Advanced Placement Psychology
Enterprise High School, Redding, CA
All terms from Myers Psychology for AP (BFW Worth, 2011)
6468931020 | learning | a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience. | ![]() | 0 |
6468931021 | habituation | decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. | ![]() | 1 |
6468931022 | associative learning | learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning). | ![]() | 2 |
6468931023 | classical conditioning | a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. | ![]() | 3 |
6468931024 | behaviorism | the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2). | ![]() | 4 |
6468931025 | unconditioned response (UR) | in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth. | ![]() | 5 |
6468931026 | unconditioned stimulus (US) | in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response. | ![]() | 6 |
6468931027 | conditioned response (CR) | in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS). | ![]() | 7 |
6468931028 | conditioned stimulus (CS) | in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response. | ![]() | 8 |
6468931029 | acquisition | in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. | ![]() | 9 |
6468931030 | higher-order conditioning | a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.) | ![]() | 10 |
6468931031 | extinction | the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced. | ![]() | 11 |
6468931032 | spontaneous recovery | the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. | ![]() | 12 |
6468931033 | generalization | the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. | ![]() | 13 |
6468931034 | discrimination | in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. | ![]() | 14 |
6468931035 | learned helplessness | the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events. | ![]() | 15 |
6468931036 | operant conditioning | a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. | ![]() | 16 |
6468931037 | law of effect | The principle that behaviors are selected by their consequences | ![]() | 17 |
6468931038 | operant chamber | in operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking. | ![]() | 18 |
6468931039 | shaping | an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. | ![]() | 19 |
6468931040 | reinforcer | in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows. | ![]() | 20 |
6468931041 | positive reinforcement | increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. Any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response. | ![]() | 21 |
6468931042 | negative reinforcement | increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. Any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. | ![]() | 22 |
6468931043 | primary reinforcer | an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need. | ![]() | 23 |
6468931044 | conditioned reinforcer | a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer. | ![]() | 24 |
6468931045 | continuous reinforcement | reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs. | ![]() | 25 |
6468931046 | partial reinforcement | reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement. | ![]() | 26 |
6468931047 | fixed-ratio schedule | in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. | ![]() | 27 |
6468931048 | variable-ratio schedule | in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. | ![]() | 28 |
6468931049 | fixed- interval schedule | in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed. | ![]() | 29 |
6468931050 | variable-interval schedule | in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time. | ![]() | 30 |
6468931051 | punishment | an event that decreases the behavior that it follows. | ![]() | 31 |
6468931052 | cognitive map | a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. | ![]() | 32 |
6468931053 | latent learning | learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. | ![]() | 33 |
6468931054 | observational learning | learning by observing others (also called social learning). | ![]() | 34 |
6468931055 | modeling | the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior | ![]() | 35 |
6468931056 | mirror neurons | frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation and empathy. | ![]() | 36 |