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Glossary
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 A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of
response (CR) previous conditioning.
Conditioned A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning,
stimulus (CS) acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.
Continuous
Reinforcing every instance of a designated response.
reinforcement
Cumulative
recorder
A graphic record of reinforcement and responding in a Skinner box
as a function of time.
Discriminative Cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable
stimuli
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 A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given for the
(FI) schedule first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed.
Fixed-ratio
A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given after a
(FR) schedule fixed number of nonreinforced responses.
Higher-order
A type of conditioning in which a conditioned stimulus functions as
conditioning
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
A reinforcement schedule in which a designated response is
reinforcement 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 A type of learning that occurs when an organism’s responding is
learning
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
See Intermittent reinforcement.
reinforcement
Pavlovian
conditioning
See Classical conditioning.
Phobias
Irrational fears of specific objects or situations.
Positive
Reinforcement that occurs when a response is strengthened because
reinforcement 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
contingencies to the presentation of reinforcers.
Resistance to
extinction
Respondent
conditioning
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.
See Classical conditioning.
Schedule of
A specific presentation of reinforcers over time.
reinforcement
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
The phenomenon that occurs when an organism that has learned a
discrimination response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to
stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus.
Stimulus
The phenomenon that occurs when an organism that has learned a
generalization 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
An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs
response
without previous conditioning.
(UCR)
Unconditioned
A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous
stimulus
conditioning.
(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 A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given after a
(VR) schedule variable number of nonreinforced responses.