Chapter 6 How We Learn

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

Change in organism’s behaviour/thought as a result of experience

Question 2

Habituation

Answer 2

Process of responding less strongly over time to repeated stimuli

Question 3

Sensitization

Answer 3

Responding to stimulus more strongly over time

Question 4

Conditioning

Answer 4

Forming associations among stimuli

Question 5

Serendipity

Answer 5

Accident

Question 6

Classical conditioning

Answer 6

Form of learning in which animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response

Question 7

Unconditioned stimulus

Answer 7

Stimulus that elicits an automatic response without prior conditioning

Question 8

Unconditioned response

Answer 8

Automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus

Question 9

Conditioned response

Answer 9

Response elicited by a previously neutral stimulus as a result of conditioning

Question 10

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 10

Initially neutral stimulus which, after conditioning elicits a conditioned response

Question 11

Acquisition

Answer 11

Learning phase during which a conditioned response is established

Question 12

Extinction

Answer 12

Gradual reduction/eventual elimination of the conditioned response after the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus

Question 13

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 13

Sudden reemergence of an extinct conditioned response after a delay following an extinction procedure

Question 14

Renewal effect

Answer 14

Sudden reemergence of conditioned response following extinction when an animal is returned to the environment in which the conditioned response was acquired

Question 15

Stimulus generalization

Answer 15

Process by which conditioned stimuli similar but not identical, to the original conditioned stimulus elicit a conditioned response

Question 16

Stimulus discrimination

Answer 16

Process by which organisms display a less pronounced conditioned response to conditioned stimuli that differ from the original conditioned stimulus

Question 17

Higher-order conditioning

Answer 17

Developing a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus by virtue of its association with another conditioned stimulus

Question 18

Occasion setters

Answer 18

Settings that can/may contain conditioned stimulus and cause conditioned response

Question 19

Latent inhibition

Answer 19

Difficulty in establishing classical conditioning to an already familiar stimulus

Question 20

Conditioned compensatory response

Answer 20

Conditioned response that is the opposite of the UCR and serves to compensate for the UCR

Question 21

Fetishism

Answer 21

Sexual attraction to nonliving things

Question 22

Operant conditioning

Answer 22

Learning controlled by consequences of the organism’s behaviour

Question 23

Law of effect

Answer 23

Principle asserting that if, in the presence of a certain stimulus, a behaviour results in a satisfying reward, that behaviour is more likely to occur in the presence of that stimulus in the future

Question 24

Insight

Answer 24

Grasping the underlying nature of a problem

Question 25

Reinforcement

Answer 25

Outcome/consequence of a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour

Question 26

Positive reinforcement

Answer 26

Presentation of a stimulus following a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour

Question 27

Negative reinforcement

Answer 27

Removal of a stimulus following a behaviour that strengthens the possibility of the behaviour

Question 28

Punishment

Answer 28

Outcome/consequence of a behaviour that weakens the probability of the behaviour

Question 29

Discriminate stimulus

Answer 29

Stimulus associated with the presence of reinforcement

Question 30

Schedule of reinforcement

Answer 30

Pattern of reinforcing a behaviour

Question 31

Continuous reinforcement

Answer 31

Reinforcing a behaviour every time it occurs, resulting in faster learning but faster extinction that only occasional reinforcement

Question 32

Partial reinforcement

Answer 32

Only occasional reinforcement of a behaviour, resulting in slower extinction that if the behaviour had been reinforced continually

Question 33

Fixed ratio schedule

Answer 33

Pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses

Question 34

Fixed interval schedule

Answer 34

Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for the first response following a specified time interval

Question 35

Variable ratio schedule

Answer 35

Patter in which we provide reinforcement after a variable number of responses, with the number varying randomly around some average

Question 36

Variable interval schedule

Answer 36

Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for the first response following a variable time interval, with the actual intervals varying randomly around some average

Question 37

Shaping by successive approximations

Answer 37

Conditioning a target behaviour by progressively reinforcing behaviours that come closer and closer to target

Question 38

Secondary reinforcer

Answer 38

Neutral object that becomes associated with a primary reinforcer

Question 39

Primary reinforcer

Answer 39

Item/outcome that naturally increases target behaviour (biological - heat, food, pain)

Question 40

Latent learning

Answer 40

Learning that's not directly observable

Question 41

Cognitive map

Answer 41

Mental representation of how a physical space is organized

Question 42

Observational learning

Answer 42

Learning by watching others

Question 43

Mirror neurons

Answer 43

Cell in the prefrontal cortex that becomes activated by specific motions when an animal both performs/observes that action

Question 44

Conditioned taste aversion

Answer 44

Classical conditioning can lead us to develop avoidance reactions to the taste of food

Question 45

Equipotentiality

Answer 45

Claim that we can classically condition all CSs equally well to all UCSs

Question 46

Preparedness

Answer 46

Evolutionary predisposition to learn some pairings of feared stimuli over others owing to their survival value

Question 47

Illusory correlations

Answer 47

Perception of nonexistent association between two variables

Question 48

Instinctive drift

Answer 48

Tendency for animals to return to innate behaviours following repeated reinforcement

Question 49

Sleep-assisted learning

Answer 49

Learning new material while asleep

Question 50

Discovery learning

Answer 50

Giving students experimental materials and asking them to figure out scientific principles on their own

Question 51

Direct instructions

Answer 51

Tell people how to solve problems

Question 52

Learning styles

Answer 52

An individual's preferred/optimal method of acquiring new info

Question 53

Reliability

Answer 53

Consistency of measurement