Unit 4: Reading

Question 1

Taste Aversion

Answer 1

The avoidance of a specific food or taste if it makes the organism sick

Question 2

Cognitive Map

Answer 2

A mental representation of the layout of one’s enviornment

Question 3

Latent Learning

Answer 3

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Question 4

Intrinsic Motivation

Answer 4

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake

Question 5

Extrinsic Motivation

Answer 5

A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment

Question 6

Problem-Focused Coping

Answer 6

Addressing the issue head on

Question 7

Emotion-Focused Coping

Answer 7

Trying to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor

Question 8

Learned Helplessness

Answer 8

The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated adverse events

Question 9

External Locus of Control

Answer 9

The perception that chance or outside forces beyond personal control determine our fate

Question 10

Internal Locus of Control

Answer 10

The perception that you control your own fate

Question 11

Observational Learning

Answer 11

Learning by observing others

Question 12

Mirror Neurons

Answer 12

Frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another do so

Question 13

Prosocial Behavior

Answer 13

Positive, constructive, and helpful behavior

Question 14

Learning

Answer 14

The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Question 15

How do we learn

Answer 15

By repeating acts that bring rewards and avoiding acts that bring unwanted results

Question 16

Classical vs. Operant Conditioning

Answer 16

Classical - learning to expect something because of something else happening that indicates it
Operant - Learning to repeat or not repeat behaviors based on their consequences

Question 17

Habituation

Answer 17

An organism’s decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it

Question 18

Associative Learning

Answer 18

Learning that certain evens occur together. The events may be two stimuli or a response and its consequences

Question 19

Stimulus

Answer 19

Any event or situation that evokes a response

Question 20

Cognitive Learning

Answer 20

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

Question 21

How did Pavlov study classical conditioning

Answer 21

Rung a bell and then fed dogs to create a conditioned response so that the dogs would salivate every time the bell was rung, even if there was no food

Question 22

Neutral Stimulus

Answer 22

Stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

Question 23

Unconditioned response

Answer 23

An unlearned, naturally occurring response

Question 24

Unconditioned stimulus

Answer 24

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response

Question 25

Conditioned response

Answer 25

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

Question 26

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 26

An originally irrelevant stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response

Question 27

Higher-Order conditioning

Answer 27

A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus, often creating a second weaker conditioned stimulus

Question 28

Shaping

Answer 28

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Question 29

Law of Effect

Answer 29

Responses that produce desirable results will be learned, or “stamped” into the organism

Question 30

Operant Chamber

Answer 30

A chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer

Question 31

Discriminative Stimulus

Answer 31

A stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement

Question 32

Primary vs. Conditioned reinforcers

Answer 32

Primary - an innately reinforcing stimulus (one that satisfies a biological need)
Conditioned - A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer

Question 33

Positive reinforcement

Answer 33

Adding a desirable stimulus

Question 34

Negative reinforcement

Answer 34

Removing an aversive stimulus

Question 35

Reinforcement Schedule

Answer 35

Pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced. Behaviors are harder to learn, but extinction is rarer

Question 36

Fixed Ratio

Answer 36

reinforcement after every <em>nth</em> behavior

Question 37

Variable Ratio

Answer 37

reinforcement after a random number of behaviors

Question 38

Fixed Interval

Answer 38

Reinforcement for behavior after a fixed time

Question 39

Variable Interval

Answer 39

Reinforcement for behavior after a random amount of time

Question 40

Punishment vs. Reinforcement

Answer 40

Punishment decreases behavior, reinforcement increases behavior