Deck 6: Learning

Question 1

Shaping is the process of:

A) reinforcing a series of responses that approximate the desired behavior.
B) decreasing the likelihood of a behavior.
C) reinforcing the basic motivational needs of a subject.
D) punishing a series of responses that you want to increase.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

In general, studying is more effective when:

A) desirable difficulties are present.
B) the information is organized in outlines that can quickly be reviewed several times.
C) the total amount of studying time is short.
D) all of the studying occurs in one long session.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

______ is the replication of a motor behavior or expression, often to accomplish a specific goal.

A) observational learning
B) latent learning
C) imitation
D) cognitive mapping

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is the reoccurrence of a previously extinguished conditioned response, typically after some time has passed since extinction?

A) Extinction
B) Spontaneous recovery
C) Acquisition
D) Discrimination

Question 5

A basic need such as food may be used as a ______ reinforcer, whereas a stimulus whose value must be learned is a ______ reinforcer.

A) primary; continuous
B) secondary; shaping
C) primary; secondary
D) continuous; secondary

Question 6

For Kyle, the smell of fresh baked cookies will always be connected to the memory of his grandmother. This is an example of which type of learning?

A) cognitive
B) observational
C) latent
D) associative

Question 7

A television advertisement for beer shows young people at the beach drinking and having fun. Based on classical conditioning principles, the advertisers are hoping you will buy the beer because the commercial elicits:

A) a conditioned emotional response of pleasure.
B) a conditioned emotional response of fear.
C) humans' natural preparedness toward alcohol consumption.
D) a taste aversion to other companies' beers.

Question 8

Most mornings, Misoo listens to her favorite song as she gets ready for work, including putting in her contacts. One afternoon, Misoo hears her favorite song playing, and her eyes start watering-something that usually happens only when she put her contacts in. If this is an example of classical conditioning, what is the unconditioned stimulus?

A) Eye watering
B) Misoo's contacts
C) The song
D) Getting ready for work

Question 9

All other things being equal, an animal trained on which of the following schedules of reinforcement should experience extinction most quickly when the reinforcement is removed?

A) Fixed-interval schedule
B) Continuous schedule
C) Variable-ratio schedule
D) Variable-interval schedule

Question 10

A rat is conditioned to press a lever for food. One day a food pellet jams in the automatic feeder and the rat no longer receives food after pressing the lever. After a few minutes, the rat eventually stops pressing the lever. This is an example of:

A) negative reinforcement.
B) extinction.
C) classical conditioning.
D) avoidance learning.

Question 11

A once neutral stimulus that elicits a conditioned response because it has a history of being paired with an unconditioned stimulus is known as a(n) ______.

A) unconditioned response
B) conditioned stimulus
C) conditioned response
D) unconditioned responsestimulus

Question 12

The type of learning students do when studying information for a test is primarily ______________ learning.

A) cognitive
B) observational
C) classical
D) associative

Question 13

An important distinction between classical and operant conditioning is that:

A) classical conditioning involves voluntary responding, while operant conditioning involves involuntary responding.
B) classical conditioning involves reinforcement, while operant conditioning involves punishment.
C) classical conditioning involves cognitive learning, while operant conditioning involves associative learning.
D) responding does not affect the presentation of stimuli in classical conditioning, but in operant conditioning responding has consequences.

Question 14

A dental drill can become an unpleasant stimulus, especially for people who may have experienced pain while one was used on his teeth. In this case, the pain elicited by the drill is a(n) _____.

A) conditioned response
B) unconditioned stimulus
C) conditioned stimulus
D) unconditioned stimulus

Question 15

__________ was one of the first people to describe learning as acquired through classical conditioning while studying the digestive process of dogs.

A) John Watson
B) Ivan Pavlov
C) B. F. Skinner
D) Albert Bandura

Question 16

The word "negative" in the term negative reinforcement refers to:

A) the removal of a stimulus.
B) an unwanted conditioned behavior.
C) the use of punishment.
D) the use of inappropriate stimuli.

