Exam 5: Section 3: Learning

Regular-coffee drinkers can develop a classically conditioned response of alertness to the smell and taste of coffee, even if the coffee is decaffeinated.

Behavior modification refers to the application of learning principles to help people develop more effective or adaptive behaviors.

Education-entertainment programs are designed to fulfill the four conditions required for observational learning to take place: reinforcement, punishment, conditioning, and memory.

Instinctive drift is the phenomenon in which an animal's natural behaviors interfere with the performance of previously conditioned behaviors.

According to Albert Bandura, motivation to imitate a behavior is crucial to the actual performance of the learned behavior.

According to Focus on Neuroscience, neurons that fire both when action is performed and when action is simply perceived are called mirror neurons.

One research study found that adolescents who watched a great deal of television with sexual content were more likely to become sexually active than adolescents who watched the least amount of sexually oriented programs.

For a regular-coffee drinker, the sight, smell, and taste of coffee are the original neutral stimulus, which, after being paired with caffeine (the UCS), eventually become conditioned stimuli and produce the conditioned response (CR) of increased arousal and alertness.

Marian Breland was one of the first psychologists to use positive reinforcement to teach basic self-help skills to people with developmental disabilities and also helped train marine mammals for the U.S. Navy.

Little Albert developed a strong conditioned fear to the white rat but not to other animals or furry objects.

Once a behavior has been suppressed by punishment, the behavior is unlikely to reappear.

Martin Seligman began his research career by studying learned helplessness in dogs, and later, in humans. He applied his findings to psychological problems in humans, including major depressive disorder, and he investigated why some people succumb to learned helplessness while others persist in the face of obstacles.

The cognitive aspects of learning play a key role in choosing behaviors associated with long-term reinforcers.

Gambling is a classic example of a fixed-ratio schedule.

Once acquired, learned helplessness cannot be overcome.

Edward Tolman's research on rats running mazes led him to conclude that reinforcement was not necessary for learning to occur.

To enhance the effectiveness of positive reinforcers, you should make sure the reinforcer is reinforcing to the individual whose behavior you want to modify.

John Watson designed advertisements for Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder that intentionally tried to create anxiety in young mothers about their ability to care for their infants.

John Garcia is the psychologist who is credited with demonstrating the importance of an evolutionary approach to classical conditioning by his research showing that particular associations are more readily conditioned than others.

Observing good role models and focusing on the delayed reinforcer are two ways to improve self-control.