PSYC 2600 Final
A discriminative stimulus is the antecedent stimulus that has stimulus control over behaviour because the behaviour was reliably reinforced in the presence of that stimulus in the past.
Spontaneous recovery is when a behaviour that is believed to be extinct (the conditioned behaviour has disappeared or stopped occurring when the stimulus is present) unexpectedly and quickly returns after a period of rest or lessened response.
A negative contrast effect occurs when something is perceived as worse than it would usually be perceived, because it's compared to something better. For example, it could cause a car to appear cheaper than usual if it's parked next to an expensive car.
A positive contrast effect occurs when something is perceived as better than it would usually be perceived, because it's compared to something worse. For example, it could cause a book cover to appear more interesting than usual if it's placed next to a book with a boring cover.
Resurgence is the reappearance of an extinguished behaviour when an alternative behaviour reinforced during extinction is subsequently placed on extinction. It occurs when a worsening of conditions for an alternative response (e.g., extinction) increases a previously reinforced and subsequently extinguished target response.
What is the difference between resurgence and spontaneous recovery? - In spontaneous recovery, the behaviour that reappears is the behaviour THAT IS BEING PLACED ON EXTINCTION. - In resurgence, the behaviour that reappears is some other behaviour that has produced reinforcement in the past.
Extinction refers to the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behaviour decreasing or disappearing.
An intermittent schedule of reinforcement is a contingency of reinforcement in which some, but not all, occurrences of the behaviour produce reinforcement. Also known as VR- Variable Ratio schedule.
Deprivation is the reduced fulfilment of a desire or need that is felt to be essential.
Resistance is defined as situations in which one or more individuals directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously reject any engagement in a learning possibility.
Differential reinforcement of other behaviours (DRO) is a reinforcement procedure in which reinforcement is delivered for any response other than a specific target behaviour. Reinforcing the absence of a problem behaviour for a specific period of time, while withholding reinforcement for the problem behaviour itself.
Reinforcement means you are increasing a behaviour, and punishment means you are decreasing a behaviour. Both can be positive or negative. All reinforcers (positive or negative) increase the likelihood of a behavioural response.
Positive reinforcement example: Mom gives a child an allowance for doing house chores.
Negative reinforcement example: You take away your child's chores for the weekend because they kept their room clean all week. (taking away or avoiding reinforcement)
Positive Punishment example: Spanking or giving chores when negative behaviour is produced.
Negative Punishment example: Taking away a child's phone because they didn’t clean their room.
A stimulus is anything that can trigger a physical or behavioural change. The plural of stimulus is stimuli. Stimuli can be external or internal. An example of external stimuli is your body responding to a medicine. An example of internal stimuli is your vital signs changing due to a change in the body.
Discriminative Stimulus (SD) signals that a reinforcer is available for a response.
Stimulus Delta (SΔ) signals a reinforcer is NOT available for a response.
Generalisation gradient is the gradual decrease in the strength of a conditioned response as the similarity between the original stimulus and other stimuli increases.
Continuum includes all cognitive (intellectual), affective (emotional) and behavioural change throughout a lifetime as new experience modifies existing paradigms
Peak shift occurs following discrimination training when the highest rate of responding, or peak of responding, is not over the SD and is shifted in a direction away from the S∆.
Sequential processing refers to the mental process of integrating and understanding stimuli in a particular, serial order. Both the perception of stimuli in sequence and the subsequent production of information in a specific arrangement fall under successive processing.
Extinction Burst is a sudden increase in behaviour when the reinforcement, or reward, for an undesirable behaviour has been removed. It is a temporary response pattern when an expected result of action no longer occurs.
Stimulus control is an expression used to detail circumstances where a behaviour is triggered by the existence or absence of a stimulus.
Multiple schedule is a compound schedule in which two or more component schedules of reinforcement, extinction (EXT), or punishment alternate based on the passage of time.
Chained schedule is a compound schedule of reinforcement in which a sequence of two or more signalled (SD) basic schedules of reinforcement must be met successively for the response to contact reinforcement.