Question 17

In classical conditioning, a(n) _____ becomes a(n) _____, which elicits a response.

A) neutral stimulus; conditioned stimulus
B) neutral stimulus; unconditioned stimulus
C) unconditioned stimulus; conditioned stimulus
D) unconditioned stimulus; neutral stimulus

Question 18

Your dog barks every time a stranger's car pulls into the driveway, but not when you come home. Reacting to your car differently is a sign of _______.

A) discrimination
B) generalization
C) spontaneous recovery
D) acquisition

Question 19

__________ is a change in an organism's behavior or knowledge brought about by experience.

A) Learning
B) Adaptation
C) Memory enhancement
D) Accommodation

Question 20

Which of the following is true of learning?

A) Learning is the process that allows a species to slowly adapt over generations.
B) All learning involves the acquisition of new knowledge and information.
C) Learning involves a change in behavior or knowledge as a result of experience.
D) Humans are the only species known to be capable of true learning.

Question 21

The classical-conditioning term for a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in the absence of learning is _______________.

A) unconditioned stimulus
B) unconditioned response
C) conditioned stimulus
D) conditioned response

Question 22

Salivation in response to food being placed in the mouth and an eye blink response to a puff of air, are both examples of _______________.

A) unconditioned stimuli
B) conditioned responses
C) conditioned stimuli
D) unconditioned responses

Question 23

Of the four basic elements of classical conditioning, the one the organism learns to respond to is the _____.

A) US
B) UR
C) CS
D) CR

Question 24

The abbreviation US stands for _______________.

A) unconditional statement
B) uniform subject
C) unconditioned sensation
D) unconditioned stimulus

Question 25

Five-year-old Samantha is watching a storm from her window. A huge bolt of lightning is followed by a tremendous thunderclap. Startled, Samantha jumps at the noise. This happens several times. As the storm moves farther away, Samantha jumps at the sight of a lightning bolt but doesn't hear the thunder until after she jumps! In this example, the unconditioned stimulus is the _______________ and the conditioned stimulus is the _______________.

A) thunder; lightning
B) jumping; lightning
C) lightning; thunder
D) thunder; jumping

Question 26

Before studying conditioning, Ivan Pavlov studied ______________.

A) cardiac physiology
B) canine anatomy
C) digestive processes
D) the endocrine system

Question 27

Which of the following illustrates an unconditioned stimulus (US)?

A) blinking when air is blown into your eye
B) blinking, when you hear your favorite song
C) your favorite song
D) a puff of air to your eye

Question 28

Because dogs do not need to be conditioned to salivate to food, salivation to food is a(n) ______________.

A) conditioned response
B) conditioned reflex
C) unconditioned response
D) neutral response

Question 29

In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus is:

A) the stimulus that triggers a response after being paired with a conditioned stimulus.
B) the stimulus that triggers a conditioned response.
C) the stimulus that triggers a response after being paired with another stimulus.
D) the stimulus that triggers a response without learning having taken place.

Question 30

An experimenter finds that a certain male subject always has an increased heartbeat when he sees a picture of a nude female. The experimenter sounds a buzzer and then presents such a picture. The experimenter repeats this procedure until the man responds with an increased heartbeat to the sound of the buzzer alone. In this situation the unconditioned response (UR) is the _______________.

A) increased heartbeat
B) female's picture
C) sounds of the buzzer
D) viewing of the picture

Question 31

In classical conditioning, the term neutral is used to indicate that a stimulus:

A) can never be capable of causing a response.
B) is reinforcing for the subject.
C) does not initially elicit a response.
D) cannot be detected by the subject.

Question 32

Which of the following is a stimulus?

A) blinking
B) food
C) salivation
D) fear

Question 33

Alan always turns the aquarium light on before putting fish food into the tank. After a while he notices that the fish swim to the top to look for the food as soon as he turns on the light. In this example, the __________ is the unconditioned stimulus (US).

