Topic VI: Learning
This section of the course introduces students to differences between learned and unlearned behavior. The primary focus is exploration of different kinds of learning, including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. The biological bases of behavior illustrate predispositions for learning. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Distinguish general differences between principles of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning (e.g., contingencies).
• Describe basic classical conditioning phenomena, such as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, and higher-order learning.
• Predict the effects of operant conditioning (e.g., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment).
• Predict how practice, schedules of reinforcement, and motivation will influence quality of learning.
• Interpret graphs that exhibit the results of learning experiments.
• Provide examples of how biological constraints create learning predispositions.
• Describe the essential characteristics of insight learning, latent learning, and social learning.
• Apply learning principles to explain emotional learning, taste aversion, superstitious behavior, and learned helplessness.
• Suggest how behavior modification, biofeedback, coping strategies, and selfcontrol can be used to address behavioral problems.
• Identify key contributors in the psychology of learning (e.g., Albert Bandura, John Garcia, Ivan Pavlov, Robert Rescorla, B. F. Skinner, Edward Thorndike, Edward Tolman, John B. Watson).