Learning
Psychologists define it as a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience or practice. Some are temporary (substances)
Behaviorists
learning theorists of the behavioral perspective → theorized that thoughts/ cognition play no role in the study of behavior. They focused on observable behavior
Conditioning
a key psychological process involving the learning of new behaviors; Changing existing ones, and stopping unwanted ones by forming connections between stimuli and responses.
Stimulus
Any event or situation that evokes a response from an organism. Ex) sound, visual cue, change in environment).
Response
the action or behavior triggered by a stimulus.
Classical Conditioning
a type of learning that links a ‘neural stimulus’ (one that causes no special response except to call attention to it) to another stimulus that elicits a natural or involuntary response in a given organism. Ex) a dog learning to associate the sound of a bell with food
Associative learning
a learning mode in which ideas and experiences have mentally linked, and thereby reinforced each other. Ex) A child learns to associate the action of cleaning their room with receiving a treat, making them more likely to clean their room in the future to get the reward.
Acquisition
the initial stage of learning where a new response is established and gradually strengthened through a conditioning process.
Unconditioned Stimulus
(US or UCS) ~ a stimulus that causes an automatic/reflexive/ autonomic response. Ex) presentation of food to dogs.
Unconditioned Response
(UR or VCR) ~ behavior that is a reflex/autonomic response to a stimulus, Ex) Dogs salivation to the meat.
Conditioned Stimulus
(CS) ~ former stimulus that eventually causes a response because it has been partnered with the UCS. Ex) White coats, or the sound of the bell.
Conditioned Response
(CR)~ behavior that is considered a reflex or automatic response to a CS. Ex) Dogs salivating to the white coat or the bell.
Stimulus Discrimination
a response to only the specific stimulus that has been conditioned. Ex) A dog learning to salivate only to the specific sound of its owner’s electric can opener (which predicts food), but not to the similar sound of an electric mixer (which does not predict food).
Stimulus Generalization
A response to another stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus. Ex) Dogs salivating regardless of tone.
Extinct (association)
when presenting the CS without the US causes the association to become extinct and the conditioned response may become neutral, causing no response.
Spontaneous Recovery
A recurrence of a stimulus-response after it has been extinguished.
Counterconditioning
A behavior therapy technique that replaces an unwanted response (fear/ anxiety to a stimulus with a new, positive response by pairing the trigger with something enjoyable or relaxing
Taste Aversion
a unique conditioned response that occurs after a simple pairing of an illness/symptoms like nausea with eating a specific food. “One-trial conditioning”
Biological Preparedness
the notion that evolutionary mechanisms have hardwired animals, including humans, to swiftly establish connections between specific stimuli and responses.
Habituations
the process by which an organism becomes accustomed to a repeated stimulus, resulting in a decreased response over time because learning has taken place.
Higher-Order Conditioning
Using an established conditioned stimulus as if it were a UCS to create a new conditioned response to a new stimulus.
ex) Light → Bell → Food → Salivation. Now Light → Salivation, even without the food.
One-Trial Learning
Learning that occurs after a single pairing of stimuli.
