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Learning

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A systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience

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Behaviorism

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A theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behavior, discounting the importance of mental activity such as thinking, wishing, and hoping

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Associative Learning

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Occurs when an organism makes a connection (or association) between two events

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Conditioning

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The process of learning associations; two types: classical and operant

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Classical Conditioning

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Organisms learn the association between two stimuli. As a result of this association, organisms learn to anticipate events. Ex: Thunder follows lightening A neutral stimulus becomes associated with an innately meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar repsonse A type of learning that occurs without awareness or effort, based on the presentation of the two stimuli together

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Operant Conditioning

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Organisms learn the association between a behavior and a consequence, such as a reward or punishment. Ex: Child gets candy after showing good manners

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Observational Learning

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Learning that occurs through observing and imitating another's behavior; relies on mental processes: the learner has to pay attention, remember, and reproduce what the model did; way in which infants acquire skills

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Ian Pavlov

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Russian physiologist; demonstrated that neutral aspects of the environment can attain he capacity to evoke responses through pairing with other stimuli and that bodily processes can be influenced by environmental cues

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Unconditional Stimulus (US)

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A stimulus that produces a response without prior learning; ex: the food was the US in Pavlov's experiments

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Unconditional Response (UR)

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An unlearned reaction that is automatically elicited by the US; are involuntary; they happen in response to a stimulus without conscious effort; Ex: in Pavlov's experiment, drooling in response to food was the UR

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Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

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A previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditional response after being paired with the unconditional stimulus

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Conditional Response (CR)

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The learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after CS-US pairing; sometimes conditioned responses are quite similar to unconditioned responses, but typically they are not as strong

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Neutral Stimulus

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The stimulus does not have any signal value at all

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Acquisition

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The initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired

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Generalization (in classical conditioning)

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The tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response; has value in preventing learning from being tied to specific stimuli

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Discrimination (in classical conditioning)

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The process of learning to response to certain stimuli and not others; Ex: Pavlov gave food to the dog only after ringing the bell and not after any other sounds. The dog learned to distinguish between the bell and other sounds

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Extinction (in classical conditioning)

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The weakening of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is absent. Without continued association with the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned stimulus loses its power to produce the conditioned response

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Spontaneous recovery

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The process in classical conditioning by which a conditioned response can recur after a time delay, without further conditioning

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John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920)

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Coined the term behaviorism; demonstrated classical conditioning's role in the development of fears with an infant named Albert- paired a white rat with a loud noise

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Taste aversion

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A special kind of classical conditioning involving the learned association between a particular taste and nausea; is special because it typically requires only one pairing of a neutral stimulus (a taste) with the unconditioned response of nausea to seal that connection, often for a very long time; it is highly adaptive to learn taste aversions in only one trial

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Respondent behavior

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Classical conditioning is a form of this; behavior that occurs in automatic response to a stimulus such as a nausea-producing drug, and later to a conditioned stimulus such as sweet water that was paired with the drug

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Involuntary responses

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Unlearned responses

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Voluntary behaviors

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Ex: student's studying hard for a test

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Operant Conditioning/Instrumental Conditioning

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Can explain voluntary behaviors; A form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behavior's occurrence

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B.F. Skinner

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Chose the term operant to describe the behavior of the organism; the consequences that follow spontaneous operant behaviors determine whether the behavior will be repeated

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Operant Behavior

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Occurs spontaneously

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E.L. Thorndike (1898)

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His experiments established the power of consequences in determining behavior; studied cats in puzzle boxes

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Law of effect

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Thorndike's law stating that behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthened and that behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened; presents the basic idea that the consequences of behavior influence the likelihood of that behavior's recurrence

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Shaping

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Rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior

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Reinforcement

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The process by which a stimulus or event (a reinforce) following a particular behavior increases the probability that the behavior will happen again; increasing a behavior

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Positive reinforcement

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The frequency of a behavior increases because it is followed by a desirable stimulus; following a behavior with the addition of something pleasant

