Psychology: Chapter 6 Review

Extiction:

Basic phenomenon of learning that occurs when a previously conditioned response decreases the frequency and eventually disappears.

Habituation:

The decrease in response to a stimulus that occurs after repeated presentations of the same stimulus.

Operant conditioning:

Learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its favorable or unfavorable consequence.

Unconditional stimulus:

Naturally brings about a particular response without having been learned.

Learning:

A relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience.

Neutral stimulus:

Does not naturally bring about the response of interest before conditioning.

Thorndike’s Low of Effects:

When responses that lead to satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated.

The psychologist credited with operant conditioning:

B.F. Skinner.

Variable-Ratio schedule:

A schedule by which reinforcements occur after a varying number of responses rather than a fixed number.

Negative reinforcer:

An unpleasant stimulus whose removal leads to an increase in the probability that a preceding response will be repeated in the future.

Fixed-Ratio schedule:

Schedule in which reinforcement is given only after a specific number of responses are made.

Psychologist credited for classical conditioning:

Ivan Pavlov.

Behavioral modification:

Formalized technique for promoting the frequency of desirable behaviors and decreasing the incidence of unwanted ones.

Stimulus discrimination:

The process that occurs if two stimuli are sufficiently distinct from one another that one evokes a conditioned response, but the other does not.

The psychologist credited with observational learning:

Albert Bandura.

Shaping:

The process of teaching a complex behavior by rewarding closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Cognitive Learning Theory:

The study of learning that focuses on the thought processes that underlie learning.

Cognitive map:

Mental representation of spatial locations and directions.

Fixed-Interval schedule:

A schedule in which reinforcement is provided for a response only after a fixed time period has elapsed.

Positive reinforcer:

A stimulus added to the environment that brings about an increase in a preceding response.

Latent Learning:

When new behavior is not demonstrated until some incentive is provided for displaying it.

Partial Reinforcement Schedule:

A schedule in which behavior is reinforced some but not all of the time.

Reinforcer:

Any stimuli that increases the probability that a preceding behavior will occur again

Variable-Interval Schedule:

A schedule by which the time between reinforcements varies around some average rather than being fixed.

Continuous reinforcement schedule:

A schedule in which behavior is reinforced every time the behavior occurs.

Punishment:

A stimulus that decreases the probability that a previous behavior will occur again.

Primary reinforcer:

Reinforcer that satisfies some biological need and works naturally.

Classical conditioning:

Occurs when a natural stimulus comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about that response.

Secondary Reinforcer:

A stimulus that becomes reinforcing because of its association with a primary reinforcer.

Stimulus Generalization:

A process in which, after a stimulus has been conditioned to produce a particular response, stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus produce the same response.

Conditioned Stimulus:

A once-neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned = __________________.

Learned.

Spontaneous Recovery:

The re-emergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a period of rest and with no further conditioning.