A) tank
B) fish swimming to the top
C) fish food
D) aquarium light

Question 34

Learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus elicits a response that was originally caused by another stimulus is called ___________________.

A) cognitive learning
B) classical conditioning
C) operant conditioning
D) observational learning

Question 35

Every week, Jade spends her allowance on ½ pound of sour lemon gummy candies even though they always make her mouth water. One day, as she is walking down the street, Jade sees a girl carrying a little white bag that looks like a candy shop bag! Jade notices that her mouth is puckering and overflowing with saliva. In this example, the unconditioned stimulus is the:

A) little white bag
B) allowance money
C) puckering and saliva
D) sour lemon gummy candy

Question 36

When Luke kissed Laura, her heart rate increased. Luke always wore Old Spice after shave. Whenever Laura smelled Old Spice, her heart raced. Luke's kiss was the _______________.

A) unconditioned stimulus
B) unconditioned response
C) conditioned stimulus
D) conditioned response

Question 37

Whenever five-year-old Claire goes to the dentist, she becomes anxious and cries. Since she was not afraid of the dentist on her first visit, her fear is a learned behavior. The US in this case was probably _________________.

A) the dentist's beard
B) sweet toothpaste
C) painful teeth cleaning
D) small prizes given after the exam

Question 38

The association or link between which two classical conditioning elements is, by definition, unlearned?

A) CS and CR
B) US and CR
C) CS and UR
D) US and UR

Question 39

In classical conditioning the stimulus that normally evokes an automatic response without new learning is called the _____________.

A) conditioned stimulus
B) reflexive stimulus
C) unconditioned stimulus
D) orienting stimulus

Question 40

Ivan Pavlov is most closely associated with ______________.

A) vicarious learning
B) the Law of Effect
C) operant conditioning
D) classical conditioning

Question 41

The reappearance of a learned response after its apparent extinction is called ________________.

A) generalization
B) reacquisition
C) spontaneous recovery
D) discrimination

Question 42

Extinction occurs in classical conditioning when the ________ no longer produces the ________.

A) CS; US
B) CS; CR
C) US; CR
D) US; UR

Question 43

The proverb "He who hath been bitten by a snake fears a rope" illustrates ______________.

A) stimulus discrimination
B) extinction
C) spontaneous recovery
D) stimulus generalization.

Question 44

The initial phase of learning in which a response is first established is known as _________________.

A) generalization
B) acquisition
C) spontaneous recovery
D) extinction

Question 45

You train your dog Milo to salivate to the sound of a bell. Then you ring the bell every five minutes and don't follow the ringing with food for Milo. He salivates less and less and finally stops salivating at all when the bell rings. But the next morning, when you ring the bell, Milo salivates! What term is used to explain the reappearance of this response?

A) latent learning
B) spontaneous recovery
C) extinction
D) stimulus generalization

Question 46

You classically condition your dog Milo to salivate when middle C is played on the piano, but you find that he also salivates when a high G is played. You make a point of playing high G and not giving Milo any food afterward, whereas you do give him food after you play C. After a few days, Milo stops salivating when high G is played but continues to salivate to middle C. This phenomenon is known as ________________.

A) generalization
B) discrimination
C) bitonal judgment
D) spontaneous recovery

Question 47

For several weeks Allen had to clean the men's restroom at the restaurant where he worked. The task always made him nauseated. He has since gone on to better things, but still cannot walk by the door to a men's restroom without becoming slightly queasy. For Allen, the door to the men's room has become a(n) ________________.

A) unconditioned stimulus.
B) unconditioned response.
C) conditioned response.
D) conditioned stimulus.

Question 48

Extinction is believed to be a form of _____________.

A) learning
B) forgetting
C) operant conditioning
D) generalization

Question 49

Which phenomenon supports the theory that extinction is not a form of forgetting?

A) conditioned emotional responding
B) spontaneous recovery
C) discrimination
D) generalization

Question 50

The conditioned stimulus is defined as:

A) the stimulus that automatically produces the unconditioned response.
B) the previously neutral stimulus that automatically produces the unconditioned response.
C) the previously neutral stimulus that has acquired the capacity to produce the conditioned response.
D) the stimulus that remains neutral throughout classical conditioning.