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Negative reinforcement

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The frequency of a behavior increases because it is followed by the removal of something undesirable; following a behavior with the removal of something unpleasant Ex: taking out the trash after your dad nagging you to do it in order to stop the nagging, or taking an aspirin for a headache

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Primary reinforcer

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A reinforcer that is innately satisfying; one that does not take any learning on the organism's part to make it pleasurable Ex: food, water, and sexual satisfication

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Secondary reinforcer

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A reinforcer that acquires its positive value through an organism's experience; a secondary reinforcer is a learned or conditioned reinforcer

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Token economy

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Behaviors are rewards with tokens (such as poker chips or stars on a chart) that can be exchanged later for desired rewards (such as candy or money)

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Generalization (in operant conditioning)

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Performing a reinforced behavior in a different situation Ex: studying every night for calculus resulted in a good grade, so the student studies every night for psych and history as well

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Discrimination (in operant conditioning)

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Responding approximately to stimuli that signal that a behavior will or will not be reinforced Ex: When there's a "university student discount" sign in the front window of a restaurant, you enthusiastically flash your student ID with the expectation of getting the reward of a reduced-price meal

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Extinction (in operant conditioning)

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Decreases in the frequency of a behavior when the behavior is no longer reinforced Ex: stop going to soda machine that eats your coins

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Continuous Reinforcement

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A behavior is reinforced every time it occurs; causes organisms to learn rapidly. however, when reinforcement stops, extinction takes place quickly

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Partial Reinforcement

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Particularly resistant to extinction; a reinforcer follows a behavior only a portion of the time; characterizes most life experiences Ex: a golfer does not win every tournament she enters, or a student does not get a pat on the back each time she solves a problem

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Schedules of reinforcement

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Specific patterns that determine when a behavior will be reinforced

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Ratio schedules

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Involve the number of behaviors that must be performed prior to reward

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Interval schedules

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Refer to the amount of time that must pass before a behavior is rewarded

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Fixed schedule

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The number of behaviors of amount of time is always the same

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Variable schedule

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The required number of behaviors or the amount of time that must pass changes and is unpredictable from the perspective of the learner

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Fixed-ratio schedule

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Reinforces a behavior after a set number of behaviors;Ex: a mail carrier must deliver mail to a fixed number of houses each day before he can head home; the business world uses this to increase production

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Variable-ratio schedule

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A timetable in which behaviors are rewarded an average number of times but on an unpredictable basis; Ex: slot machines; produce high, steady rates of behavior that are more resistant to extinction rather than the other three schedules

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Fixed-interval schedule

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Reinforces the first behavior after a fixed amount of time has passed Ex: baking cookies with a time

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Variable -interval schedule

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A timetable in which a behavior is reinforced after a variable amount of time has elapsed; behavior is slow and consistent; Ex: Pop quizzes and random drug testing and fishing; pop quizzes lead to more consistent levels of studying compared to the cramming that might be seen with scheduled tests

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Punishment

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A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur

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Positive punishment

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The presentation of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior Ex: spanking a misbehaving child

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Negative punishment

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The removal of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior Ex: Time-out (child removed from positive reinforcer of toys), getting grounded

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Albert Bandura

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Believes that if all our learning were conducted in such a trial-and-error fashion, learning would be exceedingly tedious and at times hazardous. Many complex behaviors are the result of exposure to competent models. By observing other people, we can acquire knowledge, skills, rules, strategies, beliefs, and attitudes. The capacity to learn by observation eliminates trial-and-error learning, and often such learning takes less time than operant conditioning

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Observational Learning (Imitation/Modeling)

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Learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior; most famous example: Bobo doll study

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Reinforcement

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Final (fourth) component of observation learning; the question is whether the model's behavior is followed by a consequence.

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Latent Learning (Implicit Learning)

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Unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior; stored cognitively in their memories but not yet expressed behaviorally

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Insight learning

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A form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problem's solution

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an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. (p. 276)

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shaping

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learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. (p. 297)

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latent learning

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behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus. (p. 289)

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respondent behavior

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