Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience.
Habituation: A decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations, leading to reduced attention to that stimulus.
Associative learning: A type of learning in which an association is formed between two stimuli or between a behavior and a stimulus.
Stimulus: Any event or object that evokes a response from an organism.
Respondent behavior: Automatic responses to stimuli, often seen in classical conditioning.
Operant behavior: Behaviors that are influenced by the consequences that follow them, central to operant conditioning.
Cognitive learning: A form of learning that involves mental processes and may occur without direct experience, such as observation or imitation.
Classical conditioning: A learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus, eliciting a conditioned response.
Behaviorism (behavioral perspective): A psychological approach that focuses on observable behaviors and the ways they are learned, often dismissing internal mental states.
Neutral stimulus (NS): A stimulus that initially produces no specific response but can become a conditioned stimulus through association.
Unconditioned response (UCR): An automatic, natural reaction to an unconditioned stimulus.
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without prior learning.
Conditioned response (CR): A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that has become conditioned.
Conditioned stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, eventually elicits a conditioned response.
Acquisition: The initial stage of learning in which a response is established and gradually strengthened.
Higher-order conditioning: A process in which a conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus, leading the new stimulus to elicit the conditioned response.
Extinction: The gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus.
Spontaneous recovery: The reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a rest period.
Generalization: The tendency for a conditioned response to be elicited by stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.
Counterconditioning: A behavioral technique that replaces an undesirable response to a stimulus with a more desirable response, often through conditioning.
(Biological) preparedness: The concept that organisms are predisposed to learn certain associations more readily than others, based on evolutionary history.
One-trial conditioning: A form of learning in which a single pairing of a stimulus and response is sufficient to produce a conditioned response.