Question 1

David Krech studied the relationship between environment and intelligence by experimenting with rats in specifically-constructed environments. Which of the following is NOT one of his research conclusions?

Accepted Answer

Krech's study was limited to examining the resulting intelligence levels of rats reared in one of two environments; he did not investigate the impact of changing environments after initial rearing. He did discover that brain composition was affected by environment.

Question 2

Psychological tests for intelligence are based on a number of theories about intelligence that have been developed over the last century or so. In the 1920s, a psychologist proposed that intelligence is a single factor (termed the g factor), rather than being composed of more than one type. Which psychologist presented this theory?

Accepted Answer

Spearman was responsible for the initial theory of g factor intelligence. Other researchers investigated and expounded on his idea, adding subtypes to the idea of singular intelligence.

Question 3

Following Spearman's g factor theory of intelligence, a group of researchers developed a more complex theory involving three strata of intelligence, with a number of intelligence types delineated under the general "g" level. Whose research is this newer theory based on?

Accepted Answer

Cattell initiated the three strata theory of intelligence, in which stratum III represents general intelligence, stratum II represents a few types of broad cognitive abilities, and stratum I represents many narrow cognitive abilities.

Question 4

Which idea is the Montessori method of education primarily based on?

Accepted Answer

Maria Montessori developed her educational method based on the idea that children thrive in an environment where they are provided with tools for self-directed learning and that children have inner natural guidance for their best learning style.

Question 5

Edward Thorndike studied animal behavior and learning processes. He formulated a theory of learning based on his research. The law of effect is one component of that theory. What does this law state?

Accepted Answer

The law of effect states that if a response is followed by a favorable state of affairs, it is strengthened; the converse is also true. Thorndike also posited that not doing learned behavior results in forgetting, in his law of exercise.

Question 6

Albert Bandura's work in personality psychology and social cognitive theory has significantly shifted perspectives on learning and behavior. What was his conclusion from the 1961 Bobo doll experiment?

Accepted Answer

The Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children exposed to aggressive behavior that had no negative consequence were far more likely to demonstrate aggressive behavior, both physically and verbally. He concluded that observing aggressive behavior in a same-sex adult had a greater impact than in an opposite-sex adult. He also concluded that males tend to be more aggressive than females based on the quantitative results of the study.

Question 7

Albert Bandura's work in personality psychology and social cognitive theory has significantly shifted perspectives on learning and behavior. He introduced a theory stating that individuals learn behavior through observation and through the existence of positive or negative reinforcement of specific behaviors. What is this theory called?

Accepted Answer

Bandura's social learning theory states that behavior is learned through observation of both performance of certain behaviors and positive or negative reinforcement of behaviors.

Question 8

Different types of punishment produce varying types of change. When moderate punishment is used in combination with the opportunity to learn acceptable responses, what type of change typically results?

Accepted Answer

Moderate punishment, in combination with opportunities to learn new acceptable behavior, generally results in permanent, rather than temporary change. It is more effective than other methods of punishment that elicit only temporary change.

Question 9

F. Skinner spent much of his time analyzing behavior and coined the term operant conditioning. How did he define punishment?

Accepted Answer

Skinner called punishment "the commonest technique of control in modern life." He regularly employed punishment in operant conditioning experiments.

Question 10

Edward Thorndike studied animal behavior and learning processes. He formulated a theory of learning based on his research; one component of that theory is the law of readiness. Which of the following statements is not part of the law of readiness?

Accepted Answer

The law of readiness outlines the idea that goal-directed behavior is satisfying to complete and that prevention of performing goal directed behavior is annoying. It does not include the idea that encouragement to perform an act one is not ready to perform can be satisfying.

Question 11

Edward Thorndike studied animal behavior and learning processes. He formulated a theory of learning based on his research; one component of that theory is the idea of associative shifting. Which of the following best describes this idea?

Accepted Answer

The idea of associative shifting states that when stimulus S is paired with response R, stimulus Q will also be paired with response R if it presented with stimulus S multiple times. Response R is shifted from stimulus S to stimulus Q through repeated simultaneous exposure to both.

Question 12

Edward Thorndike studied animal behavior and learning processes. He formulated a theory of learning based on his research. He was an early proponent of active learning theory. What does that theory state?

