3.7 flashcards

Learning

The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information and behaviors through experience.

Habituation

The decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together, which may involve two stimuli or a response and its consequence.

Stimulus

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Respondent behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimuli.

Operant behavior

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing a consequence.

Cognitive learning

The acquisition of mental information, through observing events, watching others, or through language.

Classical conditioning

A type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; one stimulus comes to elicit behavior in anticipation of the other.

Behaviorism

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

Neutral stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

Unconditioned response (UCR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that unconditionally triggers an unconditioned response.

Conditioned response (CR)

A learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

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

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction

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

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance, after a pause, of a weakened conditioned response.

Generalization

The tendency to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble a conditioned stimulus.

Discrimination

The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been associated with a conditioned stimulus.

Higher-order conditioning

A procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus.

Pavlov's experiment

An experiment that uncovered classical conditioning by associating a tone with food, causing dogs to salivate at the sound.