Question 51

How do you know you have classically conditioned a person or an animal?

A) The unconditioned stimulus all by itself elicits the unconditioned response.
B) The unconditioned stimulus all by itself elicits the conditioned response.
C) The conditioned stimulus all by itself elicits the conditioned response.
D) The unconditioned response all by itself elicits the conditioned response.

Question 52

As a child, Blaine was attacked by a goose and subsequently developed a severe fear of waterfowl. As he got older, the fear gradually faded until it was all but forgotten. Blaine is now in his early twenties and recently went strolling through a park by the river where he came across a flock of geese. The geese stared at him and he felt slightly fearful, though not as afraid as he had been as a child. Blaine's fear response to the geese in the park is an example of _______________.

A) stimulus discrimination
B) stimulus generalization
C) extinction
D) spontaneous recovery

Question 53

Repeatedly presenting a CS by itself will result in ______________.

A) extinction
B) spontaneous recovery
C) stimulus discrimination
D) stimulus generalization

Question 54

Spontaneous recovery:

A) occurs before the pairing of the CS and US.
B) occurs after a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement.
C) is an unlearned response.
D) can occur once a response has been extinguished.

Question 55

________________is the loss or weakening of a conditioned response when a conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus no longer occur together.

A) Generalization
B) Forgetting
C) Spontaneous recovery
D) Extinction

Question 56

The tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus is called ______________.

A) generalization
B) adaptation
C) discrimination
D) extinction

Question 57

In Pavlov's "salivating dogs" studies, the salivation triggered by the sound or tone was the ________________.

A) conditioned stimulus
B) unconditioned response
C) conditioned response
D) unconditioned stimulus

Question 58

In Pavlov's "salivating dogs" studies, the CR was _____________.

A) salivation
B) food
C) sound
D) biting

Question 59

Ken's mouth waters every time he hears the ice cream truck's familiar song in the distance. One day a slightly different song is heard in the distance and Ken's mouth waters. Ken's behavior illustrates ____________.

A) generalization
B) assimilation
C) recovery
D) discrimination

Question 60

Which of the following statements pertaining to the conditioned response is accurate?

A) The conditioned response is elicited by the unconditioned stimulus.
B) The conditioned response is an instinctual behavior.
C) The conditioned response is elicited by the conditioned stimulus.
D) The conditioned response in classical conditioning is always salivation.

Question 61

In studies of advertisement-like condition, participants viewed a slide show with attractive visual scenery paired with a brand of toothpaste. Other participants viewed the same images but in an unpaired presentation. Participants in the paired condition ultimately preferred ______.

A) another brand of toothpaste
B) brushing their teeth outside
C) the particular brand of toothpaste paired with the scenery
D) the images that did not involve toothpaste

Question 62

Who was also known as "Little Albert"?

A) developer of the concept of classical conditioning
B) an animal trained by using operant conditioning procedures
C) a creator of methods for teaching children
D) a child who developed a fear as part of a demonstration of classical conditioning

Question 63

As an infant, Stephanie received many penicillin injections from the doctor. When she later saw a photographer in a white coat that was similar to the doctor's coat, she started to cry. This is an example of ______________.

A) operant conditioning
B) observational learning
C) classical conditioning
D) habituation

Question 64

Why are heroin users more likely to overdose when they inject heroin someplace other than their usual location?

A) Heroin users tend to inject a larger dose in new locations.
B) Heroin users learn to associate safe practices with their usual location.
C) Heroin users find drug use more rewarding in new locations.
D) Cues that normally trigger a conditioned response that helps to prepare the body for the heroin are missing in the new locations.

Question 65

According to the concept of preparedness, which stimulus would make the most effective CS in a fear conditioning experiment?

A) gun
B) spider
C) flower
D) rabbit

Question 66

How can learning theory help to explain why diet drinks are ineffective in helping people lose weight?

