A

Classical Conditioning

  • Acquisition: process of developing and strengthening a conditioned response through repeated pairings of neutral stimulus with unconditioned stimulus
    • more intense US produces stronger / more rapid conditioning (than less intense US)
    • more intense NS produces stronger / more rapid conditioning (than less intense NS)
  • Extinction: when conditioned response is weakened/eliminated by repeatedly presenting CS alone
    • ex: anielle was really scared of cats, so more exposure to declan w no problems helped extinguish that fear
  • Spontaneous recovery
    • extinguished response can be reacquired rapidly when the CS or NS is once again paired with US
    • when paired again, it will take fewer trials to achieve a strong level of conditioning
  • Stimulus generalization: tendency for CR to occur in presence of stimulus similar to CS
    • ex: Albert or whatever and the bunny ➝ all white things
    • meaning of the word is more important than the sound of the word
    • like sensitization, but sensitization happens without a conditioning process
  • Stimulus discrimination: tendency for a response to be caused more by one stimulus than another
  • Higher-Order Conditioning
    • basic conditioning: basic reaction to an event, such as a dog salivating at sight of food
    • higher-order conditioning: transfer of conditioning to another stimulus through association
    • several steps between something occurring and the reaction
  • sensory preconditioning: when one stimulus is conditioned as a CS, another previously paired stimulus can also become a CS
    • stimulus came first
    • ex: toolshed has wasps. i got stung by a wasp and now i’m afraid of wasps, so i’m afraid of the toolshed