Study guides › P/S › Psychology
Learning & Behavior
This chapter covers how experience changes behavior: habituation, classical and operant conditioning, reinforcement schedules, observational learning, and the biological limits on learning. You will practice naming every term in a scenario and telling look-alike terms apart.
Study this chapter in PrepMed (free)
What this chapter covers
- Nonassociative Learning & Classical Conditioning Basics. The MCAT hands you a scenario and asks you to label the stimulus and the response. Get the five classical terms automatic.
- Classical Conditioning: Processes & Applications. Acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination appear together. Know the exact trigger for each.
- Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement vs Punishment. The words positive and negative here mean add and remove, not good and bad. That single idea unlocks a whole question type.
- Reinforcement Schedules & Operant Extinction. Schedules are tested by pattern: high steady rate, pauses, scallops. Match each schedule to its graph and its real-life example.
- Observational Learning & Biological Constraints. Learning is not only conditioning. Bandura, latent learning, and biological limits are all tested as named studies.
Key points to know
- Habituation = response decreases; sensitization = response increases
- Dishabituation = new stimulus restores a habituated response
- Extinction = CS presented without the UCS; spontaneous recovery follows a rest
- Generalization = similar stimuli work; discrimination = only the CS works
- Positive = add, negative = remove; reinforcement increases, punishment decreases
- Negative reinforcement increases behavior (escape and avoidance)
- Ratio = number of responses; interval = time
- VR gives the highest rate and greatest resistance to extinction
Try a practice question
A city dweller stops noticing traffic noise after a few weeks. This is best described as
- habituation
- sensitization
- extinction
- classical conditioning
Show the answer
A. A decreasing response to a repeated, harmless stimulus is habituation. Sensitization is the opposite direction, and no two stimuli are being paired.
Common questions
What does this chapter cover?
Learning & Behavior covers Nonassociative Learning & Classical Conditioning Basics, Classical Conditioning: Processes & Applications, Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement vs Punishment, Reinforcement Schedules & Operant Extinction, Observational Learning & Biological Constraints.
What should I know first?
Habituation = response decreases; sensitization = response increases Dishabituation = new stimulus restores a habituated response Extinction = CS presented without the UCS; spontaneous recovery follows a rest
24 original practice questions accompany this chapter in the app. Spaced review brings missed ideas back at the right time; it helps memory but cannot promise you will not miss an idea again.