Chapter 6: Learning Lecture Notes

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering basic forms of learning, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory from Chapter 6.

Learning

An enduring change in behaviour resulting from prior experience.

Nonassociative learning

A form of learning that involves a change in the magnitude of an elicited response with repetition of the eliciting stimulus.

Associative learning

A form of learning that involves making connections between stimuli and behavioural responses, including operant and classical conditioning.

Habituation

A form of nonassociative learning by which an organism becomes less responsive to a repeated stimulus, which may be attributed to muscle fatigue or sensory adaptation.

Dishabituation

The recovery of a response that has undergone habituation, typically as a result of the presentation of a novel stimulus.

Classical conditioning

A passive form of learning by which an association is made between a reflex-eliciting stimulus (e.g., a shock) and other stimuli (e.g., a sound).

Ivan Pavlov

A researcher who used an apparatus to measure dog salivation, noticing they salivated in response to stimuli that occurred around the same time food was presented.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

A stimulus that produces a reflexive response without prior learning.

Unconditioned response (UR)

The response that is automatically generated by the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A stimulus that has no prior positive or negative association but comes to elicit a response after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned response (CR)

A response that occurs in the presence of the conditioned stimulus after an association between the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus is learned.

Counterconditioning

A process to counteract undesired associations by conditioning new responses to stimuli.

Amygdala

The region next to the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe that fear conditioning depends on.

Operant conditioning

An active form of learning by which an association is made between a stimulus (e.g., a shock) and a voluntary response (e.g., a press of a button).

Antecedent

The stimulus that precedes the behaviour and signals a context in which certain behaviours can lead to a certain consequence.

Behaviour

The voluntary action that takes place during the process of operant conditioning.

Consequence

The stimulus after the behaviour that either increases or decreases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated.

Reinforcement

A consequence that increases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated.

Punishment

A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated.

Primary reinforcer

A consequence that is innately pleasurable and/or satisfies some biological need, such as food, drink, warmth, or sex.

Secondary reinforcer

A learned pleasure that acquires value through experience because of its association with primary reinforcers, such as money.

Imitation

The purposeful copying of a goal-directed behaviour.