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Conditioning

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Involves learning associations between events that occur in an organism's environment.

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Classical conditioning

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A type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus. -Originally called Pavlovian conditioning.

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Pavlov

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A prominent Russian physiologist who studied dogs that were restrained in harnesses in an experimental chamber and collected their saliva by means of a surgically implanted tube in the salivary gland. -Noticed that dogs accustomed to the procedure would start salivating before the meat powder was presented. -Also used an auditory stimulus by the presentation of a tone.

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Unconditioned stimulus (US)

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A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning. -Ex: Meat powder

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Unconditioned response (UR)

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An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning, often weaker or less intense. -Ex: Salivation

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Conditioned stimulus (CS)

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A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response. -Ex: Tone

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Conditioned response (CR)

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A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning. -Ex: Salivation

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Trial

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Consists of any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli in classical conditioning.

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Classical conditioning of a fear response

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A student troubled by a bridge phobia so severe she couldn't cross interstate highways. Pinpointed her fear during her childhood whenever her dad would joke about bridges posing a particular danger. CS - Bridge, US - Father's scare tactics, CR + UR - Fear

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Classical conditioning and romance

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A 53-year old woman was reminded of her first love, Charlie, by the smell of Beeman's gum and cigarette smoke. Classical conditioning affects not only overt behaviors but physiological processes as well. CS - Beemans gum and cigarettes, US - Charlie, CR + UR - Romantic passion

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Acquisition

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Refers to the initial stage of learning a new response tendency. -Pavlov theorized that the acquisition of a conditioned response depends on stimulus contiguity, if they occur together in time and space.

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Extinction

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The gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency. -Can occur with the consistent presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone, without the unconditioned stimulus. Ex: Presenting the tone alone to a dog.

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Spontaneous recovery

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The reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of nonexposure to the conditioned stimulus. Ex: reintroducing a stimulus when it has been taken away for a "rest interval."

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Renewal effect

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If a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place. -Extinction does not appear to lead to unlearning.

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Stimulus generalization

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Occurs when an organism that learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus. -Ex: Student fearful of bridges generalized her fear to ALL bridges. The more similar new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the likelihood of generalization.

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Stimulus discrimination

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Occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimuli does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus. -The less similar new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the likelihood (and ease) of discrimination.

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Little Albert

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11-month old boy initially unafraid of a live white rat but paired together with a loud noise, he was afraid. His fear became generalized to other things that looked similar to the rat, such as a cat, a beard, and a Santa hat.

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Higher-order conditioning

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When a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus. -Shows that classical conditioning does not depend on the presence of a natural US; an already established CS will do just fine.

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Operant conditioning

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A form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences.

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Skinner

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Demonstrated that organisms tend to repeat those response that are followed by favorable consequences.

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Reinforcement

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Occurs when an event following a response increases an organism's tendency to make that response. -A response is strengthened because it leads to rewarding consequences.

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Skinner box

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A small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is systematically recorded while the consequences of the response are controlled. -In box designed for rats, main response is pressing a lever mounted on one side wall.

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Reinforcement contingencies

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The circumstances or rules that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers. -Experimenter manipulates whether positive consequences occur when the animal makes the designated response.

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Cumulative recorder

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Creates a graphic record of responding and reinforcement in a Skinner box as a function of time. -Horizontal axis used to mark the passage of time and vertical axis used to plot the accumulation of responses. -A rapid response rate produces a steep slope, whereas a slow response rate produces a shallow slope.

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Shaping

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The reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response. -Shaping is necessary when it does not, on its own, emit the desired response. For example, an experimenter would release food pellets whenever the rat got closer to the lever.

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Resistance to extinction

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Occurs when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer for it has been terminated. -The greater the resistance to extinction, the longer the responding will continue.

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Discriminative stimuli

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Cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or nonreinforcement) of a response. -Ex: Children learn to ask for sweets when their parents are in a good mood.