Discrimination training procedure is a procedure in which new responses are taught by reinforcing responses in the presence of one stimulus condition (the SD) but not in the presence of another (SΔ) to help the learner discriminate between concepts and to perform a specific behaviour in response to specific instructions.
abolishing operation is a procedure that decreases the appetitiveness or aversiveness of a stimulus
Anticipatory contrast is the process whereby the rate of response varies inversely with an upcoming (“anticipated”) change in the rate of reinforcement.
Behavioural contrast is a change in the rate of reinforcement on one component of a multiple schedule produces an opposite change in the rate of response on another component.
Errorless discrimination training is a discrimination training procedure that minimises the number of errors (i.e., non reinforced responses to the SΔ) and reduces many of the adverse effects associated with discrimination training.
Fading is the process of gradually altering the intensity of a stimulus.
Partial reinforcement effect is the process whereby behaviour that has been maintained on an intermittent (partial) schedule of reinforcement extinguishes more slowly than behaviour that has been maintained on a continuous schedule.
Chapter 9 terms:
Avoidance theory of punishment is the theory that punishment involves a type of avoidance conditioning in which the avoidance response consists of any behaviour other than the behaviour being punished.
Conditioned suppression theory of punishment is the theory that punishment does not weaken a behaviour, but instead produces an emotional response that interferes with the occurrence of the behaviour.
Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a method of treating obsessive–compulsive behaviour that involves prolonged exposure to anxiety-arousing events while not engaging in the compulsive behaviour pattern that reduces the anxiety.
Extrinsic punishment is punishment that is not an inherent aspect of the behaviour being punished but is the result of a separate event that follows the behaviour.
Generalised (or generalised secondary) punisher is an event that has become punishing because it has in the past been associated with many other punishers.
Intrinsic punishment is punishment that is an inherent aspect of the behaviour being punished, that is, the act of engaging in the behaviour is itself punishing.
Learned helplessness is a decrement in learning ability that results from repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive events.
Premack principle of punishment is a low-probability behaviour (LPB) can be used to punish a high-probability behaviour (HPB).
Primary (or unconditioned) punisher is any event that is innately punishing.
Response cost is a form of negative punishment involving the removal of a specific reinforcer following the occurrence of a behaviour.
Secondary (or conditioned) punisher is an event that has become punishing because it has in the past been associated with some other punisher.
Time-out is a form of negative punishment involving the loss of access to positive reinforcers for a brief period of time following the occurrence of a problem behaviour.
Two-process theory of avoidance is the theory that avoidance behaviour is the result of two distinct processes: (1) classical conditioning, in which a fear response comes to be elicited by a CS; and (2) operant conditioning, in which moving away from the CS is negatively reinforced by a reduction in fear.
Chapter 10 terms:
Bias from matching is a deviation from matching in which one response alternative attracts a higher proportion of responses than would be predicted by matching, regardless of whether that alternative contains the richer or poorer schedule.
Commitment response is an action carried out at an early point in time that serves to either eliminate or reduce the value of an upcoming temptation. Also called a precommitment response.
Concurrent schedule of reinforcement is a complex schedule consisting of the simultaneous presentation of two or more independent schedules, each leading to a reinforcer.
Impulsiveness is with respect to choice between two rewards, selecting a smaller sooner reward over a larger later reward.
Matching law is the principle that the proportion of responses emitted on a particular schedule will tend to match the proportion of reinforcers obtained on that schedule.
Melioration theory is a theory of matching that holds that the distribution of behaviour in a choice situation shifts toward those alternatives that have higher value regardless of the long-term effect on overall amount of reinforcement.
Overmatching is a deviation from matching in which the proportion of responses on the richer schedule versus poorer schedule is more different than would be predicted by matching.
Self-control is with respect to choice between two rewards, selecting a larger later reward over a smaller sooner reward.
Small-but-cumulative effects model is a model of self-control in which each individual choice between a smaller sooner and larger later reward has only a small but cumulative effect on our likelihood of obtaining the desired outcome.
