Dictionary

Classical Conditioning- A learning procedure in which a stimulus that normally elicits a given response is repeatedly preceded by a neutral stimulus. Eventually, the neutral stimulus will evoke a similar response.

Conditioned Response (CR)- In classical conditioning, the learned reaction to a conditional stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)- In classical conditioning, a once-neutral event that has come to elicit a given response after a period of training in which it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Discrimination- (1) The ability to respond differently to similar but distinct stimuli. (2) The unequal treatment of individuals on the basis of their race, ethnic group, class, age, sex, or membership in another category, rather than on the basis of individual characteristics.

Escape Conditioning- The training of an organism to remove or terminate an unpleasant sticulus.

Extinction- The gradual disappearance of a conditione response because the reinforcement is withheld or because the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Generalization- Respondig similarly to a range of similar stimuli.

Learned Helplessness- The condition in which the person suffers from a situation so severely or so often that he or she comes to believe that it is uncontrollable and that any effort to cope will fail.

Learning- A lasting change in behavior that results from experience.

Negative Reinforcement- Increasing the strength of a given response by removing or preventing a painful stimulus when the response occurs.

Neutral Stimulus- A stimulus that does not initially elicit a response.

Operant Conditioning-A form of learning in which a certain action is reinforced or punished resulting in corresponding increases or decreases in the likelihood that similar actions will occur again.

Reinforcement- Immediately following a particular response with a reward in order to strengthen that response.

Secondary Reinforcer- A stimulus that becomes reinforcing through its link with a primary reinforcer.

Shaping- A technique of operant condtioning inwhcih the desired behavior is moled by firt rewarding any act similar to that behavior and then requiring closer and closer approximations to the desired behavior before giving the reward.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)- In classical conditoning, an organism 's automatic reaction to a stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)- An event that elicits a certain predictable response without previous training.

Variable-Interval Schedule- A schedule of reinforcement in which changing amunts of time must elapse before a response will obtain reinforcement each time.

Variable-Ratio Schedule- A schedule of reinforcement in which a different number of responses are of responses are required before reinforcement can be obtained each time.