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Discrimination vs. generalization

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Cat gets excited whenever it hears the sound of a can opener because they associate that with food (discrimination) vs. cat also responding to the sound of a blender because it sounds similar to a can opener (generalization).

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Primary reinforcers

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Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs.

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Secondary or conditioned reinforcers

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Events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers. Ex: money, good grades, attention..

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Schedule of reinforcement

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A specific pattern of presentation of reinforcers over time.

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Continuous reinforcement

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Occurs when every instance of a designated response is reinforced.

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Intermittent reinforcement

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Occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time. -Makes a response more resistant to extinction than continuous reinforcement does.

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Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule

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The reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced responses. Ex: A rat is reinforced for every tenth lever press. A salesperson receives a bonus for every fourth set of golf clubs sold. -Ratio schedules tend to produce more rapid responding than interval schedules.

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Variable ratio-(VR) schedule

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The reinforcer is given after a variable number of nonreinforced responses. Ex: A rat is reinforced for every tenth lever. The exact number of responses required for reinforcement varies from one time to the next. -Variable schedules tend to generate steadier response rates and greater resistance to extinction than their fixed counterparts.

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Fixed-interval (FI) schedule

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The reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed. Ex: A rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 2-minute interval has elapsed and then must wait 2 minutes before receiving the next reinforcement.

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Variable-interval (VI) schedule

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The reinforcer is given for the first response after a variable time interval has elapsed. The interval length varies around a predetermined average. Ex: A rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 1-minute interval has elapsed, but the following intervals are 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, and so on.

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Positive reinforcement

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Occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus. -Good grades, paychecks, etc. Ex: Rat receives food when it presses the lever (reward).

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Negative reinforcement

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Occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus. -A response leads to the removal of an aversive stimulus rather than the arrival of a pleasant stimulus. Ex: A shock is built into the Skinner box where rats are tested but when rats press the lever, it leads to the removal of the shock.

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Escape learning

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An organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive stimulation. Ex: Animal learns to escape the shock by running to the safe end of the box.

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Avoidance learning

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An organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive stimulation from occurring. Ex: If you were to quit going to parties because of your concern about being picked on by peers.

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Punishment

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Occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response. Ex: Presentation of an aversive stimulus. -Involves the presentation of an aversive stimulus, thereby weakening a response.

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Conditioned taste aversion

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Study found that when taste cues were followed by nausea, rats quickly acquired conditioned taste aversions. However, when taste cues were followed by other types of noxious stimuli (such as shock), rats did not develop conditioned taste aversions.

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Preparedness

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Involves species-specific predispositions to be conditioned in certain ways and not others. -Why certain phobias are most common, once threatened our actual survival.

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Tolman

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Designed a study in which three groups of food-deprived rats learned to run a complicated maze over a series of once-a-day trials. Rats in Group A received a reward when they got to the end of the maze each day. Rats in Group B did not receive any food reward and therefore had no reinforcement to do better. Rats in Group C did not get any reward after the first ten trials but they were rewarded from the 11th trial onward.

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Latent learning

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Learning that is not apparent from behavior when it first occurs. -Suggested that learning can take place without the presence of reinforcement and that rats who displayed latent learning (Group C) had formed a cognitive map of the maze.

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Observational learning

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Occurs when an organism's responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models.

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Bandura, Ross, and Ross

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Showed how the observation of filmed models can influence the learning of aggressive behavior in children. For one group of children, they used a video where an adult was beating up a "Bobo doll" and for the other group, they used a neutral video. The children were then lead into a room with a variety of toys. The first group of children immediately went over to the Bobo doll in the room and proceeded to beat it up while the second group did nothing.

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Traditional "black box" view

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Learning doesn't involve higher mental processing, thought that learning depended on the outcome or the stimuli that elicited the behavior and that learning and human behavior was not dependent on mental processes, thinking or expectations or processing the situation had nothing to do with it.

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Forward conditioning

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CS providing information about what's going to happen next.

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