unit 5: Learning Theory

focusing on observable behaviors and how they're learned is more important than guessing about inner experiences or mental processes

born with a blank slate

An event or thing that a subject is trained to respond to; it is what we are teaching them to respond to, and thus, it is conditioned

An event or thing that naturally triggers a response in a subject - it does not have to be learned, and is thus unconditioned

The response we now get to the presentation of the conditioned stimulus; it is what the subject has now been conditioned to do

The natural, reflexive reaction to the unconditioned stimulus. It does not have to be learned, as it already occurs on its own, and is thus unconditioned

conditioned dogs to salivate to the ringing of a bell

The psychologist classically conditioned the infant to be afraid of a white rat, by pairing the white rat (a neutral stimuli) with a frightening, loud noise, causing the infant to associate the rat with the noise.

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.

the learner has become conditioned

the learner responds to other similar stimuli

the learner doesn't generalize

extinguishing the learned behavior; deconditioning

a kind of "flashback" to earlier conditioning after extinction

in classical conditioning: during conditioning, the conditioned stimulus (the CS) must reliably predict the arrival of the unconditioned stimulus (the UCS) - otherwise, strong conditioning is unlikely

Kenyatta went out for pizza Tuesday night. She developed the stomach flu on Tuesday night. She did not know at that point she had the flu. Now she can't stand pizza.

referring to the tendency to learn certain associations, such as taste and nausea, with only one or few pairings due to the survival value of the learning

The tendency to drift back from a learned operant response to an innate, instinctual response to an object.

learning by observing others

learning by imitating others; copying behavior

learning by seeing the consequences of another person's behavior

The children in the non-aggressive group showed almost no aggression and those who watched the aggressive models imitated their behavior and were aggressive

any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

your ability to believe that you can accomplish something, you might not be good but you can believe you can get better

developed insight learning based on experiments with chimps trying to get bananas

a sudden realization of a problem's solution (ah ha moment)

cognition; studied rats and discovered the "cognitive map" in rats and humans

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

a mental representation of the layout of one's environment

Contribution: Used dogs to demonstrates the significance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning (learned helplessness)

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

learning by observing others

learning by imitating others; copying behavior

learning by seeing the consequences of another person's behavior

The children in the non-aggressive group showed almost no aggression and those who watched the aggressive models imitated their behavior and were aggressive

any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

your ability to believe that you can accomplish something, you might not be good but you can believe you can get better

developed insight learning based on experiments with chimps trying to get bananas

a sudden realization of a problem's solution (ah ha moment)

cognition; studied rats and discovered the "cognitive map" in rats and humans

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

a mental representation of the layout of one's environment

Contribution: Used dogs to demonstrates the significance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning (learned helplessness)

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