Deck 7: Section 1: Learning

Question 1

A child does not reliably make his bed in the morning. His parents want to use monetary positive reinforcement to increase bed-making. Describe how the following schedules of reinforcement would operate: continuous reinforcement, fixed-ratio (FR) 7, variable-ratio (VR) 7, fixed-interval (FI) 7 days, variable-interval (VI) 7 days. If you were the parent, which schedule of reinforcement would you employ? Why?

Answer 1

The answer should provide the following information: (1) Continuous reinforcement: Every instance of bed making would result in money delivery. This probably would result in the child making the bed each day, but the parents would quickly go broke! Moreover, if the parents were to stop reinforcing bed-making, the child would quickly stop making his bed. For these reasons, this schedule is both impractical and not ideal for the long-term maintenance of bed-making; (2) FR 7: Every seven times that the child makes his bed, this behavior will be reinforced with money; (3) VR 7: On the average of every seven times that the child makes his bed, this behavior will be reinforced with money; (4) The FR 7 and VR 7 options both produce reinforcement intermittently. Assuming the child makes his bed only once per day, both of these schedules result in reinforcer delivery once per week, which is a realistic payment schedule for most parents. However, the downside with these schedules is that nothing is stopping the child from making his bed 100 times per day. The parents would quickly go broke! (5) Under a FI 7-day schedule, the first instance of bed-making that occurs after 7 days since the last reinforcement will produce money. Perhaps every Friday the parents will pay the child if he has made the bed that day. If not, they will withhold the money until the next time that he makes the bed. The advantage of this schedule is that it guarantees that the parents will not have to pay out more than once per week. The disadvantage is that the child may quickly learn to behave efficiently under the schedule, making his bed only on Fridays! (6) Under a VI 7-day schedule, the first instance of bed-making that occurs after an average of 7 days since the last reinforcement will produce money. On average, bed-making will pay off once per week. But sometimes reinforcement will come after only one day, and other times it will not come for several weeks. One advantage of this schedule is that it guarantees that the parents will pay money to the child, on average, no more than once per week. Another advantage is that this schedule generates a steady rate of responding. Because reinforcement could come any day, the child probably would make his bed every day. A third advantage is that, because the schedule is time-based, making the bed 100 times per day won't increase the rate of reinforcement as is the case under the FR and VR schedules. There is nothing that the child can do to get paid, on average, more than once per week. Thus, this schedule both maintains a consistent rate of response and is pocketbook friendly. Finally, this schedule is resistant to extinction; if the parents were to stop providing reinforcement for bed-making due to a temporary economic hardship, bed-making would continue unabated. The VI 7-day schedule, then, is the best choice to employ.

Question 2

Compare and contrast extinction in classical and operant conditioning. Give examples.

Answer 2

The answer should provide the following information: (1) In both cases, extinction ultimately will result in a decrease (or elimination) of the target response; (2) In classical conditioning, extinction involves repeatedly presenting the CS in the absence of the US. Using Pavlov's procedure, on every trial, the tone is presented but is not followed by the food. With repeated tone-nothing pairings, the dog will stop salivating to the sound of the tone; (3) In operant conditioning, extinction involves no longer delivering the reinforcement that had previously been maintaining the response. For example, in rats pressing levers for food pellets, extinction would be arranged by disconnecting the food pellet dispenser. Lever presses would no longer produce food. Under these circumstances, rats will eventually stop pressing the lever.

Question 3

Discuss the cognitive, neural, and evolutionary elements of classical conditioning.

Answer 3

The answer should provide the following information: (1) Cognitive elements: Classical conditioning will not occur unless the CS reliably predicts the occurrence of the US. Because of this, Rescorla and Wagner argued that CS-US pairings result in an expectancy of the US. This expectancy then gives rise to the CR. This cognitive component helps explain why Pavlov's dogs did not salivate merely at the sight of Pavlov. Although Pavlov was paired with food many times, he also was paired with the absence of food. Pavlov was not a reliable predictor of food, but his bell was! In addition, expectancy theory helps explain why it is easier to condition a response to a novel stimulus than a familiar stimulus. Organisms have previously learned expectancies associated with familiar stimuli, making conditioning a new response difficult; (2) Neural elements: The cerebellum is highly involved in classical conditioning. In addition, the central nucleus of the amygdala is involved in emotional conditioning; (3) Evolutionary elements: CS-US associations that have been important for the survival of the species are extremely easy to condition, sometimes requiring only one CS-US pairing. We are biologically prepared to form some associations, such as the association between the taste of a novel food and sickness. The adaptive value is clear. Our ancestors, who may have eaten a poisonous plant, became ill several hours later, and subsequently avoided that plant in the future, tended to survive and pass on their genes. Ancestors who did not form this association perished at a higher rate.

Question 4

Compare and contrast the observational learning of tool use in humans and chimpanzees. Briefly describe the enculturation hypothesis.

Question 5

Describe how artificial grammar has been used to study implicit learning.

Question 6

Illustrate the stimulus control of operant behavior by giving a real-world example. Be sure to identify each of the following components: the discriminative stimulus, the response, and the reinforcer.

Question 7

Review some effective and ineffective techniques for learning academic material. When are difficulties in studying desirable?

Question 8

Explain how classical conditioning is involved in drug tolerance and overdose.

Question 9

Provide a unique example of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. In doing so, identify the target behavior, the consequence of that behavior, and how the consequence affects the future probability of that behavior.

Question 10

A small girl visited the Science Center to view a tarantula, and as she did so, her brother screamed in her ear and pinched her. A few days later, her brother did the same thing when she viewed a tarantula at a zoo exhibit. Now the young girl is terrified of tarantulas. Briefly explain the learning that took place. Review the US, UR, CS, and CR. Include the following terms in your discussion, and predict the path that the girl's learning may eventually take: acquisition, generalization, discrimination, extinction, and spontaneous recovery.

Question 11

Bob has contracted a stomach virus and will be extremely sick in 6 hours. At the moment, however, Bob is completely unaware of his condition. In fact, he is starving for his favorite food, pizza. His roommate wants anchovies on the pizza; although Bob never has eaten anchovies, he agrees. Bob eats six slices of pizza and likes the taste of the anchovies. A few hours later, Bob becomes extremely sick to his stomach. Describe the likely taste aversion that Bob will experience. Be sure to identify the US, CS, UR, and CR. Finally, discuss how the conditioning process might differ if Bob was a pigeon in Central Park instead of a college student.

Question 12

Many major-league baseball players are now wearing chord-type necklaces because they believe that the necklaces will enhance their athletic performance. Discuss two possible explanations for this phenomenon: Skinner's conceptualization of superstitions and observational learning.

Question 13

Describe the procedure, results, and importance of Tolman's experiment on latent learning.

Question 14

How would you train a puppy to turn in a complete clockwise circle to receive a doggie treat using shaping through successive approximations?

Question 15

Contrast classical and operant conditioning in terms of (a) the nature of the behavior, (b) the role of stimuli that precede the response, and (c) the role of consequences.

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