neutral stimulus- in classical conditioning, a stimulus that causes no response before conditioning.
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Unconditioned Response/ Unconditioned Stimulus
unconditioned response- in classical conditioning, a natural, unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus.
unconditioned stimulus- in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally triggers a response.
The deformed monstrosity to the left is my attempt at drawing the kind of water bottle used by domesticated rodents. I recently got a guinea pig for a pet and I have discovered that the reason for this strange design is to keep the rodent in question from urinating or defecating in its water, something it would be capable of if the water was instead presented in a bowl. If a guinea pig can poop on something, it will as a matter of principle.
Associative Learning
associative learning- learning that certain events always occur together. The events may be multiple stimuli (classical conditioning) or a behavior and a consequence (operant conditioning).
I can imagine someone living like this.
*Touches hot stove*
“OW! How did that happen? Whatever, I’ll just continue investigating this stove.”
*Touches stove again*
“OW! Again? This is getting weird.”
*And again*
“WHY DO I KEEP GETTING BURNED FOR NO REASON?”
Vestibular Sense
vestibular sense- sense of body movement and position, including balance.
Superheroes seem to really like standing on skyscrapers. Whether their base is above ground, over ground or nonexistent, they always pick the same hangout.
Kinesthesis
kinesthesis- system for sensing the movement and position of body parts.
Today’s discussion question: A person’s, say, arm is detached and moved to a location several miles away. If the owner of the limb could still receive sensory data from the arm, could he home in on the location of his arm using his sense of kinesthesis? How cool would that be?
Sensory Interaction
sensory interaction- the senses are capable of influencing each other’s interpretation of the environment.
Though NyQuil may burn your throat with minty fury, take comfort in the fact that the fire is fulled by pathogens, screaming in pain as they are slowly disintegrated.
Audition
audition- the sense of hearing.
What if you wanted to try out for a show about hearing? You’d be auditioning for a play about audition.
Sensory Adaptation
sensory adaptation- reduced sensitivity in response to constant stimulation.
When I was in elementary school, I could see the same movies, read the same books, and watch the same TV episodes over and over. This helped me cope with the fact that the only channel I watched on weekdays (PBS Kids, my family didn’t have cable at the time) rarely produced new episodes due to limited funding.
Priming
priming- activating, often unconsciously, associations in the mind, thus setting us up to remember or perceive objects or events in certain ways.
Absolute Threshold
absolute threshold- the maximum level of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time.
I’m not making the first speech bubble up. Here is the company that sells these things.