Untitled Flashcards Set

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.