A) Sugar acts as a positive reinforcer, but artificial sweeteners act as a negative reinforcer.
B) Stimulus discrimination allows the body to tell the difference between real sugar and artificial sweeteners.
C) Extinction occurs when artificial sweeteners are introduced, but spontaneous recovery leads to a return of overeating.
D) People normally learn that sweet tastes (CS) predict calories (US), but artificial sweeteners weaken this association.

Question 67

Shelly has developed a fear of bridges due to the recent, graphic news coverage of people falling from a collapsed bridge. Which of the following is the CS?

A) bridges
B) graphic news coverage
C) people falling
D) collapsed bridges

Question 68

Which form of classical conditioning is most likely to occur with only a single CS-US pairing?

A) salivary conditioning
B) conditioned eye blink responding
C) conditioned taste aversion
D) fear conditioning

Question 69

People appear to have a biological predisposition to associate nausea with what type of stimuli?

A) lights
B) tastes
C) smells
D) sounds

Question 70

Taste aversions seem to be specific examples of what type of learning?

A) classical conditioning
B) insight learning
C) vicarious learning
D) operant conditioning

Question 71

Which of the following terms refers to the fact that animals and human beings may be evolutionarily predisposed to learn to fear certain stimuli that threaten their survival?

A) instinctive drift
B) construct survival
C) emotional aversions
D) preparedness

Question 72

People diagnosed with psychopathy show an impaired ability to learn to:

A) associate fear with faces when the faces are paired with a shock.
B) extinguish responding after the removal of the US.
C) associate tastes with illness.
D) blink to a tone which precedes a puff of air to the eye.

Question 73

Why is it so much easier to learn to fear snakes than to fear guns?

A) preparedness
B) psychopathy
C) taste aversion
D) conditioned responses

Question 74

Participants exposed to paired experiences of snakes and mild electric shock, then exhibited that they were experiencing palm sweat even when they only saw the pictures of the snakes. The snake photo was the __________.

A) CS
B) US
C) CR
D) UR

Question 75

Which of the following is one of the ways in which conditioned taste aversions are NOT like other forms of classical conditioning?

A) Conditioned taste aversions do not require a CS.
B) Conditioned taste aversions only last 1 or 2 days.
C) The CS and US can be separated by several hours.
D) The subject does not have to respond to develop a taste aversion.

Question 76

Last month Walter became sick after eating two chili dogs, and he now finds the very thought of chili dogs to be repulsive. Walter has experienced ________________.

A) discrimination
B) conditioned taste aversion
C) operant taste conditioning
D) negative reinforcement

Question 77

Riley reports that watching commercials has classically conditioned her to only buy a particular brand of hand lotion and she could not possibly even consider purchasing any other brand. What might you want to remind her about classical conditioning in advertisements?

A) Classical conditioning affects emotions, but does not cause us to blindly follow suggestions to purchase products.
B) Classical conditioning can be reversed with therapy.
C) Classical conditioning can be reversed by exposing oneself to other types of CS.
D) Classical conditioning does not have an impact on humans.

Question 78

Larry has been using heroin for several years. Normally he injects the drug in his basement, but one night on a vacation he injects the drug in his hotel room. Despite the fact that he uses the same heroin and dose that he normally does, Larry overdoses and dies. What phenomenon is likely responsible?

A) spontaneous recovery
B) preparedness
C) negative punishment
D) conditioned drug tolerance

Question 79

Which of the following would be an example of advertisers applying classical conditioning to the marketing of a product?

A) The product is shown with stimuli that viewers already view positively, such as attractive people.
B) A commercial shows individuals modeling the correct use of the product.
C) Customers are rewarded with a free product for every five they purchase.
D) Advertisers saturate print and broadcast media with images of the product so people will remember it.

Question 80

In which type of learning is an organism's behavior influenced by the consequences of that behavior?

A) classical conditioning
B) latent learning
C) operant conditioning
D) consequential learning