AP Psych Unit 4

One learns to associate two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Teaches one to prepare for good or bad developments once a certain stimuli has been received - sound, touch, etc.

Ivan Pavlov

Idea that behaviors are strengthened and if followed by a reinforcer or diminished by a punisher

B.F. Skinner

a procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior (example - rewarding dog for sitting down, then laying, then finally rolling over, can take several steps and/or progressions)

giving the subject something it wants (food for example)

taking away something the subject does not like or want (removing a collar or leash from a dog, for example)

number of behaviors the organism must do to be rewarded is always the same - guaranteed by behavior

you get a free coffee for every 10 you buy at starbucks

organism pauses briefly after reinforce before returning to a high rate of responding. better for high quality tasks.

The number of behaviors the organism must do to be rewarded changes each - not guaranteed by behavior

You pull the lever to see if maybe this quarter will win you the jackpot

Better for low quality tasks. resistant to extinction.

the administering of an aversive stimulus (giving a traffic or speeding ticket, for example)

withdrawal of rewarding stimulus (take away driving privileges from a 16 year old, for example)

diminishing of a conditioned response following the conditioned stimulus

when a response is no longer enforced and the behavior fades

internal meaning there are no consequences

says learn by watching someone doing something

imitating a certain behavior

imitations + empathy

long term memories based off language not experience - effective in teaching children

taken in by children/observers

something might or might not happen because of genetic/environmental factors

suddenly come up with a solution (coming up with answer out of nowhere)

effectively learn to manage emotions

occurs without realization until you need it

ability to control impulses, and weakens after exertion

changing behavior with reinforcer/punisher

conscious moving of limbs without automatic function

accidentally rewarded and believe it to be true

bad experience with food leads to never eating specific food

developed taste aversion in rats for almost all foods after giving them radiation

stop doing something because someone else will/you don’t want to

law of effect

contingency/classical conditioning

behavior is based on goals and purpose

idea that all behavior is based on experience

process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors (i.e. habits, which take roughly 66 days to form)

learning that certain events occur together

field of psychology that believes should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes, ignoring cognitive learning

learning through mental processes such as observation and language (i.e. watching or listening to an explanation to learn)

a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

natural response to stimuli, such as salivation

a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response

a conditioned response to a previously neutral stimulus

an originally irrelevant stimulus that, when paired with an unconditioned stimulus triggers a conditioned response

Ivan Pavlov’s famous experiment taught a dog to salivate upon hearing a bell.

He essentially took the unconditioned (untaught) stimulus—the food—and noted its relationship to the unconditioned response—salivation. A bell, which merits no response from the dog’s unconditioned salivation, was considered a neutral stimulus.

After feeding the dog several times immediately after the bell, Pavlov noted the previously neutral stimulus—the bell—became a conditioned stimulus. The bell now caused the dog to salivate, as the dog learned to anticipate food following the bell.

Salivating now became the conditioned response to the hearing of a bell

furthered behaviorism in humans with ‘Baby Albert’ experiments where conditioned a baby to cry/fear furry animals using a loud noise as the unconditioned stimulus

pioneered new ideas that expanded the understanding of learned behavior and what Watson called Behaviorism

an event that strengthens the behavior behind it, can be used as a reward to encourage behavior in animals and humans (example: teaching dog to sit by rewarding with a treat each time)

an event that diminishes behavior behind it with an adverse consequence, can be used to discourage undesired behaviors in animals and humans (example: teach toddler not to scream in house by issuing a time out)

the stimulus that elicits responses after association with a reinforcer (in the case of the dog, the discriminative stimulus is ‘roll over’)

an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need (i.e., food/a treat)

can be effective as they are linked or associated with primary reinforcers - primary reinforcer cannot be provided every time

If you pair the treat with a ‘good boy,’ eventually the ‘good boy’ will be as good of a reward as the treat, thus negating the need for a primary reinforcer every time

Money or tokens for humans that can be exchanged for primary reinforcers

when the neutral stimulus (NS) begins to trigger the conditioned response (CR)

acquisition is achieved through the strengthening of a reinforced response

when the subject is successfully anticipating after a stimulus or performing the desired behavior

the sudden reappearance of an extinguished CR, following a break or pause of the CS (randomly rolling over on command after no listening several times)

subject may respond to a stimulus that seems similar, but is not the conditioned stimulus

the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimulus that hears, looks, smells, feels, or tastes similar

One can also layer more stimuli by adding additionally conditioned stimuli to the already-existing conditioned stimulus.

subjects and people can start to learn slowly and easily with progressively fulfilling results along the way

reinforces a response every time the desired behavior occurs

reinforces a response only part of the time

the amount of time between reinforcements is always the same

the amount of time between reinforcements differs