- acquisition
- period of initial learning in classical conditioning in which a human or an animal begins to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus will begin to elicit the conditioned response
- associative learning
- form of learning that involves connecting certain stimuli or events that occur together in the environment (classical and operant conditioning)
- classical conditioning
- learning in which the stimulus or experience occurs before the behavior and then gets paired or associated with the behavior
- cognitive map
- mental picture of the layout of the environment
- conditioned response (CR)
- response caused by the conditioned stimulus
- conditioned stimulus (CS)
- stimulus that elicits a response due to its being paired with an unconditioned stimulus
- continuous reinforcement
- rewarding a behavior every time it occurs
- extinction
- decrease in the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the conditioned stimulus
- fixed interval reinforcement schedule
- behavior is rewarded after a set amount of time
- fixed ratio reinforcement schedule
- set number of responses must occur before a behavior is rewarded
- habituation
- when we learn not to respond to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change
- higher-order conditioning
- (also, second-order conditioning) using a conditioned stimulus to condition a neutral stimulus
- instinct
- unlearned knowledge, involving complex patterns of behavior; instincts are thought to be more prevalent in lower animals than in humans
- latent learning
- learning that occurs, but it may not be evident until there is a reason to demonstrate it
- law of effect
- behavior that is followed by consequences satisfying to the organism will be repeated and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences will be discouraged
- learning
- change in behavior or knowledge that is the result of experience
- model
- person who performs a behavior that serves as an example (in observational learning)
- negative punishment
- taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop a behavior
- negative reinforcement
- taking away an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior
- neutral stimulus (NS)
- stimulus that does not initially elicit a response
- observational learning
- type of learning that occurs by watching others
- operant conditioning
- form of learning in which the stimulus/experience happens after the behavior is demonstrated
- partial reinforcement
- rewarding behavior only some of the time
- positive punishment
- adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior
- positive reinforcement
- adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior
- primary reinforcer
- has innate reinforcing qualities (e.g., food, water, shelter, sex)
- punishment
- implementation of a consequence in order to decrease a behavior
- reflex
- unlearned, automatic response by an organism to a stimulus in the environment
- reinforcement
- implementation of a consequence in order to increase a behavior
- secondary reinforcer
- has no inherent value unto itself and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with something else (e.g., money, gold stars, poker chips)
- shaping
- rewarding successive approximations toward a target behavior
- spontaneous recovery
- return of a previously extinguished conditioned response
- stimulus discrimination
- ability to respond differently to similar stimuli
- stimulus generalization
- demonstrating the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus
- unconditioned response (UCR)
- natural (unlearned) behavior to a given stimulus
- unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
- stimulus that elicits a reflexive response
- variable interval reinforcement schedule
- behavior is rewarded after unpredictable amounts of time have passed
- variable ratio reinforcement schedule
- number of responses differ before a behavior is rewarded
- vicarious punishment
- process where the observer sees the model punished, making the observer less likely to imitate the model’s behavior
- vicarious reinforcement
- process where the observer sees the model rewarded, making the observer more likely to imitate the model’s behavior