5.8 CHAPTER REVIEW

KEY POINTS

• Learning is defined as a relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge that is due to past experience. Learning often reflects adaptation to the environment. Conditioning is the process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses. Classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning are three types of learning.

• Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, discovered the principles of classical conditioning while studying the digestive system of dogs.

• Classical conditioning deals with reflexive behaviors that are elicited by a stimulus and results from learning an association between two stimuli. A neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unlearned, natural stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus, or UCS), producing a reflexive response (the unconditioned response, or UCR). Eventually, the neutral stimulus (now called a conditioned stimulus, or CS) elicits the same reflexive response (the conditioned response, or CR) that was initially elicited by the natural stimulus.

• Factors that affect the strength of the conditioned response include the frequency with which the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are paired, and the timing of the stimulus presentations.

• In stimulus generalization, a new stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus produces the conditioned response. In stimulus discrimination, one stimulus elicits the conditioned response but another, similar stimulus does not.

• Higher order conditioning occurs when a conditioned stimulus functions as an unconditioned stimulus in a new conditioning trial.

• In classical conditioning, extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned response. However, extinction is not unlearning. Spontaneous recovery of the conditioned response may occur.

• John B. Watson defined psychology as the scientific study of behavior and founded behaviorism. According to Watson, all human behavior is a result of conditioning and learning.

• As Watson demonstrated in his famous Little Albert study, emotional responses can be classically conditioned.

• Classical conditioning can also contribute to the placebo response and other drug effects.

• Modern learning researchers acknowledge that mental processes and natural behavior patterns influence the learning process. Robert Rescorla demonstrated that classical conditioning involves learning the relations between events and assessing the reliability of signals.

• John Garcia’s research showed that taste aversions violate key principles of classical conditioning, which is affected by biological preparedness. For a given species, some stimuli are more readily associated than others.

• Edward Thorndike investigated the learning of active behaviors and formulated the law of effect. B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning principles explain how operants, or new, voluntary behaviors, are acquired.

• Operant conditioning explains learning as a process in which behavior is shaped and modified by its consequences. Reinforcement increases the likelihood of an operant’s being repeated. In positive reinforcement, a response is strengthened because a reinforcing stimulus is added or presented. In negative reinforcement, a response is strengthened because an aversive stimulus is subtracted or removed. Reinforcers may be primary reinforcers or conditioned reinforcers.

• Punishment decreases the likelihood of an operant’s being repeated. Two forms of punishment are positive punishment (also called punishment by application) and negative punishment (also called punishment by removal). Aversive consequences do not always function as effective punishments. As a method of controlling behavior, punishment has many drawbacks.

• The discriminative stimulus is the stimulus in the presence of which a particular operant is likely to be reinforced; it sets the occasion for a particular response.

• New behaviors can be acquired through the process of shaping. An operant chamber, or Skinner box, is often used to study the acquisition of new behaviors by laboratory animals. Shaping is frequently used in everyday life to teach new behaviors.

• Once acquired, behaviors are maintained through continuous reinforcement or partial reinforcement. Behaviors on a partial reinforcement schedule are more resistant to extinction than are behaviors on a continuous reinforcement schedule. This phenomenon is known as the partial reinforcement effect. Schedules of reinforcement include the fixed-ratio (FR), variable-ratio (VR), fixed-interval (FI), and variable-interval (VI) schedules.

• In behavior modification, the principles of operant conditioning are applied to help people develop more adaptive behaviors.

• Modern learning researchers acknowledge that operant conditioning involves cognitive processes and is influenced by natural behavior patterns. Edward Tolman’s research on cognitive maps and latent learning demonstrated the involvement of cognitive processes in learning active behaviors. Learned helplessness may result when a person or an animal develops the cognitive expectation that aversive stimuli are unavoidable or uncontrollable.

• The phenomenon of instinctive drift refers to the fact that an animal’s natural behavior patterns can affect operant conditioning by influencing what it is capable of learning.

• Albert Bandura systematically investigated how new behaviors could be acquired through observational learning. Observational learning involves the cognitive processes of attention, memory, motor skills, and motivation.

KEY TERMS

KEY PEOPLE