associate our behavior and its consequence

What is cognitive learning?

The acquisition of mental information

What is observational learning?

Learning from others’ experiences

Which psychologist famously experimented with classical conditioning?

Ivan Pavlov

What is behaviorism?

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes

What did Ivan Pavlov earn a Nobel Prize for in 1904?

His work on studying the digestive system

What did Pavlov begin to study that would lead to his most famous experiment?

Why dogs salivate when food is placed in their mouth

What is an unconditioned response?

An unlearned, naturally occurring response

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response

What is a conditioned response?

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

What is a neutral stimulus?

A stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

What is a conditioned stimulus?

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

What were the five conditioning processes Pavlov explored after his initial experiment?

Acquisition, extinction, spantaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination

What is acquisition?

the initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus

What is higher-order conditioning?

A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus

What is an example of higher-order conditioning?

An animal that has learned a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone

What is extinction?

The diminishing of a conditioned response that occurs when an unconditioned response does not follow a conditioned stimulus

What is spontaneous recovery?

The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a pause

What is generalization?

The tendency for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

What is discrimination?

The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

What did Pavlov’s experiments teach us?

Classical conditioning is one way that virtually all organisms learn to adapt to their environments and learning can be studied objectively

What was John Watson’s famous experiment using classical conditioning?

He conditioned an infant (“Little Albert”) to fear animals by making loud noises as Albert interacted with animals