Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Systematic Desensitization, Little Albert Experiment, Operant Conditioning Chamber

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Terry Biggs

Document Summary

Learning: process by which experience produces a relatively enduring change in an organism"s behaviour or capabilities; the basic learning processes are outlined below: Habituation and sensitization: involves a change in behaviour that results from repeated exposure to a single stimulus. Classical conditioning: occurs when two stimuli become associated with each other; for example, seeing a dog and being bitten will be associated together the next time one sees a dog. Operant conditioning: we learn to associate our responses with specific consequences; for example smiling at others will initiate a friendly greeting. Personal adaptation: adapting our lives to an ever-changing environment and circumstances; occurs through the laws of learning and results from our interactions with immediate and past environments. Although learning explores how we adapt to the environment, it is important to keep in mind that not all learned behaviour is adaptive.