Chapter 6
Acquisition
The formation of a new conditioned response tendency.
Avoidance
learning
A conflict situation in which a choice must be made between two unattractive goals.
Behavior
modification
A systematic approach to changing behavior through the application of the principles of
conditioning.
Behavioral
contract
A written agreement outlining a promise to adhere to the contingencies of a behavior modification
program.
Classical
conditioning
A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to evoke a response that was
originally evoked by another stimulus.
Conditioned
reinforcers
See Secondary reinforcers.
Conditioned
response (CR)
A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning.
Conditioned
stimulus (CS)
A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a
conditioned response.
Continuous
reinforcement
Reinforcing every instance of a designated response.
Cumulative
recorder
A graphic record of reinforcement and responding in a Skinner box as a function of time.
Discriminative
stimuli
Cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or
nonreinforcement) of a response.
Elicit
To draw out or bring forth.
Emit
To send forth.
Escape
learning
A type of learning in which an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive
stimulation.
Evaluative
conditioning
Efforts to transfer the emotion attached to a UCS to a new CS.
Extinction
The gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency.
Fixed-interval
(FI) schedule
A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a
fixed time interval has elapsed.
Fixed-ratio
(FR) schedule
A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced
responses.
Higher-order
conditioning
A type of conditioning in which a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned
stimulus.
Instinctive drift The tendency for an animal’s innate responses to interfere with conditioning processes.
Instrumental
learning
See Operant conditioning.
Intermittent
reinforcement
A reinforcement schedule in which a designated response is reinforced only some of the time.
Latent learning Learning that is not apparent from behavior when it first occurs.
Law of effect
The principle that if a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the
association between the stimulus and the response is strengthened.
Learning
A relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience.
Negative
symptoms
Schizophrenic symptoms that involve behavioral deficits, such as flattened emotions, social
withdrawal, apathy, impaired attention, and poverty of speech.
Observational
learning
A type of learning that occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of
others, who are called models.
Operant
chamber
See Skinner box.
Operant
conditioning
A form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences.
Partial
reinforcement
See Intermittent reinforcement.
Pavlovian
conditioning
See Classical conditioning.
Phobias
Irrational fears of specific objects or situations.
Positive
reinforcement
Reinforcement that occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the
presentation of a rewarding stimulus.
Primary
reinforcers
Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs.
Punishment
An event that follows a response that weakens or suppresses the tendency to make that response.
Reinforcement An event following a response that strengthens the tendency to make that response.
Reinforcement The circumstances or rules that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of
contingencies reinforcers.
Resistance to
extinction
In operant conditioning, the phenomenon that occurs when an organism continues to make a
response after delivery of the reinforcer for it has been terminated.
Respondent
conditioning
See Classical conditioning.
Schedule of
reinforcement
A specific presentation of reinforcers over time.
Secondary
(conditioned)
reinforcers
Stimulus events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers.
Shaping
The reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response.
Skinner box
A small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is systematically recorded
while the consequences of the response are controlled.
Spontaneous
recovery
In classical conditioning, the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of
nonexposure to the conditioned stimulus.
Stimulus
discrimination
The phenomenon that occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus
does not respond in the same way to stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus.
Stimulus
generalization
The phenomenon that occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus
responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus.
Trial
In classical conditioning, any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli.
Unconditioned
response
An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning.
(UCR)
Unconditioned
A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning.
stimulus (UCS)
Variableinterval (VI)
schedule
A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given for the first response after a variable time
interval has elapsed.
Variable-ratio
(VR) schedule
A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given after a variable number of nonreinforced
responses.