Learning Flashcards
(26 cards)
Learning
A permanent change in behaviour due to experience.
Classical conditioning
A procedure during which an animal or person learns to associate a reflex response with a new stimulus.
Classical conditioning schedule
The steps in the procedure to condition a new response.
Unconditioned stimulus USC.
The stimulus that produces a reflex response, such as the food for Pavlov’s dog.
Unconditioned response UCR
The reflex response to an unconditioned stimulus presented, such as Pavlov’s dog’s salivation.
Conditioned stimulus CS
A new stimulus presented with the UCS, such as the bell in Pavlov’s experiment.
Conditioned response CR
The response that is learnt now occurs when the CS is presented with the UCS, such as the bell in Pavlov’s dog’s salivation.
Extinction
A conditioned response dies out.
Spontaneous recovery.
A conditioned response that had disappeared suddenly appears again.
Generalisation
The conditioned response is produced when a similar stimulus to the original conditioned stimulus is presented.
Discrimination
(With reference to conditioning) the conditioned response is only produced when a specific stimulus is presented.
Operant conditioning
Learning due to the consequences of behaviour, through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement.
Law of Effect
Behaviours that are followed by rewards are usually repeated; those that are punished are not usually repeated.
Punishment
A stimulus that weakens behaviour because it is unpleasant and we try to avoid it.
Reinforcement
A consequence of behaviour that encourages or strengthens a behaviour. This might be seen as a reward.
Positive reinforcement
A reward or pleasant consequence that increases the likelihood that behaviour or action will be repeated.
Negative reinforcement
When an unpleasant experience is removed after a behaviour or action has been made. This increases the likelihood of that behaviour or action being repeated.
Behaviour shaping.
Changing behaviour in small steps.
Phobia
A persistent and irrational fear of an object, activity or situation. The typical symptoms are intense feelings of fear and anxiety to avoid the object, activity or situation.
Flooding
A treatment for phobias that involves the immediate exposure of the person to the feared object, activity or event, until there is not fear response.
Systematic desensitisation
A treatment for phobias in which the person is taught to relax and then gradually exposed to the feared object, activity or event.
Hierarchy of fears
A series of feared events ranked from least frightening to most frightening.
Aversion therapy
A treatment for addictions, such as drug and alcohol dependency, which makes the addict have an extremely negative reaction to the addictive substance.
Primary reinforcer
A reward, such as food or water, that the animal or person needs in order to survive.
