Psychology Exam II Study Guide 1.The definition of learning: a fundamental psychological process that permits quick adaptation to new or changing situation. Learning is relatively permanent change in an organism mental representation of and potential to behave in its environment resulting form experience and/or practice.2.Ivan Pavlov contribution to psychology: discovering classical conditioning a process by which a dog in his lab learned to salivate at the sound of a bell.3.Classical conditioning: the learning of a new response to a stimulus by pairing that stimulus with another stimulus that already elicits the response.4.Reinforcement: the procedure by which the unconditioned stimulus is made contingent on the conditioned stimulus. Punishment: the process of decreasing the probability of a response by following it with an unpleasant stimulus.5.The four major schedules of reinforcement: 1. Continuous Reinforcement: A schedule of reinforcement in which every response is followed by a reinforcer. 2. Partial Reinforcement: A condition in which a response is reinforced only some of the time. 3. Ratio Schedule: A Reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is delivered for the first response that occurs after a certain number of responses. In a fixed a fixed ratio schedule, the number of responses required for a reward is always the same. In a variable ratio schedule, the number of responses required varies irreguraly around a specified average. 4. Interval Schedule: a reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is delivered for the first response made after a given interval of time. In a fixed interval schedule, the interval is always the same. In variable interval schedule, the interval varies around a specified average.6.Acquisition: In conditioning, the initial stage of learning in which the association between a stimulus and a response is established. Extinction: In classical conditioning, the weakening of the tenden...
