balls in your jawls

Associative Learning

learning that two events occur together such as linking a stimulus with another stimulus or a consequence

Insight Learning

a sudden realization of a solution without trial-and-error

Observational Learning

learning by watching others and imitating their behavior

Latent Learning

learning that occurs but is not shown until motivation is present

Social Learning Theory

Bandura’s theory that people learn through observation modeling and vicarious reinforcement

Behavioral Perspective

a psychology approach focusing only on observable behavior learned through conditioning

Vicarious Conditioning

learning from seeing others be reinforced or punished

Modeling

imitating observed behavior

Cognitive Maps

mental representations of physical environments or layouts

Acquisition

the initial learning phase when a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US

Habituation

decreased response to a repeated non-threatening stimulus

Higher-Order Conditioning

when a neutral stimulus becomes a CS by being paired with an existing CS

Stimulus Discrimination

being able to tell the difference between the CS and similar stimuli

Stimulus Generalization

responding to stimuli similar to the CS

Spontaneous Recovery

the return of a weakened conditioned response after a rest period

Aversive Conditioning

pairing an unwanted behavior with something unpleasant to reduce the behavior

Counterconditioning

replacing an unwanted emotional response with a positive one

Taste Aversion

avoiding a food after one pairing with nausea

Biological Preparedness

evolutionary tendency to learn certain associations more easily

One-Trial Conditioning

learning that happens after a single pairing

Positive Reinforcement (PR)

adding something good to increase behavior

Positive Punishment (PP)

adding something bad to decrease behavior

Negative Reinforcement (NR)

removing something bad to increase behavior

Negative Punishment (NP)

removing something good to decrease behavior

Instinctive Drift

tendency for learned behavior to revert to biological instincts

Law of Effect

Thorndike’s principle that rewarded behaviors increase and punished behaviors decrease

Learned Helplessness

giving up after experiencing uncontrollable negative events

Primary Reinforcer

a natural biological reinforcer like food water warmth

Secondary Reinforcer

a learned reinforcer such as money praise or grades

Punishment

any consequence that decreases behavior

Reinforcement

any consequence that increases behavior

Shaping

reinforcing small steps toward a desired behavior

Superstitious Behavior

behavior repeated because it was accidentally paired with reinforcement