discrimination learning

a conditioning or learning experience in which an individual must learn to make choices between alternative stimuli, some of which may be highly similar. To facilitate the learning, typically one of the stimuli is associated with a reinforcer or goal object and the other is not. For example, a cat may have to learn to find food under a white cup on the left side of an area in which there are white and black cups on both sides. Also called discriminative learning.

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Psychology term of the day

February 23rd 2025

random mating

mating behavior without mate selection. Many early behavioral ecology theories were based on the idea of random mating, but it is now recognized that most animals select specific mates and often show assortative mating.