| A | B |
|---|
| learning | a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience |
| classical conditioning | type of learning in which a stimulus gains the power to cause a response |
| stimulus | anything in the environment that one can respond to |
| response | any behavior or action |
| unconditioned stimulus (UCS) | stimulus that triggers a response reflexively and automatically. |
| unconditidioned response (UCR) | Automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus |
| conditioned stimulus (CS) | previously neutral stimulus that, through learning, gains the power to cause a response |
| conditioned response (CR) | Response to the conditioned stimulus |
| acquisition | process of developing a learned response |
| extinction | diminishing of a learned response |
| Ivan Pavlov | learning theorist famous for the discovery of classical conditioning |
| generalization | producing the same response to two similar stimuli |
| discrimination | producing different responses to two stimuli |
| behaviorism | view that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes. |
| John Watson | Founder of behaviorism, the theory that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes. |
| Little Albert | used in famous demonstration of establishing fear through the use of a loud noise and a rat |
| cognition | mental processes |
| operant conditioning | type of learning in which the frequency of a behavior depends on the consequence that follows that behavior. |
| Edward Thorndike | author of the law of effect, the principle that forms the basis of operant conditioning. |
| B.F. Skinner | developed the fundamental principles and techniques of operant conditioning and devised ways to apply them in the real world. Invented a special contraption named a Skinner box, used to research animal learning. |
| Skinner box | Delivers food to an animal by a lever to press or disk to peck in order to get food. The food is the reinforce, and the process of giving the food is called reinforcement |
| reinforcement | any consequence that increases the future likelihood of a behavior |
| punishment | any consequence that decreases the future likelihood of a behavior. |
| shaping | reinforcement of behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired one; the operant technique used to establish new behaviors. |
| discrimination | ability to distinguish between two similar signals or stimuli |
| extinction | in operant conditioning, the loss of a behavior when no consequence follows it |
| Cognitive map | mental representative of a place |
| Observational learning (modeling) | learning by observing others, this type of learning is said to be species-specific; it only occurs between members of the same species |
| Albert Bandura | Major figure in the study of observational learning and several other important topics. |
| Mirror neurons | brain cells located in the front of the brain that activate when performing certain actions or when observing another do so. |
