Psy 101 Chapter 6

Behaviorism: a school of thought that emphasizes the role of environmental forces in producing behavior.

Learning: A change in behavior resulting from experience.

Habituation: A decrease in behavioral response after lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Sensitization: An increase in behavioral response after lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Classical conditioning: A type of learned response in which a neutral object comes to elicit a response when it is associated with a stimulus that already produces a response.

Conditioned response (CR): A response to a conditioned stimulus; a response that has been learned.

Conditioned stimulus (CS): A stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place.

Unconditioned response (UR): A response that does not have to be learned, such as some reflexes.

Unconditioned stimulus (US): A stimulus that elicits an innate response and does not require any prior learning.

Acquisition: The gradual formation of an association between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.

Extinction: A process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery: A process in which a previously extinguished response reemerges after the conditioned stimulus is presented again. 

Stimulus discrimination: Learning that differentiates between two similar stimuli when only one of them is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus generalization: Learning that occurs when stimuli that are similar but not identical to the conditioned stimulus produce the conditioned response.

Operant conditioning: A learning process in which an action's consequences determine how likely an action is to be performed in the future.

Operant: An action that is performed on an environment and has consequences.

Reinforcer: A consequence of an action that affects the likelihood of the action being repeated in the future.

Negative punishment: The removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability that a behavior will recur.

Negative reinforcement: The removal of a stimulus to increase the probability that a behavior will be repeated.

Positive punishment: The addition of a stimulus to decrease the probability that a behavior will recur.

Positive reinforcement: The addition of a stimulus to increase the probability that a behavior will be repeated.

Fixed interval (FI) schedule: Reinforcing the occurrence of a particular behavior after a predetermined amount of time since the last reinforcement.

Variable interval (VI) schedule: Reinforcing the occurrence of a particular behavior after an unpredictable and varying amount of time since the last reinforcement.

Fixed ratio (FR) schedule: Reinforcing a particular behavior after that behavior has occurred for a predetermined number of times.

Variable ratio (VR) schedule: Reinforcing a particular behavior after the behavior has occurred for an unpredictable and varying number of times.

Partial-reinforcement extinction effect: The greater persistence of behavior under partial reinforcement than under continuous reinforcement.

Behavior modification: Using operant conditioning to solve specific behavior problems by reinforcing desirable behaviors and/or punishing undesirable behaviors.

Cognitive map: A visual-spatial mental representation of an environment.

Latent learning: Learning that takes place in the absence of reinforcement.

observational learning: The acquisition or modification of a behavior after exposure to at least one performance of that behavior.

Modeling: Demonstrating a behavior to imitate a behavior that was previously observed.

Prosocial: Acting in ways that tend to benefit others.

Vicarious conditioning: Learning the consequences of an action by watching others being reinforced or punished for performing the action.