Learning
Is a relatively enduring or permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from previous experience with certain stimuli and responses
Behavior
Includes any observable response (fainting, salivating, vomiting)
3 kinds of learning
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Cognitive learning
Classical conditioning
Is a kind of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response that was originally produced by a different stimulus
Law of effect
Says that if some random actions are followed by a pleasurable consequence or reward, such actions are strengthened and will likely occur in the future.
Operant conditioning
Refers to a kind of learning in which the consequences that follow some behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior's occurrence in the future
Cognitive learning
Is a kind of learning that involves mental processes, such as attention and memory
- may be learned through observation or imitation
May not involve any external rewards or require the person to perform any observable behaviors
Neutral stimulus
Is some stimulus that causes a sensory response, such as being seen, heard, or smelled, but does not produce the reflex being tested
Unconditioned stimulus or UCS
Some stimulus that triggers or elicits a physiological reflex, such as salivation or eye blink
Unconditioned response or UCR
Is an unlearned, innate, involuntary physioogical reflex that is elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned stimulus or CS
Is a formerly neutral stimulus that has acquired the ability to elicit a response that was previously elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned response or CR
Which is elicited by the conditioned stimulus, is similar to, but not identical in size or amount to, the unconditioned response
Generalization
Is the tendency for a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit to a resonse that is similar to the conditioned response
- usually the more similar the new stimulus is to the original conditioned stimulus, the larger will be the conditioned response
Discrimination
Occurs during classical conditioning when an organism learns to make a particular response to some stimuli but not to others
Extinction
Refers to a procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus and, as result, the conditioned stimulus tends to no longer elicit the conditioned response
Spontaneous recovery
Is the tendency for the conditioned response to reappear after being extinguished even though there have been no further conditioning trials
Adaptive value
Frees to the usefulness of certain abilities or traits that have evolved in animals and humans and tend to increase their chance of survival, such as finding food, acquiring mates, and avoiding pain and injury
Taste-aversion learning
Refers to associating a particular sensory cue (smell, taste, sound, sight) with getting sick and thereafter avoiding that particular sensory cue in the future
Preparedness
Refers to the phenomenon that animals and humans are biologically prepared to associate some combinations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli more easily than others
Conditioned emotional response
Refers to feeling some positive or negative emotion, such as happiness, fear, or anxiety, when experiencing a stimulus that initially accompanied a pleasant or painful event
Stimulus substitution
Means that a neural bond or association forms in the brain between the neutral stimulus (tone) and unconditioned stimulus (food)
- after repeated trials, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus (food)
- thereafter, the conditioned stimulus (tone) elicits a conditioned response (salivation) that is similar to that of the unconditioned stimulus
Contiguity theory
Says that classical conditioning occurs because 2 stimuli (neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus) are paired close together in time (are contiguous)
- as a result of this contiguous pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus, which elicits the conditioned response
Cognitive perspective
Says that an organism learns a predictable relationship between 2 stimuli such that the occurrence of one stimulus (neutral stimulus) predicts the occurrence of another (unconditioned stimulus)
- in other words, classical conditioning occurs because the organism learns what to expect
Anticipatory nausea
Refers to feelings of nausea that are elicit by stimuli associated with nausea-inducing chemotherapy treatments, patients experience nausea after treatment but also before or in anticipation of their treatment
- researches believe that conditioned nausea occurs through classical conditioning
Systematic desensitization
Is a procedure based on classical conditioning, in which a person imagines or visualizes fearful or anxiety-evoking stimuli and then immediately uses deep relaxation to ovecome the anxiety
- a form of counterconditioning because it replaces, or counters, fear and anxiety with relaxation