Introduction to Psychology

Introduction to Psychology

Chapter Five: Learning and Mem ry Learning Objectives After completing this unit, you should be able to: 1. Discuss the how the concepts of learning and adaptation are related 2. Discuss the key principles and applications of operant conditioning 3. Discuss the key elements and applications of observational learning 4. Discuss how we encode information into memory 5. Discuss how we retrieve memories and what factors make memory retrieval easier 5.1 Learning Learning is a process in which experience produces a relatively enduring change in an organism’s behavior or capabilities. Think of learning as how the predictability of events can change behavior. Experience can be thought of as earlier events that influence the way an organism behaves in the present. Traditionally, that meant studying the effects of experiences with various stimuli on an organism’s behavior. (Any factor in the environment that causes a reaction is known as a stimulus, and any reaction by an organism, either voluntary or involuntary, is called a response.) Classical Conditioning This is a learning process that involves pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus. An organism learns to associate the two stimuli, so that one stimulus comes to elicit a response that originally was elicited only by the other stimulus. This particular type of learning by association is also called Pavlovian conditioning. • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) - A stimulus that elicits a reflexive or innate response (UCR) without prior learning. • Unconditioned Response (UCR) - A reflexive or innate response that is elicited by a stimulus (the UCS) without prior learning. • Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - A stimulus that, through association with a UCS, comes to elicit a conditioned response similar to the original UCR. • Conditioned response (CR) - A response elicited by a conditioned stimulus. Classical conditioning involves the learning of an association between two stimuli. It involves pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that elicits an unconditioned response (UCR). Through pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that evokes a conditioned response (CR) similar to the original unconditioned response (UCR).

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