What is an example of classical conditioning in everyday life?
In classical conditioning, we learn that one stimulus predicts another. For example, if you were in a relationship that broke up during a trip to an amusement park, you might avoid amusement parks because, for you, they “predict” a breakup.
In classical conditioning, what is the association that an animal learns?
In classical conditioning, animals learn an association between an unconditioned stimulus (US), which elicits reactions prior to any learning experiences, and a conditioned stimulus (CS), which originally is neutral but subsequently elicits a reaction, after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus.
What types of organisms learn through classical conditioning?
A wide range of organisms, from very simple (such as fruit flies) to very complex (such as humans), learn through classical conditioning.
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Why did a research participant known as Little Albert become afraid of a small white rat during the course of a psychology experiment, when the rat itself did nothing to make Albert afraid?
Albert’s fear developed through classical conditioning. Through classical conditioning, he learned to associate something that at first was not fear-
If you want to teach an animal to associate a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus, about how long should you wait, after the conditioned stimulus, before presenting the unconditioned stimulus?
You should wait only a very brief amount of time—
In classical conditioning, if you slightly alter the conditioned stimulus that an animal previously has learned to associate with an unconditioned stimulus, what happens?
If you slightly alter the stimulus, organisms still respond, but not quite as strongly as they had responded to the original stimulus. This process is known as generalization.
In classical conditioning, what is extinction?
Extinction is a gradual lessening of a conditioned response when a CS is presented repeatedly without any presentations of the US.
What happens when a stimulus that normally produces a response in an organism is presented over and over again?
The organism habituates to the stimulus, that is, it responds to a lesser and lesser degree to the stimulus.
How does research on compensatory responses explain some cases of drug overdose?
Drug users sometimes suffer fatal overdoses from a drug when they use the drug in a setting in which they previously have not taken it. In the new situation, their bodies do not produce compensatory responses, the biological reactions that are the opposite of the effects of a stimulus and that counteract the drug effect. The absence of compensatory responses results in the overdose.
What is blocking and how did the discovery of blocking alter psychologists’ understanding of the psychological processes involved in classical conditioning?
Blocking is a phenomenon in which animals fail to learn an association between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus that are repeatedly paired; specifically, they fail to learn the association when they already are able to predict the occurrence of the US, even before being exposed to the CS. It tells us that animals do not learn only about simple pairings of stimuli. Rather, they acquire information about the environment as a whole.
What happens when animals learn that they cannot control unpleasant outcomes they wish to avoid?
When animals learn that their own behavior cannot control unpleasant outcomes, they experience learned helplessness, a reduction in motivation that causes the animal to not even try to avoid outcomes that harm it.
How does conditioned taste aversion (the Garcia effect) provide information about the role of evolution and biology in classical conditioning?
The Garcia effect, which is the rapid learning of a connection between the taste of food and illness, shows that not all associations are learned in the same manner. Stimulus–
Through what research strategy have scientists succeeded in identifying the biological bases of classical conditioning?
A valuable research strategy for identifying the biological bases of classical conditioning has been to study a simple organism that has relatively few neurons. Eric Kandel has pursued this strategy in studies of classical conditioning in Aplysia, a sea slug that has only about 20,000 neurons.
What happens at the level of the nervous system when an animal experiences habituation?
Neurons reduce the amount of neurotransmitters that they send. For example, when an Aplysia is touched by an object, it reflexively retracts its gill. When a stimulus strikes the Aplysia repeatedly, the neuron that detects this stimulus gradually sends lesser amounts of neurotransmitters to the neuron that controls motor movement. When this latter neuron receives fewer neurotransmitters, it is less likely to fire and to thus cause the gill to retract.
What is an example of operant conditioning in everyday life?
Consequences alter behavior. For example, when a parent “gives in” to a child’s demands, the child is more likely to argue in the future because “giving in” is a positive consequence that raises the likelihood of the child repeating the behavior.
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What are the two main differences between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?
Unlike classical conditioning, in which a stimulus triggers a subsequent response, in operant conditioning, a behavior is followed by a stimulus, known as a response consequence. In classical conditioning, behaviors are internal physiological reactions; in operant conditioning, they are actions that affect the external world.
What was the main research result in Thorndike’s studies of how animals learn to escape from puzzle boxes?
Thorndike discovered that the time cats needed to escape from the box decreased across trials. Initially, it would take them a couple of minutes to escape, but eventually they could do so in just a matter of seconds. Thus, they learned from their trial-
What is the law of effect?