Accepted Answer

The active learning theory, as it was initially conceived of, states that children should guide their own learning, rather than being instructed by teachers (similar to the Montessori idea of learning). The term now refers to the idea that people learn better when they bear the greatest responsibility of learning and to educational processes built on that idea.

Question 13

A child observed an attack of someone on the street by a man in a yellow jacket. Now he is afraid of any man in a yellow jacket he encounters. What is this phenomenon known as?

Accepted Answer

This is known as second-order conditioning. When a conditioned stimulus acts like or presents similarly to an unconditioned stimulus, the elicited response to the non-threatening conditioned stimulus is the same as to the threatening unconditioned stimulus.

Question 14

In operant conditioning, a number of factors, as well as the style of conditioning employed, affect both short- and long-term outcome. Which of the following is NOT one of the factors considered to affect conditioning?

Accepted Answer

Age is not one of the four factors traditionally considered to affect operant conditioning. Those are: deprivation/satiation, immediacy (of consequence), size (a cost-benefit analysis of consequence), and contingency (reliability of consequence).

Question 15

Escape conditioning and avoidance conditioning are two types of operant conditioning. Which of the following is NOT a similarity of these two methods?

Accepted Answer

Escape conditioning provides immediate aversive stimuli in response to a behavior, while avoidance conditioning uses a neutral stimulus followed by a short period allowing for the subject to provide a desired response in order to avoid the aversive stimulus entirely.

Question 16

Edward Tolman was a behavioral psychologist. His experiments with rats led to a theory that animals can learn connections between stimuli without a biological event to reinforce learning. What is this theory known as?

Accepted Answer

Tolman's S-S view of behavior claims that animals can learn connections between stimuli without a biological event to reinforce learning. This idea was supported by an experiment he (and colleagues) conducted wherein rats, when hungry, were able to find food in a maze on first trial after previously given the chance to explore the maze when not hungry.

Question 17

Theories about reward and punishment based in classical and operant conditioning techniques have also been applied to the workplace. What has research about reward and punishment theories found to be true?

Accepted Answer

Reward and punishment theory concludes that performance-contingent rewards increase performance and overall satisfaction, while non-performance contingent rewards do not. Punishment in the workplace is not strongly linked with better performance.

Question 18

Classical conditioning focuses on responses that are automatic, rather than learned. If you feed your dog every day at 9 am and he starts to stare at his food bowl around 9 am before you've fed him, what kind of conditioning has occurred?

Accepted Answer

Temporal conditioning is the type of conditioning that occurs when an unconditioned stimulus is consistently presented at the same time. Food is an unconditioned stimulus (it elicits an automatic, rather than learned, response) and time acts as a conditioned stimulus. The dog is conditioned to believe he will receive food at a particular time, so he anticipates it.

Question 19

John Watson's experiment with a young child and a white rat demonstrated the effectiveness of classical conditioning. He paired exposure to the rat with a loud noise and the child learned to be afraid of the rat. The child also demonstrated fear around other white furry objects. What is this an example of?

Accepted Answer

The child's learned fear of white furry objects other than the rat he was exposed to is an example of stimulus generalization. He generalized the qualities of the rat to other objects and demonstrated his learned response (fear) to them. This occurs without deliberate influence of the experimenter.

Question 20

In Pavlov's classical conditioning dog experiment, he paired a neutral stimulus (a tone) with an unconditioned stimulus (meat) repeatedly until the neutral stimulus became a conditioned stimulus (the dog learned to salivate upon hearing the tone). He then paired the tone with a new neutral stimulus, such as a flash of light, repeatedly, until the learned response was elicited from the dog upon exposure to the flash of light. What is this known as?

Accepted Answer

Pairing a conditioned stimulus with a new neutral stimulus until the latter also becomes a conditioned stimulus is known as higher order conditioning. In this case, pairing the flash of light with the tone is second order conditioning (the first conditioned response was to the tone, the second is to the light). Third order conditioning could be achieved by pairing a new stimulus with the light. It is believed that conditioning beyond third level is not possible.

Quiz 3: Cognitive Affective Bases of Behavior