Classical Conditioning

Terms:

• 1. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that reliably produces a response at the start of the experiment. (like food powder, a shock, a painful blow, etc.)
• 2. Unconditioned Response (UCR): The response occurring to the UCS (like salivating, yelling out in pain, biting, etc.)
• 3. Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A neutral stimulus (like a light or a tone) that is paired with the UCS.
• 4. Conditioned Response (CR): The response that occurs to the CS after conditioning. The CR is the same as the UCR after conditioning. It can only be distinguished by what elicits it.
• 5. Paradigm for classical conditioning: Present a neutral stimulus followed almost immediately by an UCS. Do this several times.
• 6. Generalization: When the CR occurs to a stimulus which is similar to the CS. The response is proportional to the similarity of the new stimulus and is expressed as a "Generalization Gradient." (See Figure below.)

• 7. Discrimination: The reverse of generalization. Also called "the Generalization Decrement (see figure)

• 8. Extinction: When the CR fails to appear to the CS after omitting the UCS for several trials.
• 9. Spontaneous Recovery: When an extinguished CR reappears after a rest.
• 10. Experimental Neurosis: The disruptive and agitated behavior of an animal when its nervous system has an irresolvable conflict between generalizing and discriminating.
• 11. Counter Conditioning: Pairing a different UCS with the CS to override previous conditioning. For example, a claustrophobic might try making love in an elevator or a closet or in an underground parking lot to override the phobic CR. This is not easy but well worth the effort if you want to get over your phobia. Sometimes, though, there is a problem enlisting the cooperation of a partner in these settings.
• 12. Delay of Reinforcement: The time between the CS and the UCS. For classical conditioning to occur in most animals, the UCS should occur in about a half a second.
• 13. Long-delay Learning: Learned food aversions are an exception to needing a short delay of reinforcement. Sometimes the time between the CS (taste of the food) and the UCS (sickness) can be hours.
• 14. Little Albert: John Watson’s and Rosalie Rayner’s seminal study with a small child. They classically conditioned him to fear white rats to refute psychoanalytic claims that phobias were based on unconscious conflicts and repressed memories.

Operant Conditioning

Terms

• 1. Conditioned Response (CR): A conscious and voluntary response that occurs because of reinforcement.
• 2. Paradigm for operant conditioning: Reinforce a response several times.
• 3. Generalization: Making the same response in a similar situation.
• 4. Discrimination: Making a different response to a different situation.
• 5. Extinction: When a CR stops because it is not reinforced.
• 6. Spontaneous Recovery: When an extinguished CR reappears after a rest.
• 7. Counter Conditioning: Reinforcing a different response in the same situation.
• 8. Delay of Reinforcement: The time between the response and the reinforcement.
• 9. Reinforcement: Anything that increases the frequency of a response.
• 10. Positive reinforcer: A positive stimulus.
• 11. Negative reinforcer: An aversive stimulus
• 12. Positive reinforcement: Increasing the frequency of a response by presenting a positive reinforcer.
• 13. Negative reinforcement: Increasing the frequency of a response by avoiding or terminating a negative reinforcer. NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT IS NOT PUNISHMENT!
• 14. Punishment: Decreasing the frequency of a response by presenting a negative reinforcer or withholding a positive reinforcer. It's the exact opposite of reinforcement.
• 15. Partial Reinforcement: Intermittently reinforcing a response.
• 16. Partial Reinforcement Effect: The conditioning becomes more resistant to extinction as a result of reinforcing a response intermittently. PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT DOES NOT WORK IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING!
• 17. The Method of Successive Approximations (also called "shaping"). A conditioning technique in which closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior are reinforced until the target behavior is finally reached.
• 18. The Principle of Reinforcement: The most fundamental law of behavior (according to behaviorists): Any response which is reinforced will tend to be repeated.
• 19. Operational Definition of Reinforcement: Any stimulus that increases the frequency of response.
• 20. Positive Reinforcement: Reinforcement by presenting or applying a positive stimulus.
• 21. Negative Reinforcement: Reinforcement by removing or avoiding an aversive stimulus. For example, when the seatbelt buzzer terminates when you buckle your seat belt or when you avoid an F by studying.
• 22. Time Out: An operant conditioning technique used in behavior modification whereby reinforcement is withheld (usually the child is put in a no-fun room) in response to an undesired behavior.
• 23. Schedules of Reinforcement: Interval and Ratio patterns that determine when reinforcement will be delivered. Used in partial reinforcement paradigms.
• 24. Differences Between Operant and Classical Conditioning: No partial reinforcement effects in classical condition, CR and UCR identical in classical but not operant, operant responses are conscious, classical conditioned responses are not. Delivery of reinforcement determined by animal’s behavior in operant, but not in classical.
• 25. Behavior modification: Operant conditioning techniques used to treat psychological disorders.
• 26. Cognitive Maps: a hypothesized neural representation that an animal learns in finding its way about.
• 27. Observational Learning: Learning by watching a model (Not that kind of model!).
• 28. Latent Learning: Learning that lies dormant or unnoticed until there is an incentive.
• 29. Learned Helplessness: The condition in which animals fail to perform obvious escape or avoidance behavior because of previous repeated failures. They have been conditioned to be helpless because nothing works.