The law of effect is a principle of learning which states that when an organism performs a behavior that leads to a satisfying outcome in a given situation, it will be more likely to perform that behavior when it encounters the same situation in the future.
In Skinner’s analysis of operant conditioning, what is a reinforcer?
A reinforcer is any stimulus that occurs after a response and raises the future probability of that response.
What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement?
In positive reinforcement, the occurrence of a stimulus increases the likelihood that the given type of behavior occurs. In negative reinforcement, the removal of an unpleasant stimulus increases the likelihood of a given type of behavior.
How does reinforcement differ from punishment?
Punishment is a stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a behavior. It differs from reinforcement (positive or negative), in that reinforcement increases the probability of the behavior.
What is a schedule of reinforcement?
A schedule of reinforcement is a timetable that indicates when reinforcers occur, in relation to the occurrence of behavior.
How do different reinforcement schedules affect behavior?
Different schedules of reinforcement produce different rates of behavior. For example, ratio schedules produce higher response rates than interval schedules.
What is a discriminative stimulus?
A discriminative stimulus is a stimulus that provides information about the relation between a behavior and a reinforcer. Specifically, a discriminative stimulus signals whether a behavior is or is not likely to be reinforced.
How does research on discriminative stimuli explain people’s tendency to act differently in different situations?
Many everyday situations contain discriminative stimuli that indicate the type of behavior likely to be reinforced in that situation. Because these stimuli vary from one situation to another, and people respond to them, individuals’ behavior varies from one situation to the next.
How can organisms learn complex behaviors through operant conditioning?
In operant conditioning, organisms learn complex behaviors through shaping, a step-
What does it mean to say there are “biological constraints” on learning?
This means that it is difficult for organisms to learn some behaviors, in some situations, due to their inherited biology. The ability to learn the behavior, then, is “constrained” by their biological predispositions.
Do research findings in the study of biological constraints on learning confirm, or call into question, the principles of learning developed by Skinner?
Research findings in the study of biological constraints on learning indicate that some combinations of behavior and reinforcement fail to work; that is, the likelihood of behavior in organisms does not increase. Skinnerian principles presumed that all combinations of behavior and reinforcers would work the same way, and thus these principles are violated by such findings.
Why might rewards sometimes lower people’s tendency to engage in an activity?
Rewards can lower people’s tendency to engage in an activity when the activity initially is performed because it is interesting, but then the provision of rewards changes people’s understanding of their own behavior, causing them to see it as something done not out of personal interest, but to gain external rewards.
How do psychologists know that the brain contains a “reward center”?
They know this thanks to research in which electrical stimulation of an area of the limbic system was used as a response consequence. Rats repeatedly pressed a lever in order to gain stimulation of this area. This brain region, then, was a reward center whose stimulation reinforced behavior. Subsequent research indicates that rewards influence behavior through their effect on the dopamine system.
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How do the results of Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment contradict the expectations of operant conditioning analyses of learning?
The results of the Bobo doll experiment contradict the expectations of an operant conditioning analysis in that children in the study learn a relatively complex behavior in the absence of reinforcement, which Skinnerians had seen as necessary to learning. Also, they learn without any gradual, step-
What psychological processes are involved in observational learning, that is, what processes are required for a person to learn to perform a behavior displayed by a psychological model?
The four subprocesses are attention (paying attention to the model’s behavior), retention (retaining memory for the model’s actions), production (using a mental representation of the model’s behavior to guide your own behavior), and motivation (being motivated to perform the modeled behavior).
Can spanking increase aggression in children?
Research indicates that, in the long run, spanking is associated with an increase in children’s aggressiveness. Evidence of this comes from a long-
Does research on the effects of spanking support theoretical predictions made by operant conditioning or observational learning analyses?
Spanking, a punishment for unruly behavior, fails to reduce that behavior, as you might expect from an operant conditioning analysis. Instead, the spanking seems to serve as a model of aggressive behavior and is associated with increases in aggressiveness in children, as you might expect from an observational learning analysis.
What is one way in which modern computer technology can enhance the power of modeling?
One way that this technology can enhance the power of modeling is through the use of virtual representations of the self (VRSs), in which people see an image of themselves performing a desired behavior. This technology enables learners to see a psychological model that is of great personal relevance to them.
What neural system directly contributes to organisms’ tendency to imitate the behavior of others?
The brains of complex organisms—