Unit 4: Learning

• learning: a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience.
• habituation: an organism's decreasing response to a stimulus

  with repeated exposure to it
• unconditioned response (UCR): in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.
• unconditioned stimulus (UCS): in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response.
• conditioned response (CR): in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).
• conditioned stimulus (CS): in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response.
• acquisition: in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.
• higher-order conditioning: a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.)
• extinction: A process by which a response that has been learned is weakened by the absence or removal of stimuli or reinforcement.
• spontaneous recovery: the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.
• learned helplessness: showed the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal (or human) learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events. Experiment initially done by Martin Seligman.
• operant conditioning: a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.
• operant behavior: the network of factors and events involved in the behavior of human and non-human animals
• law of effect: The principle that behaviors are selected by their consequences..rewarded behavior is likely to occur again. (Edward Thorndike)
• shaping: an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
• discriminative stimulus: in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement).
• reinforcer: in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
• positive reinforcement: increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. Any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.
• negative reinforcement: increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. Any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response.
• primary reinforcer: an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.
• conditioned (secondary) reinforcer: a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; (we need to learn this is important)
• continuous reinforcement schedule: reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs. (Goes away easily or quickly once reinforcement is gone.)
• partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule: reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.
• fixed-ratio schedule: in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. (Causes very fast responding as subject knows what to do to get rewarded.)
• fixed- interval schedule: in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.
• variable-interval schedule: in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.
• punishment: an event that decreases the behavior that it follows. (can be positive or negative)
• positive punishment: Administer an aversive (unfavorable) stimulus to decrease behavior. (i.e., spanking, receiving a parking ticket)
• negative punishment: Withdraw a desirable stimulus to decrease behavior. (i.e., child on a time out, having driver's license taken away)
• latent learning: learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
• insight: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions.
• intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.
• biofeedback: a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension.
• modeling: the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
• mirror neurons: frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation and empathy.
• prosocial behavior: positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior.
• antisocial behavior: disruptive acts characterized by covert and overt hostility and intentional aggression toward others.
• Little Albert: Experiment done by Behaviorist, John B. Watson, classically conditioned Little Albert to fear a white rat (as well as all furry animal)
• Instinctive Drift: Tendency for animals to move towards their biologically predisposed instinctive behaviors.
• Aversive Conditioning: a technique used to reduce the appeal of behaviors one wants to eliminate by associating them with physical or psychological discomfort (Associating something negative with a behavior one wants to stop.)