Psychology Units 7-9

Learning is defined as a “relatively permanent change in behavior due to

Associative learning involves learning that certain events occur together. Two forms of associative learning are classical conditioning, in which the organism associates _____, and operant conditioning, in which the organism associates _____.

Working with dogs, Pavlov paired a tone or other neutral stimulus with food in the mouth. The dogs then came to salivate when presented with the neutral stimulus alone. Salvation in response to food in the mouth occurs naturally in dogs, without conditioning; food is therefore the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Salvation in response to a tone must be learned; the tone is therefore a

Dogs can learn to respond to one kind of stimulus and not to another–for example, to salivate at the sight of a circle (the CS) but not a square. Distinguishing between a CS and an irrelevant stimulus is

Early behaviorists believe that for conditioning to occur the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) must immediately follow the conditioned stimulus (CS). _____ demonstrated this was not always so.

Research by Garcia and Koelling showed that rats developed aversions to certain tastes but not to sights or sounds, thus supporting

Watson and Rayer classically conditioned a small child named Albert to fear a white rate. After Watson paired the rat with a frightening noise, Little Albert cried when the rate was presented (even without the noise). The child later showed fear in response to a rabbit, a dog, and a seal skin coat. Little Albert’s fear of objects resembling the rat illustrates

Salivating in response to a tone paired with food is a (an) _____; pressing a bar to obtain food is a (an) _____.

Thorndike’s law of effect states that “rewarded behavior is likely to recur.” This law became the basis of operant conditioning and the “behavioral technology” developed by

B. F. Skinner taught rats to press a bar to obtain a food pellet. To guide the rat’s natural behavior toward the desired behavior, he used

A reinforcer is anything presented after a response that increases the frequency of that response. Imagine that your dog barks at every noise it hears. The barking disturbs you, so you put the dog outside when it starts to bark. The stopping of the barking is for you the termination of an aversive stimulus, or a 

Continuous reinforcement–reinforcement of the desired response every time it occurs–makes for rapid learning and, when reinforcement stops, for rapid extinction. A partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable times is a

A medieval proverb notes that “a burnt child dreads the fire.” In behavioral terms, the burning is an example of a

Most researchers today believe that cognitive processes can play an important role in learning. Evidence for the effect of cognition (thoughts, perceptions, and expectations) comes from studies in which rates

Rats were carried passively through a maze and given no reward. In later trials involving food rewards, they immediately did as well as rats that had been reinforced for running the maze. The rats had learned without reinforcement demonstrate