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Behavior

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The ways in which animals act or respond in an environment

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Learning

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A relatively permanent change in observable behavior that results from experience with an environment

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Meme

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A cultural invention that is passed on from one generation to the next

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Associative process

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The cognitive process that connects two stimuli, a stimulus and a response, or a response and a reinforcer

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Reflex

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An innate, involuntary response to a specific stimulus in the environment

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Orienting reflex

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(Pavlov) An instinctive response to a stimulus, such as turning the head to locate a sound source

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Unconditioned stimulus (US)

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(Pavlov) A stimulus that elicits an innate, involuntary, unconditioned response (UR)

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Unconditioned response (UR)

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(Pavlov) A reflexive response to an unconditioned stimulus (US)

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Classical conditioning

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A procedure in which a conditioned response results from the pairing of a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus

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Conditioned stimulus (CS)

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(Pavlov) A stimulus (such as the sound of a bell) that can trigger a conditioned response (such as salivation)

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Conditioned response (CR)

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(Pavlov) A reflexive response that is triggered by a conditioned stimulus

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Habituation

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Decreased responsiveness to a repetitive stimulus

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Sensitization

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Increased responsiveness following the presentation of a single stimulus

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Extinction

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(Classical conditioning): A reduction in the conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus

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Spontaneous recovery

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(Pavlov) The reappearance of an extinguished response following a delay in the extinction process

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Higher-order conditioning

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(Pavlov) The process through which a conditioned stimulus acquires the properties of an unconditioned stimulus

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Stimulus generalization

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The tendency to perceive stimuli that share common properties as being similar

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Discrimination

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The ability to perceive a difference between two stimuli

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Conditioned emotional response

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An emotional response (such as fear) that is triggered by a conditioned stimulus

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Second-signal system

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(Pavlov) The way in which a word (the second signal) is attached to raw sensory input (the first signal)

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Conditioned taste aversion

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A conditioning procedure in which an animal drinks a flavored solution (the CS) and is then made sick by a toxin (the US)

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Conditioned compensatory response

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(Siegel) A homeostatic response that counteracts a drug's effect after repeated exposures

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Instrumental response

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A voluntary, non-reflexive response that acts on the environment in a meaningful way

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Instrumental learning

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The modification of a non-reflexive behavior using reinforcers and punishers

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Law of effect

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(Thorndike) The rule that responses that are followed by "satisfiers" tend to be repeated, whereas responses that are followed by "annoyers" tend not to be repeated

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Satisfier

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(Thorndike) A pleasant stimulus

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Annoyer

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(Thorndike) An unpleasant stimulus

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Operant

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(Skinner) An instrumental response, such as a lever press, that effectively operates on the environment

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Positive reinforcer

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(Skinner) Any stimulus that follows an operant response and has the effect of increasing the rate of response

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Positive reinforcement

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(Skinner) A process in which a reward such as food is used to reinforce an operant response

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Operant conditioning

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(Skinner) The process through which reinforcement strengthens (make more probable) an operant response

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Shaping

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A procedure in which responses that approximate the target behavior are reinforced

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Secondary reinforcer

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A neutral stimulus that acquires reinforcing properties through the process of higher-order conditioning

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Schedule of reinforcement

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The pattern according to which response are reinforced

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Continuous reinforcement

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A procedure in which each response is followed by a reinforcer

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Partial reinforcement

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A procedure in which patterns of responses (rather than single responses) are reinforced

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Fixed ratio (FR) schedule

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A schedule of reinforcement in which a fixed number of responses must be made before a response is reinforced

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Variable ratio (VR) schedule

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A schedule of reinforcement in which a varying number of responses must be made before a response is reinforced

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Fixed interval (FI) schedule

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A schedule of reinforcement in which the first response made following a specified time interval is reinforced

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Variable interval (VI) schedule

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A schedule of reinforcement in which the first response following a varying time interval is reinforced

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Partial reinforcement effect (PRE)

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The tendency for responses that are being maintained on a partial reinforcement schedule to be highly resistant to extinction

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Differential reinforcement of high rates of response (DRH)

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A schedule of reinforcement that is designed to reinforce bursts of operant responses

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Differential reinforcement of low rates of response (DRL)

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A schedule of reinforcement that is designed to reinforce pauses between operant responses

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Extinction

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(Instrumental conditioning): A reduction in the rate of response when reinforcement is withheld

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Behavioral control

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The contingencies that determine the expression of a behavior through reinforcement and punishment

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Discriminative stimulus (S^d)

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A signal that indicates when a response will be reinforced

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negative discriminative stimulus (S^Δ)

