| LEARNING | process by which experience or practice results in a relatively permanent change in behaviour or potential behaviour |
| STIMULUS; | any event or object in the environment to which an organism responds; plural is stimuli |
| CLASSICAL CONDITIONING | type of learning in which a response naturally elicited by one stimulus comes to be elicited by a different formerly neutral stimulus |
| UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (US) | stimulus that invariably causes an organism to respond in a specific way without prior learning |
| UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UR) | response that takes place in organism whenever an unconditioned stimulus occurs without prior learning |
| CONDITIONED STIMULUS (CS) | an originally neutral stimulus that is paired with an unconditioned stimulus and eventually produces the desired response in an organism when presented alone |
| CONDITIONED RESPONSE (CR): | after conditioning, the response an organism produces when a conditioned stimulus is presented |
| DESENSITIZATION THERAPY: | conditioning technique designed to gradually reduce anxiety about particular object or situation |
| EXTINCTION: | The weakening and often eventual disappearance of a learned response ( in classical conditioning, the conditioned response (CR) is weakened by repeated presentation without the unconditioned stimulus (US) |
| SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY: | The reappearance of an extinguished response (in a weaker form) when an organism is exposed to the original conditioned stimulus following a rest period |
| PREPAREDNESS: | biological readiness to learn certain associations because of survival advantages (suggested by Seligman) |
| GENERALIZATION: | in classical conditioning, the tendency to make a conditioned response to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus; in operant conditioning the tendency to make the learned response to a stimulus that is similar to the one for which it was originally reinforced |
| DISCRIMINATION: | the learned ability to distinguish between similar stimuli so that the conditioned response occurs only to the original conditioned stimulus but not to similar stimuli |
| CONDITIONED TASTE AVERSION: | conditioned avoidance of certain foods even if there is only one pairing of conditioned stimuli (sauce bearnaise effect) |
| OPERANT (INSTRUMENTAL) CONDITIONING: | type of learning in which behaviours emitted (in presence of specific stimuli) to earn rewards or avoid punishment (think operate) |
| OPERANT BEHAVIOUR: | behaviour designed to operate on the environment in a way that will gain something desired or avoid something unpleasant |
| REINFORCER: | a stimulus that follows a behaviour and increases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated |
| PUNISHER: | a stimulus that follows a behaviour and decreases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated |
|
LAW OF EFFECT (Principle of Reinforcement): |
Thorndike's theory that behaviour consistently rewarded will be stamped in as learned behaviour,and behaviour that brings about discomfort will be stamped out. |
| SKINNER BOX: | box used in operant conditioning of animals which limits the available response and increases likelihood that desired response will occur |
| SHAPING: | Reinforcing successive approximations to a desired behaviour |
| BIOFEEDBACK | use of monitoring devices to provide precise information about external physiological processes such as heart rate, blood pressure to teach people gain voluntary control over function |
| POSITIVE REINFORCER: | any event whose presence increases the likelihood that ongoing behaviour will recur |
| NEGATIVE REINFORCER: | any event whose reduction or termination increases that the likelihood that ongoing behaviour will recur |
| PUNISHMENT | any event whose presence decreases the likelihood that ongoing behaviour will recur |
| AVOIDANCE TRAINING | learning a desirable behaviour to prevent the occurrence of something unpleasant such as punishment |
| LEARNED HELPLESSNESS | failure to take steps to avoid or escape from an unpleasant or aversive stimulus that occurs as a result of previous exposure to unavoidable painful stimuli |
| CONTINGENCY | a reliable "if-then" relationship between two events such as CS and US |
| BLOCKING | a process where prior conditioning prevents conditioning to a second stimulus even when the two are presented simultaneously |
| SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT | in operant conditioning, the rule for determining when and how often reinforcers will be delivered |
| FIXED-INTERVAL SCHEDULE | a reinforcement schedule where response is reinforced at fixed length of time since last reinforcement -performance tends to fall off immediately after reinforcement and picks up as time to next reinforcement nears |
| VARIABLE-INTERVAL SCHEDULE | a reinforcement schedule where correct response is reinforced after varying lengths of time following last reinforcement-learner typically gives slow steady rate |
| FIXED-RATIO SCHEDULE | a reinforcement schedule where correct response is reinforced after a fixed number of correct responses -results in high response rate and more rewards-slight pause followed by rapid response |
| VARIABLE RATIO SCHEDULE | a reinforcement schedule where a varying number of correct responses must occur before reinforcement presented-casino slot machine-tend not to pause after reinforcement |
| EXTINCTION | decrease in strength or frequency of learned response because of failure to continue pairing US and CS (classical) or withholding reinforcement (operant) |
| SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY | reappearance of an extinguished response after the passage of time without further training |
| STIMULUS CONTROL | control of conditioned responses by cues or stimuli in the environment |
| STIMULUS GENERALIZATION | the transfer of a learned response to different but similar stimuli |
| STIMULUS DISCRIMINATION | learning to respond to only one stimulus and to inhibit the response to all other stimuli |
| RESPONSE GENERALIZATION | giving a response that is somewhat different from the response originally learned to that stimulus |
| HIGHER ORDER CONDITIONING | conditioning based on previous learning; the conditioned stimulus serves as an unconditioned stimulus to further learning |
| SECONDARY REINFORCER | a reinforcer whose value is acquired through association with other primary or secondary reinforcers. eg. money (requires classical conditioning) |
| PRIMARY REINFORCER | a reinforcer that is rewarding in itself such as food, water, sex |
| COGNITIVE LEARNING | learning that depends on mental processes that are not directly observable |
| BEHAVIOUR MODIFICTION: | the systematic application of the learning principles of operant conditioning, classical conditioning or observational learning to individuals or groups to eliminate undesirable behaviour/or encourage desirable behaviour (e.g. Time Out) |
| TOKEN ECONOMY: | a program that motivates and reinforces socially acceptable behaviours with tokens that can be exchanges for desired items or privileges |
| LATENT LEARNING | learning that is not immediately reflected in behaviour change |
| COGNITIVE MAP | learned mental image of a spatial environment that may be called on to solve problems when stimuli in environment change |
| INSIGHT | learning that occurs rapidly as a result of understanding all the elements of a problem |
| LEARNING SET | the ability to become increasingly more effective in solving problems as more problems are solved |
| OBSERVATIONAL/VICARIOUS LEARNING | learning by observing other people's behaviour-a form of social learning |
| SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY | a view of learning that emphasizes the ability to learn by observing a model or receiving instructions without firsthand experience by the learner |
| VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT OR VICARIOUS PUNISHMENT | reinforcement or punishment experienced by models that affects the willingness of others to perform the behaviours they learned by observing those models |
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copyright 2003Karen E.Hamilton