Unit 3
GLOSSARY

ACQUISITION -- the act of learning; coming into the possession of some behavior not previously exhibited.

AVERSIVE STIMULUS -- a stimulus that an organism will work to terminate.

AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING -- learning to avoid obnoxious stimuli by responding appropriately to a warning signal.

CHAINING -- conditioning a series of responses in which the stimulus produced by one response sets the occasion for the next response.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING -- a learning that takes place when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

CONDITIONED RESPONSE -- the response to a conditioned stimulus.

CONDITIONED STIMULUS -- a stimulus that, after pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, evokes a conditioned response.

CONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT -- the condition which ensures that reinforcement will only occur after a specific response has been made.

CUMULATIVE RECORD -- a type of graph which indicates the organism's rate of responding by plotting the number of responses against time.

DISCRIMINATION -- differential responding to different stimuli.

ESCAPE CONDITIONING -- learning to escape from an aversive stimulus by making appropriate responses.

EXTINCTION -- the weakening of a conditioned response by failing to reinforce it.

FIXED INTERVAL SCHEDULE -- a plan of reinforcement in which reinforcement always occurs after a specific amount of time has elapsed.

FIXED RATIO SCHEDULE -- a plan of reinforcement in which a specific number of correct responses are required in order for a reinforcement to occur.

GENERALIZATION -- the phenomena of an organism's tendency to respond to stimuli which are similar to the original conditioned stimulus.

LATENCY -- the period of time that elapses between the presentation of a stimulus and the occurrence of a response.

NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT -- the withdrawal of an aversive stimulus.

OPERANT CONDITIONING -- learning in which certain of the organism's spontaneous activities are reinforced.

REINFORCEMENT -- anything that increases the frequency of the response it follows. 

RESPONDENT CONDITIONING -- generally synonymous with classical conditioning.

SHAPING -- teaching a desired response by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior.

SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY -- an increase in the strength of an extinguished conditioned response after an interval of time.

THRESHOLD -- the intensity or magnitude of a stimulus above which a response is elicited.

UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE -- the reflex response elicited by the unconditioned stimulus.

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS -- a stimulus that consistently elicits a reflex response.

VARIABLE INTERVAL SCHEDULE -- a plan of reinforcement in which reinforcement occurs after a varying amount of time has elapsed.

VARIABLE RATIO SCHEDULE -- a plan of reinforcement in which a variable number of responses are required for the reinforcement to occur.

Return to Unit 3 Table of Contents

July 31, 2002