Unit 4 Psychology Vocab

  • Learning- the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

  • Habituates- decreasing responsiveness with repeated exposure to a stimulus 

  • Associative learning- learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning).

  • Stimulus- any event or situation that evokes a response

  • Respondent behavior- behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus 

  • Operant behaviors- behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences 

  • Cognitive Learning- the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

  • Classical Conditioning- a type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; as a result, to illustrate with Pavlov’s classical experiment, the stimulus (a tone) comes to elicit behavior (drooling) in anticipation of the second stimulus (food). 

  • Behaviorism- the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2)

  • Neutral stimuli (NS)- in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning. 

  • Unconditioned response (UR)- in classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth)

  •  Unconditioned Stimulus (US)- in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally -naturally and automatically- triggers an unconditioned response (UR)

  • Conditioned response (CR)- in classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS)- in classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR)

  • Acquisition- in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response

  • Higher-order conditioning- a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning). 

  • Extinction-the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced

  • Spontaneous recovery- the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. 

  • Discrimination- (1) in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. (In operant conditioning, the ability to distinguish responses that are reinforced from similar responses that aren’t reinforced.(2) in social psychology, unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members. 

  • Law of effect- Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely. 

  • Operant Chamber- in operant conditioning research, a chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer: attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking. 

  • Reinforcement- in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

  • Shaping- an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

  • Discriminative Stimulus- in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with the reinforcement (in contrast to to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement), 

  • Positive reinforcement- increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response

  • Negative reinforcement- increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing aversive stimuli. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: negative reinforcement is not a punishment.) 

  • Primary reinforcers- an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need. 

  • Conditioned reinforcers- a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer. 

  • Reinforcement schedules- a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced.

  • Continuous reinforcement- reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

  • Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedules- reinforcing a response only part of the time. Fixed-ratio schedule- in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule is that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

  • Variable-interval schedules- in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals. 

  • Punishment- an event that tends to decrease the behavior that at follows

  • Positive punishment- weaken the behavior; adding undesirable 

  • Negative punishment- weaken the behavior; removing the desirables 

  • Biofeedback- a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state; such as blood pressure or muscle tension.

  • Preparedness- a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value. 

  • Instinctive drift- the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biological predisposed patterns 

  • cognitive map- a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

  • Latent learning-learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

  • insight- a sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions 

  • intrinsic motivation- a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

  • extrinsic motivation- a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

  • problem-focused coping- attempting to alleviate stress directly-by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

  • emotion-focused coping- attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction.

  • personal control- our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

  • learned helplessness- the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or person learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

  • external locus of control- the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.

  • internal locus of control- the perception that we control our own fate.

  • self-control- the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.

  • Observational learning- learning by observing others. (also called social learning).

  • Modeling- the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

  • Mirror Neurons- Frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when we perform certain actions or observe another doing so. The brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable imitation and empathy.

Prosocial-positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior