Unit 6 Vocab

Question 1

What is learning?

Answer 1

The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

Question 2

What is habituation?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is associative learning?

Answer 3

Learning that certain events occur together, which may involve two stimuli or a response and its consequences.

Question 4

What is a stimulus?

Answer 4

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Question 5

What is cognitive learning?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 6

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events.

Question 7

What is behaviorism?

Answer 7

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

Question 8

What is a neutral stimulus (NS)?

Answer 8

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

Question 9

What is an unconditioned response (UR)?

Answer 9

An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (US).

Question 10

What is an unconditioned stimulus (US)?

Answer 10

A stimulus that unconditionally triggers a response.

Question 11

What is a conditioned response (CR)?

Answer 11

A learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).

Question 12

What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?

Answer 12

An originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Question 13

What is acquisition in classical conditioning?

Answer 13

The initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Question 14

What is higher-order conditioning?

Answer 14

A procedure where the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus.

Example: An animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone.

Question 15

What is extinction?

Answer 15

The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus.

Question 16

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 16

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Question 17

What is generalization?

Answer 17

The tendency for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.

Question 18

What is discrimination in classical conditioning?

Answer 18

The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

Question 19

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 19

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Question 20

What is the law of effect?

Answer 20

Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely.

Question 21

What is an operant chamber?

Answer 21

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

Also known as a Skinner box.

Question 22

What is reinforcement?

Answer 22

Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Question 23

What is shaping?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What is a discriminative stimulus?

Answer 24

A stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement.

Question 25

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 25

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers.

Question 26

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 26

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. ## Footnote Note: Negative reinforcement is not punishment.

Question 27

What is a primary reinforcer?

Answer 27

An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.

Question 28

What is a conditioned reinforcer?

Answer 28

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer.

Question 29

What is a reinforcement schedule?

Answer 29

A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced.

Question 30

What is continuous reinforcement?

Answer 30

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Question 31

What is partial (intermittent) reinforcement?

Answer 31

Reinforcing a response only part of the time, resulting in slower acquisition but greater resistance to extinction.

Question 32

What is a fixed-ratio schedule?

Answer 32

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Question 33

What is a variable-ratio schedule?

Answer 33

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Question 34

What is a fixed-interval schedule?

Answer 34

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

Question 35

What is a variable-interval schedule?

Answer 35

A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Question 36

What is punishment?

Answer 36

An event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.

Question 37

What is biofeedback?

Answer 37

A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state.

Question 38

What is respondent behavior?

Answer 38

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.

Question 39

What is operant behavior?

Answer 39

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.

Question 40

What is a cognitive map?

Answer 40

A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment. ## Footnote Example: After exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

Question 41

What is latent learning?

Answer 41

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

Question 42

What is insight?

Answer 42

A sudden realization of a problem’s solution.

Question 43

What is intrinsic motivation?

Answer 43

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

Question 44

What is extrinsic motivation?

Answer 44

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

Question 45

What is coping?

Answer 45

Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods.

Question 46

What is problem-focused coping?

Answer 46

Attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

Question 47

What is emotion-focused coping?

Answer 47

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs.

Question 48

What is learned helplessness?

Answer 48

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

Question 49

What is external locus of control?

Answer 49

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

Question 50

What is internal locus of control?

Answer 50

The perception that you control your own fate.

Question 51

What is self-control?

Answer 51

The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.

Question 52

What is observational learning?

Answer 52

Learning by observing others, also called social learning.

Question 53

What is modeling?

Answer 53

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Question 54

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 54

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so.

Question 55

What is prosocial behavior?

Answer 55

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior; the opposite of antisocial behavior.