the relatively permanent or stable change in behavior as the result of experience
The law of effect by E.L. Thorndike
a cause-and-effect chain of behavior revoliving around reinforcement. individuals do what rewards them and stop doing what doesn't bring some reward
Theory of association by Kurt Lewin
grouping things together based on the fact that they occur together in time and space; organisms associate certain behaviors with certain rewards and certain cues with certain situations
Ivan Pavlov
first famous as the winner of a Nobel Prize for work on digestion. He accidentally uncovered the concept now called classical conditioning
Classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning
involves teaching an organism to respond to a neutral stimulus by pairing the neutral stimulus with a not-so-neutral stimulus--> this creates a relationship between the two
John B. Watson
founded the school of behaviorism; everything could be explained by stimulus-response chains and conditioning was the key factor in developing these chains
B.F. Skinner
the first scientific experiments to prove the concepts of Thorndike's law of effect and Watson's idea of the causes and effects of behavior; proved that animals are influenced by reinforcement; Skinner box
Neutral Stimulus (NS)
a stimulus that does not produce a specific response on its own
Pavlov's experiment:
this was the light before he conditioned a response to it
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
the not-so-neutral stimulus
Pavlov's experiment:
the food
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
the neutral stimulus once it has been paired with the UCS
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
the naturally occurring response to the UCS
Pavlov's experiment:
salivation in response to the food
Conditioned Response (CR)
the response that the CS elicits after conditioning