PSY 101: Chapter 8

Reflexes

Involuntary responses to stimuli that are fast, reliable, and inflexible, such as sneezing or goosebumps.

Instincts

Inborn behaviors that do not depend on experience, also known as fixed action patterns, like yawning or blinking.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience, allowing individuals to perform tasks they could not before.

Associative Learning

Involves forming connections between stimuli and behaviors, such as linking the sight of a bee with the pain of a sting.

Nonassociative Learning

Changes in response magnitude to stimuli, including habituation and sensitization.

Habituation

Decreased response to harmless stimuli.

Sensitization

Increased response after a strong stimulus.

Observational Learning

Learning by watching others, which can be positive or negative.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An environmental event that gains significance through conditioning.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that elicits a response without prior learning, such as food causing salivation in dogs.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.

Acquisition

The process of developing a conditioned response requiring close presentation of CS and UCS.

Extinction

The reduction of a learned response when the UCS no longer follows the CS.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a CR after a rest period during extinction training.

Higher-order conditioning

When a stimulus associated with a CS can elicit a CR on its own.

Latent inhibition

Familiar stimuli take longer to acquire meaning compared to novel stimuli.

Aversions

Responses where a previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unpleasant experience.

Overcoming fear

Using classical conditioning techniques for therapeutic settings, such as the Little Albert experiment.

Aversion therapy

A technique pairing a CS associated with a pleasurable UCS with an unpleasant UCS.

Systematic desensitization

A counterconditioning method where individuals are gradually exposed to fear-inducing stimuli.

Neutral stimulus

A stimulus that initially does not elicit a response, like ringing a bell.

Unconditioned response (UCR)

The natural response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus (CS) (after conditioning)

The bell that now elicits a response after conditioning.

Higher-Order Conditioning (definition)

Learning where stimuli associated with a CS also elicit CRs.

Generalization

The tendency to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the original CS.

Discrimination

The learned ability to distinguish between different stimuli.

Inhibition

When a CS predicts the nonoccurrence of a UCS.

Operant Conditioning

Learning through the association between behaviors and their consequences.

Positive reinforcement

Presenting a rewarding stimulus after a desired behavior.

Negative reinforcement

Removing an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior.

Positive punishment

Presenting an aversive stimulus to reduce a behavior.

Negative punishment

Removing a desirable stimulus to decrease a behavior.

Fixed Ratio (FR)

Reinforcement after a set number of responses.

Variable Ratio (VR)

Reinforcement after a variable number of responses.

Fixed Interval (FI)

Reinforcement after a specified time interval.

Variable Interval (VI)

Reinforcement after varying time intervals.

Method of successive approximations (Shaping)

A technique to reinforce behaviors that are closer to the desired behavior.

Latent learning

Learning that occurs without reinforcement.

Token economy

A behavioral modification system where tokens are earned for desired behaviors.

Bandura's Bobo doll experiment

Demonstrated that children imitate aggressive behavior observed in adults.