05 Learning and Behavior Free Online FlashCards

What is learning?

Learning is a relatively lasting change in behavior or knowledge produced by experience.

What is classical conditioning?

Classical conditioning links one stimulus with another and usually produces an involuntary or reflexive response.

In Pavlov’s dogs, what is the unconditioned stimulus?

In Pavlov’s example, food is the unconditioned stimulus because it naturally produces salivation without prior training.

What is extinction in classical conditioning?

Extinction is the weakening of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

What is operant conditioning?

Operant conditioning is learning in which the consequences of a voluntary behavior influence how likely that behavior is to occur again.

What is positive reinforcement?

Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus after a behavior, increasing the likelihood of that behavior.

How does shaping teach a complex behavior?

Shaping builds a complex behavior by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior.

What is a variable-ratio schedule?

A variable-ratio schedule provides reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses and often produces a high, persistent response rate.

What is observational learning?

Observational learning occurs when an organism learns by watching a model and observing what happens to that model; direct reinforcement is not required.

What four processes support observational learning?

The four supporting processes are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.

Why is conditioned taste aversion unusual?

Conditioned taste aversion is biologically prepared learning in which illness becomes associated with a food’s taste, even after a long delay or a single experience.

After conditioning, what does the tone become?

After repeated pairings with food, the tone becomes a conditioned stimulus because it produces learned salivation on its own.