Learning reviewer
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Conditioned Stimulus (CS)  Formerly the neutral stimulus, now paired with the unconditioned stimulus, elicits the same
response. That response depends on consistent pairing with the UCR.
To extinguish a classically conditioned response, the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned
stimulus. This is referred to as extinction.
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
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“Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the
animal will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected to the situation, so that, when it (the situation) recurs, they
will be more likely to recur.”
In operant conditioning, extinction occurs if responses stop producing reinforcements.
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A child for whom you are babysitting whines until you give him a cookie. If you stop giving the child cookies, he will
eventually stop whining.
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Stimulus generalization occurs when a new stimulus is similar to the original reinforced stimulus. The more similar the new
stimulus is to the old, the more strongly the subject will respond.
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Discrimination occurs when someone is reinforced for responding to one stimulus but not another. The individual will respond
more vigorously to one than to the other.
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Shaping Behavior
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Shaping establishes new responses by reinforcing successive approximations to it.
Chaining Behavior
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If you stop giving the child cookies when he cries but continue when he whines, he will whine much more often than he
will cry.
This an operant conditioning method in which behaviors are reinforced by opportunities to engage in the next behavior
The presentation of an event that strengthens or increases the likelihood of an event is called positive reinforcement.
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A parent praises a child for excellent performance on a test.
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A waiter receives an extra large tip for good service.
10. Punishment is referred to as passive avoidance learning because in response to punishment an individual learns to avoid the
outcome by being passive.
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A child learns to avoid the punishment of being sent to his room for the evening by not teasing his little sister.
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A woman avoids distress by not calling her sister who always says cruel things whenever they talk.
11. Omission training occurs when the lack of a response produces reinforcement. Producing the response also leads to a lack of
reinforcement.
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This is sometimes referred to as negative punishment.
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Parents tell a teenager that if she breaks curfew again, she will lose her driving privileges for a month.
12. Escape learning or active avoidance learning occurs if the responses lead to an escape from or an avoidance of something painful.
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This is sometimes referred to as negative reinforcement.
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A teenager cleans his room to avoid listening to any more of his dad’s nagging.
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A babysitter gives a cookie to a child to stop his whining.
13. The Premack Principle
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The Premack Principle states that the opportunity to engage in a preferred behavior will be a reinforcer for any
less preferred behavior.
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A person who prefers going to the movies to going to museums can be reinforced for extra trips to the
museum with free movie passes.
14. One of the two categories of intermittent reinforcement is ratio - delivery of reinforcement depends on the number of responses
given.
15. The other category of intermittent reinforcement is interval - delivery of reinforcement depends on the amount of time since the last
reinforcement.
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16. Conditioned Taste Aversions
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One kind of learning that occurs after a single trial is an association between eating something and getting sick.
17. Social Learning
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The social-learning approach, defined by Albert Bandura, states that we learn many behaviors before we attempt them for
the first time.
NLEE/NLEE
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