Psy 458 Chapter 2

Front 1

natural selection

Back 1

A process that allows individuals with certain features to leave more offspring in the next generation; typically, individuals without those features are less successful.

Front 2

fitness

Back 2

An individual's ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment-and to have offspring that will survive and reproduce.

Front 3

ethology

Back 3

The study of how animals behave in their natural environments, typically with an emphasis on the evolution of the behavior.

Front 4

fixed action patterns

Back 4

An innate sequence of behaviors that is triggered by a specific stimulus and continues to its end without regard to immediate consequences or feedback.

Front 5

releaser or releasing stimulus; also called a sign stimulus

Back 5

A specific stimulus that elicits a fixed action pattern. Also called a sign stimulus.

Front 6

artificial selection

Back 6

When humans intervene in animal or plant reproduction to ensure that desirable traits are represented in successive generations. Individuals with less desirable traits are not allowed to reproduce.

Front 7

habituation

Back 7

A decrease in the strength of a naturally elicited behavior that occurs through repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus.

Front 8

reward learning

Back 8

An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the behavior is followed by a positive event. The behavior typically increases in strength.

Front 9

positive punishment

Back 9

An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the behavior is followed by a negative or aversive stimulus. The behavior typically decreases in strength.

Front 10

negative punishment; also called omission; also called response cost

Back 10

An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the behavior prevents the delivery of a positive (reinforcing) stimulus. The behavior typically increases in strength.

Front 11

punisher

Back 11

An aversive stimulus that decreases the strength or probability of an operant behavior when it is made a consequence of the response.

Front 12

avoidance

Back 12

An instrumental learning situation in which performing an action or reponse prevents a noxious or aversive stimulus from occurring. Involves negative reinforcement.

Front 13

escape

Back 13

An instrumental learning situation in which performing an action or response terminates a noxious or aversive stimulus that is already present. Involves negative reinforcement.

Front 14

law of effect

Back 14

Originally, Thorndike's idea that responses that are followed by pleasure will be strengthened and those that are followed by discomfort will be weakened. Nowadays, the term refers to the idea that operant or instrumental behaviors are lawfully controlled by their consequences.

Front 15

reinforcement

Back 15

An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the behavior's consequences strengthens or increases the probability of the response. Two kinds of reinforcement are outlined by Skinner, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.

Front 16

positive reinforcement

Back 16

An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the behavior is followed by a positive stimulus or reinforcer. The behavior typically increases in strength.

Front 17

negative reinforcement

Back 17

An instrumental or operant conditioning procedure in which the behavior is followed by the removal or prevents a negative or aversive stimulus. The behavior typically increases in strength.

Front 18

shaping; also called shaping by successive approximations

Back 18

A procedure for training a new operant behavior by reinforcing behaviors that are closer and closer to the final behavior that is desired.

Front 19

taste aversion learning

Back 19

The phenomenon in which a taste is paired with sickness, and this causes the organism to reject or avoid that taste in the future.

Front 20

conditioned compensatory response

Back 20

In classical conditioning, a conditioned response that opposes, rather than being the same as, the unconditional response. It functions to reduce the strength of the conditional response, as in drug tolerance.

Front 21

drug tolerance

Back 21

A reduction in the effectiveness of a drug that can occur with repeated exposure to the drug.

Front 22

sign tracking

Back 22

Movement toward a stimulus that signals a positive event or the reduced probability of a negative event.

Front 23

negative sign tracking

Back 23

Movement away from a stimulus that signals either an aversive event or the reduced probability of a positive event.

Front 24

extinction

Back 24

Reduction in the strength or probability of a learned behavior that occurs when the conditional stimulus is presented without the unconditional stimulus (in classical conditioning) or when the behavior is no longer reinforced (in operant or instrumental conditioning). The term describes both the procedure and the result of the procedure. Behaviors that have been reduced in strength through extinction are said to be "extinguished."

Front 25

acquisition

Back 25

The phase in a learning experiment in which the subject is first learning a behavior or contingency.

Front 26

exposure therapy

Back 26

A form of cognitive behavior therapy in which a patient is e3xposed, without consequenc e, to stimuli that elicit undesirable cognitions, emotions, or behaviors in order to weaken their strength. A form of either extinction (if the undesirable responses were learned) or habituation (if the undesirable responses were naturally occurring or not learned).

Front 27

spontaneous recovery

Back 27

The reappearance, after the passage of time, of a response that had previously undergone extinction. Can occur after extinction in either classical conditioning or operant conditioning.

Front 28

preparedness

Back 28

The extent to which an organism's evolutionary history makes it easy for the organism to learn a particular association or response. If evolution has made something easy to learn, it is said to be "prepared."