Chapter 6 - How Nurture Changes Us

learning

change in behavior or thought as a result of experience

habituation

a decrease of cessation of response after repeated presentations of a stimulus

sensitization

opposite to habituation, an increase in behavior after repeated presentation of a stimulus

classical conditioning 

when two stimuli are repeatedly paired; a response that at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by 

higher order conditioning 

cues associated with conditioned stimuli (ex. when pavlov’s dog would start salivating when the harness got put on)

stimulus discrimination

ability to differentiate among related stimuli and when other stimuli are different that the conditioned stimulus (ex. dog not salivating to a similar sounding bell)

stimulus generalization

conditioned response elicited by stimulus is similar to the orginal sonditioned stimulus

spontaneous recovery

the conditioned response will suddenly reappear in response to the conditioned stimulus at random even after extinction

extinction

when the unconditioned stimulus (food) does not follow the conditioned stimulus (tone), the conditioned response (salivation) decreases and eventually stops

acquisition

process of obtaining a new behavior (ex. food and bell paired together leads to salivating at the bell)

operant conditioning 

an association between a voluntary behavior and a consequence, and the type of consequence alter the probability of future behavior 

contingency

association between a stimulus and a response

reinforcements

an outcome that strengthens the probability of a response

positive reinforcement

giving a stimulus that increases behavior

negative reinforcement

taking away a stimulus (or avoiding something) that increases behavior

punishment

an outcome weakens probability of a response

positive punishment

giving a stimulus that decreases behavior

negative punishment

witholding something that decreases behavior

instinctive drift 

tendency for animals to iniate behaviors following repeated reinforcement 

law of effect

principle asserting that if a stimulus followed by a behavior results in a reward, the stimulus is more likely to give rise to the behavior in the future

Skinner box

small nonhuman animal chamber constructed by Skinner to allow sustained periods of conditioning to be administered and behaviors to be recorded unsupervised

schedule of reinforcement

pattern of reinforcing behavior

continuous reinforcement 

reinforcing a behavior every time it occurs, resulting in faster learning but faster extinction than only occasional reinforcement

partial reinforcement

occasional reinforcement of a behavior, resulting in slower extinction than if the behavior had been reinforced continually

fixed ratio schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses

variable ratio schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement after a specific number of responses on average, with the number varying randomly

fixed interval schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement for a response at least once following a specified time interval

variable interval schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement for a response at least once during an average time interval, with the interval varying randomly

shaping

conditioning a target behavior by progressively reinforcing behaviors that come closer and closer to the target

secondary reinforcer

netural object that becomes associated with a primary reinforcer

primary reinforcer

item or outcome that naturally increases the target behavior

latent learning

learning that’s not directly observable

preparedness 

evolutionary predisposition to learn some pairings of feared stimuli over others owing to their survival value