Psychology: Classical and Operant Conditioning Flashcards

Question 1

Define Classical Conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to trigger an automatic response because it has been repeatedly paired with a stimulus that already produces that response.

Question 2

Define Operant Conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Learning in which a voluntary behavior becomes more or less frequent depending on the consequences that follow it, such as reinforcement or punishment.

Question 3

Define Neutral Stimulus.

Accepted Answer

A stimulus that produces no particular response of interest before conditioning, other than perhaps drawing the learner's attention for a moment.

Question 4

Define Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS).

Accepted Answer

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without any prior learning having taken place.

Question 5

Define Unconditioned Response (UCR).

Accepted Answer

The unlearned, automatic reaction that occurs naturally whenever an unconditioned stimulus is presented, with no training required.

Question 6

Define Conditioned Stimulus (CS).

Accepted Answer

A previously neutral stimulus that, after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a learned response by itself.

Question 7

Define Conditioned Response (CR).

Accepted Answer

The learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus, which usually resembles the unconditioned response but is typically weaker and depends on prior pairings.

Question 8

What is Acquisition?

Accepted Answer

The initial stage of conditioning, during which a learned association forms and the response gradually grows stronger across repeated trials.

Question 9

What is Extinction?

Accepted Answer

The gradual weakening of a learned response when the conditioned stimulus appears without the unconditioned stimulus, or when an operant behavior no longer earns reinforcement.

Question 10

Define Spontaneous Recovery.

Accepted Answer

The sudden reappearance of an extinguished response after a rest period, without any new pairings, usually at lower strength than before.

Question 11

Define Stimulus Generalization.

Accepted Answer

The tendency for stimuli that resemble a conditioned stimulus to trigger the same learned response, with stronger reactions to closer matches.

Question 12

Define Stimulus Discrimination.

Accepted Answer

The learned ability to tell a conditioned stimulus apart from similar stimuli that do not predict the same outcome, and to respond only to the first.

Question 13

Define Higher-Order Conditioning.

Accepted Answer

A procedure in which an established conditioned stimulus serves as the basis for conditioning a new neutral stimulus, without the original unconditioned stimulus being involved.

Question 14

Define Conditioned Taste Aversion.

Accepted Answer

A strong learned dislike of a food linked with later nausea, which can form after one experience and despite a delay of hours.

Question 15

Define Biological Preparedness.

Accepted Answer

An inherited tendency to form certain associations far more easily than others, because those links helped a species survive during its evolution.

Question 16

Define Law of Effect.

Accepted Answer

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by satisfying consequences become more likely to recur, while behaviors followed by unpleasant consequences become less likely.

Question 17

What is Reinforcer?

Accepted Answer

Any consequence that makes the behavior it follows more likely to happen again, defined by its actual effect on behavior rather than by how pleasant it seems.

Question 18

Define Positive Reinforcement.

Accepted Answer

Strengthening a behavior by adding a desirable consequence after it occurs, which makes that behavior more likely in similar situations later on.

Question 19

Define Negative Reinforcement.

Accepted Answer

Strengthening a behavior by removing or avoiding an unpleasant condition after it occurs, so the behavior becomes more likely. It is not a form of punishment.

Question 20

Define Positive Punishment.

Accepted Answer

Decreasing a behavior by adding an unpleasant consequence right after it occurs, which makes that behavior less likely to happen in the future.

Question 21

Define Negative Punishment.

Accepted Answer

Decreasing a behavior by taking away something desirable after it occurs, which makes that behavior less likely. Also known as omission training.

Question 22

Define Primary Reinforcer.

Accepted Answer

A consequence that is naturally rewarding because it satisfies a biological need, and which requires no prior learning to work as a reinforcer.

Question 23

Define Secondary Reinforcer.

Accepted Answer

A consequence that becomes rewarding only through its learned association with other reinforcers, rather than by satisfying any biological need directly.

Question 24

What is Shaping?

Accepted Answer

Teaching a complex behavior by reinforcing successive approximations of it, with the requirement raised gradually until the complete target behavior appears.

Question 25

Define Continuous Reinforcement.

Accepted Answer

A schedule in which every instance of the target behavior is reinforced, which produces fast learning but also relatively fast extinction once reinforcement stops.

Question 26

Define Partial Reinforcement Effect.

Accepted Answer

The finding that behaviors reinforced only some of the time keep going far longer after reinforcement stops than behaviors reinforced every time.

Question 27

Define Fixed-Ratio Schedule.

Accepted Answer

Reinforcement delivered after a set number of responses, which produces a high response rate with a short pause after each reinforcer.

Question 28

Define Variable-Ratio Schedule.

Accepted Answer

Reinforcement delivered after an unpredictable number of responses, which produces a high, steady response rate that is very resistant to extinction.

Question 29

Define Fixed-Interval Schedule.

Accepted Answer

Reinforcement for the first response after a set time has passed, which produces a scalloped pattern, with responding rising as the time approaches.

Question 30

Define Variable-Interval Schedule.

Accepted Answer

Reinforcement for the first response after an unpredictable amount of time has passed, which produces a slow but steady rate of responding.

Question 31

Define Discriminative Stimulus.

Accepted Answer

A cue signaling that a particular voluntary response will now be reinforced. It sets the occasion for the behavior rather than causing it automatically.

Question 32

Define Instinctive Drift.

Accepted Answer

The tendency of a trained animal to slip back toward innate, species-typical behaviors, even when doing so interferes with earning its reinforcement.

Question 33

Define Token Economy.

Accepted Answer

A behavior-change system in which people earn symbolic items for target behaviors and later exchange them for backup rewards or privileges.

Question 34

Define Learned Helplessness.

Accepted Answer

A passive state in which repeated experience of uncontrollable events leads an organism to stop trying, even when escape or control later becomes possible.