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A stimulus that signals that a response will not be followed by reinforcement

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Stimulus control

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In discrimination training, the demonstration of a response in the presence of S^d, but not in the presence of S^Δ

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Punishment

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The process through which an aversive stimulus decreases the rate of the response to which it is applied

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Escape

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A procedure in which an animal makes an instrumental response that terminates an aversive stimulus

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Avoidance learning

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A procedure in which an instrumental response prevents an aversive stimulus

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Negative reinforcement

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A process in which response that prevent aversive events are learned, presumably because the absence of an aversive event is reinforcing

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Observational learning

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Learning by watching others; imitation

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Instinctive drift

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(Breland) The theory that arbitrarily established responses erode (drift) in the face of more innate (instinctive) behavior

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Cognitive map

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(Tolman) A mental representation of the route or shortest path to a target destination

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Latent learning

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(Tolman) Learning that occurs in the absence of specific food rewards

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Foraging pattern

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An innately determined food-searching behavior

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Cognitive processes

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The psychological processes of perceiving, thinking, knowing, remembering, and so forth

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Win-stay, lose-shift strategy

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(Harlow) A strategy in which an animal continues to make a response that is reinforced (win-stay) but switches to a different response when not reinforced (lose-shift)

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Tabula rasa

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Idea proposed by John Locke that a baby's mind is a blank slate, on which experience writes

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________ shape the instinctive components of behavior.

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Environments

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Environment not only shapes behavior and learning; it determines _______.

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Opportunity

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How are memes transmitted across generations?

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Through oral and written history

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Who began the empirical study of learning?

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Ivan Pavlov began it with laboratory studies

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What kind of conditioning are Pavlov's experiments associated with?

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Classical conditioning

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How is a reflex different from an instinct?

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Reflexes involve fewer synapses and a simpler brain organization

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Neutral stimulus

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In classical conditioning, it is the type of stimulus that initially or normally does not elicit an overt behavioural response (apart from focusing attention) in the observed organism but when paired with the unconditioned stimulus and presented simultaneously to the organism, the organism eventually responds to it

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Salivary reflex

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unlearned response to the taste of food

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Conditioning occurs when. . .

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two stimuli, the CS and the US, become associated

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Non-associative learning

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A change in behavior occurs to a singly presented stimulus

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Internal inhibition

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Frustration at not receiving a reward when expected

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External inhibition

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The disruptive effect of an extra stimulus on both conditioning and extinction

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Significance of higher-order conditioning

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Once a "neutral" stimulus has been conditioned, it can be used to condition other responses

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The more _____ a conditioned stimulus, the more easily it is associated with an unconditioned stimulus

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intense

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Both stimulus generalization and discrimination allow us to . . .

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recognize differences and make distinctions within our environments

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Conditioned suppression

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When a conditioned emotional response suppresses an action

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"Little Albert" experiment

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Experiment conducted by John B. Watson in which he conditioned an 11-month-old child to fear a white rat

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What is the foremost "neutral stimulus" for conditioning human responses?

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Language

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What is our most important meme?

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Language

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How do words derive their meaning?

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By being associated with other environmental signals

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Plasticity

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The fact that the environment can change both an animal's behavior and the physical structure of its nervous system

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Is taste aversion a rapid or slow learning process?

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Rapid

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Tolerance

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The reduction of a drug's effectiveness after a person has taken it repeatedly

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Instrumental response vs. conditioning

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Learning by doing something vs. having something done to oneself

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Instrumental learning constructs ___ behaviors

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new

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_____ and ______ interact when a person is learning a new skill.

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Reflexes; instrumental responses

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Hedonism

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The tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain

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Primary reinforcers meet _______ ______.

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biological needs

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Secondary reinforcers acquire value through the _______ _______.

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learning process

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Postreinforcement pause

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A pause following reinforcement in which the animal pauses to eat its reward

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Environmental determinism

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The position that environmental stimuli exert almost total control over an animal's behavior

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Punisher

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Any stimulus that decreased the rate of the response that preceded it

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Primary punisher

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Any stimulus that is inherently aversive

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Secondary punisher

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A stimulus that has acquired punishing properties through conditioning

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Negatively reinforced responses extinguish more (slowly, quickly) than positively reinforced responses

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slowly

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Item-specific strategy

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Responses to "correct" stimuli are reinforced, and responses to "incorrect" stimuli are not

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Relational strategies

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An animal is first trained with specific stimuli and subsequently tested with novel stimuli (so-called transfer tests)

Psychology Chp 6 – Learning and Behavior – Flashcards

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