AP Psychology Unit 4

• stimulus


  any event or situation that evokes a response
• classical conditioning


  a type of associative learning involving respondent behavior
• associative learning


  learning based on knowledge that two events are associated with each other
• respondent behavior


  automatic, involuntary behavior to a stimulus
• unconditioned


  unlearned, natural
• John Watson


  founder of behaviorism, we can explain all human behavior in terms of associative learning
• acquisition


  the process of associating a neutral stimulus (NS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US)
• high order conditioning


  the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
• extinction


  when the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response diminishes
• spontaneous recovery


  the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
• generalisation


  the tendency for similar stimuli to produce similar responses
• discrimination


  only responding to the neutral stimulus (which is the conditioned stimulus) you were taught with
• operant conditioning


  learning based on the positive or negative consequences of responding
• Thorndike's law of effect


  behaviors followed by pleasant consequences are repeated, and behaviors followed by unpleasant consequences are not
• reinforcement


  attempt to increase the behavior
• positive reinforcement


  the addition of a pleasant stimulus to encourage the repetition of a behavior
• negative reinforcement


  the removal of an unpleasant stimulus to encourage the repetition of a behavior
• shaping


  where reinforcers guide behavior closer and closer to the desired response
• discriminative stimulus


  a stimulus that leads to a specific response that does not occur with other stimulus
• primary reinforcers


  an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need
• secondary reinforcers


  a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer
• punishment


  leads to a decrease in a behavior
• positive punishment


  the addition of an unpleasant stimulus to decrease or stop the behavior
• negative punishment


  the removal of a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop the behavior
• fixed schedule


  a schedule in which reinforcement is provided after a specific number of responses or after a specific amount of time
• variable schedule


  a schedule in which reinforcement is provided at a random number of responses or random amount of time
• ratio schedule


  reinforcement occurs after a certain number of responses have been emitted
• interval schedule


  reinforcement occurs after a period of time has passed
• fixed interval schedule


  a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
• variable interval schedule


  a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals
• fixed ratio schedule


  a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
• variable ratio schedule


  a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
• which operant conditioning schedule works best?

  ratio schedules produce higher response rates compared to interval schedules

  variable schedules produce more consistent behavior than fixed schedules
• preparedness


  a predisposition to learn associations that had evolutionary survival value
• taste aversion (John Garcia)


  a learned avoidance of a particular food
• arachnaphobia


  fear of spiders
• instinctual drift


  The tendency for learned behavior to drift toward instinctual behavior over time
• personal control


  the sense that we are in control of our environment
• learned helplessness


  when someone has experienced an unavoidable, repeated, negative experience in the past, they learn that they have no control. so in future events, they respond to negative events with passive resignation (even if they have control)
• insight learning


  when the solution to a problem comes suddenly, no strategy is used/no experience required, incubation period might be required