Undermatching is a deviation from matching in which the proportion of responses on the richer schedule versus poorer schedule is less different than would be predicted by matching.
Chapter 11 terms:
Contagious behaviour is a more-or-less instinctive or reflexive behaviour triggered by observing the occurrence of the same behaviour in another individual.
Generalised imitation is the generalised tendency to imitate new modelled behaviours in the absence of any specific reinforcement for doing so.
Observational learning is the process whereby the behaviour of a model is witnessed by an observer, and the observer’s behaviour is subsequently changed. (Also called imitation.)
Personal process rule is a personal rule that indicates the specific process by which a task is to be accomplished. (Also called an implementation intention.)
Personal rule (or self-instruction) is a verbal description of a contingency that we present to ourselves to influence our behaviour.
Rule is a verbal description of a contingency. (Also called an instruction if it additionally indicates how we should behave with respect to that contingency.)
Rule-governed behaviour is a behaviour that has been generated through exposure to rules.
Say–do correspondence is a close match between what we say we are going to do and what we actually do at a later time.
Stimulus enhancement is the process by which a person becomes more likely to approach a particular object or location because their attention has been drawn to that object or location by the behaviour of another individual.
True imitation is the close duplication of a novel behaviour (or sequence of behaviours) to achieve a specific goal.
Vicarious emotional response is a classically conditioned emotional response resulting from the observation of that emotional response being exhibited by others.
Chapter 13 terms:
Biophilia hypothesis is the inherited predisposition in humans to be drawn to or bond with nature, including other animals.
Communication is the process of sending and receiving a signal of some sort.
Comparative cognition is the study of information processing across a variety of species.
Delayed matching-to-sample is a memory task in which the animal is first shown a sample stimulus and then, following a delay, is required to select that stimulus out of a group of alternative stimuli.
Language is a special category of communication which has key features—symbols, syntax, and semantics—that distinguish it from other forms of communication.
Numerosity is an understanding of quantity.
Reference is the ability to associate arbitrary symbols with objects or events.
Self-awareness is the ability to perceive oneself as separate from others.
Semantics is the meaning associated with symbols.
Symbol is a cue that is used to represent some experience or object that you can then share with someone else.
Syntax is the system of grammatical rules by which symbols are arranged.
Theory of mind is the tendency to attribute mental states to other individuals.
Transitive inference is a form of reasoning in which the relationship between two objects can be inferred by knowing the relationship of each to a third object. (mike is my dad, mike is jane's husband, jane is my mother)
Components of Learning
Change in behavior
Results from experience
Doesn’t come from growth, like being able to reach a shelf when you get taller
Yes there was a change, but this was not an experience beyond normal biological progress
Relatively permanent
Key Researchers
Albert Bandura
Observational learning
Learn through watching a model and imitating it
Ivan Pavlov
Early researcher associated with learning
Studied classical conditioning/associative learning
His dogs and salivation experiment is very well known
Also proved that biological functions (in this case, salivation) could be trained
Robert Rescorla
Proved that cognition was taking place when an organism recognized association
Certain things are more readily associated with one another
There are certain biological predispositions or senses that are better suited for learning
Edward Tolman
Latent learning
An organism may learn something but not demonstrate the behavior that learning pertains to until there is a motivation
Rats that are allowed to wander a maze will continue to meander
Once food is placed at the end, they can ‘suddenly’ navigate it without many errors
They had learned it already, but had no need to display the learning yet
John B. Watson
Large original contributor to behaviorism
Focus of research is on observable behavior
The study of learning lends itself to this school of thought
John Garcia
Also proposed biological predispositions that make some sense easier to learn
Animals tend to create associations will illness and food very quickly, even if there is another reason contributing to the sickness
Learning Principles
Insight learning
Sudden burst of cognition that reveals solution
Emotional learning
How our feelings contribute to associations and how readily they’re recognized
Superstitious behavior
Recognizing association where none actually exists
“Good luck” from a ritual or charm
Learned helplessness
Repeated failure until the learner gives up and resigns to the punishments
Learning is very complex and involves both behavioral and cognitive components