Question 1

When Micah was two years old, he was frightened by his Aunt Mabel's little dog, which nipped him on the leg. Because of the incident, Micah developed a strong fear of small dogs but not of large dogs. This best illustrates:

Accepted Answer

Micah's fear response is specific to small dogs and not generalized to large dogs, indicating stimulus discrimination.

Question 2

Fred's dog is classically conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell. Fred repeatedly pairs the bell with another stimulus, a whistle. Now whenever he blows the whistle, his dog salivates, even though the whistle has never been paired with food. This example illustrates:

Accepted Answer

This scenario illustrates higher order conditioning (second-order conditioning) because the whistle becomes a conditioned stimulus even though it was never directly paired with food. Instead, the whistle was paired with the bell, which was already a conditioned stimulus. The whistle then becomes associated with the bell and elicits the same response (salivation) as the bell.

Question 3

After researchers conditioned a dog to salivate to the sight of a triangle, they presented the triangle alone to the dog every three minutes. Over the course of several trials, the amount of saliva the dog secreted in response to the triangle decreased to zero. At that point, the researchers put the dog back in his cage for the night. What happened the next morning when the researchers presented the triangle to the dog again?

Accepted Answer

Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a conditioned response after a rest period or period of lessened response. In this case, the dog had stopped salivating to the triangle after repeated presentations, but after a period of rest (overnight), it is likely that the dog will exhibit a conditioned response again when presented with the triangle. Option A (latent learning) does not apply in this situation, as latent learning refers to learning that is not immediately demonstrated and only becomes apparent when there is an incentive to do so. Option C (learned helplessness) is not applicable in this situation, as there is no indication that any aversive stimuli were involved. Option D (no salivation due to triangle not being a discriminative stimulus) is not accurate in this case, as the triangle had previously been conditioned to elicit salivation in the dog.

Question 4

A young child has learned to associate the sight of a nurse's white uniform with the fear and pain of getting an injection. If the young child begins reacting with fear to the sight of any white jacket, what has occurred?

Accepted Answer

The child is experiencing stimulus generalization, which is the tendency to respond fearfully to stimuli that are similar but not identical to the conditioned stimulus (the nurse's white uniform).

Question 5

In the early 1900s, Ivan Pavlov:

Accepted Answer

Ivan Pavlov did not view psychology as an exact, or precise, science because of its emphasis on studying subjective states of consciousness. He believed that psychology should focus on observable, measurable behavior rather than unobservable mental states. This viewpoint was a precursor to the behaviorist movement in psychology.

Question 6

Pavlov found that once he conditioned a dog to salivate in response to a tone, a tone that was slightly higher or lower in pitch would also make the dog salivate. This phenomenon is called:

Accepted Answer

Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency of a conditioned response to occur to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus. In this case, Pavlov's dog salivating to tones of slightly higher or lower pitch is an example of stimulus generalization.

Question 7

_____ founded an early "school" or approach to psychology called behaviorism.

Accepted Answer

John B. Watson is credited with founding behaviorism, which focuses on observable behavior rather than internal mental processes. While Edward L. Thorndike and B.F. Skinner were important behaviorists, they did not create the approach. Albert Bandura is known for his work on social learning theory, which incorporates both behavioral and cognitive processes.

Question 8

John B. Watson believed that psychology should study:

Accepted Answer

John B. Watson believed that psychology should focus on observable behavior, rather than mental processes or consciousness.

Question 9

Your dog tends to salivate and get excited when you shake a box of dog biscuits. However, your dog does not drool when you shake a bag of cat food. This is an example of:

Accepted Answer

This is an example of stimulus discrimination because the dog is able to differentiate between the two stimuli (the box of dog biscuits and the bag of cat food) and only responds to one (the box of dog biscuits) with salivation and excitement.

Question 10

After a dog had been conditioned to salivate at the sight of meat powder, the meat powder was presented to the dog every three minutes and held just out of the dog's reach. Over the course of several trials, the amount of saliva the dog secretes decreases to zero, indicating that _____ had occurred.

Accepted Answer

The decreasing amount of saliva indicated that the dog's previous conditioning had been extinguished. Extinction occurs when a conditioned response is weakened or eliminated when the conditioned stimulus (meat powder in this case) is no longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus (food).

Question 11

If you own a dog that tends to salivate and get excited when you shake a box of dog biscuits, you may have noticed that your dog also drools when you shake a bag of cat food. If so, this would be an example of:

Accepted Answer

Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to a conditioned stimulus. In this case, the dog has learned to associate the sound of shaking a box of dog biscuits with receiving a treat, and has generalized this response to the sound of shaking a bag of cat food. Therefore, the best choice is A.

Question 12

John B. Watson would agree with which of the following statements?

Accepted Answer

John B. Watson was a behaviorist who believed that psychology should focus on observable behavior rather than mental processes. He emphasized the importance of studying behavior as it can be objectively measured and predicted, leading to the goal of controlling and modifying behavior.

Question 13

After establishing a classically conditioned response to a tone, an experimenter sets up a second trial using a new conditioned stimulus, a red light. He repeatedly pairs the new conditioned stimulus (the red light) with the conditioned stimulus from the first trial (the tone). This procedure results in the conditioned response being elicited by the red light alone, even though it was never paired with the unconditioned stimulus. The experimental results demonstrate:

Accepted Answer

This is an example of higher order conditioning (also known as second-order conditioning), where a previously neutral stimulus (the red light) becomes associated with the conditioned response through its association with the conditioned stimulus from the first trial (the tone).

Question 14

In classical conditioning, if the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, what will occur?

Accepted Answer

If the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, the association between the two stimuli weakens and eventually disappears. This process is called extinction.

Question 15

Which of the following scientists objected to psychology's study of subjective conscious experience and wrote, "It is still open to discussion whether psychology is a natural science, or whether it can be regarded as a science at all"?

Accepted Answer

Ivan Pavlov, known for his work in classical conditioning, was skeptical about psychology's focus on subjective experiences and questioned its status as a natural science.

Question 16

Every Friday, Dr. Cruz would give a quiz in his psychology class. Students quickly learned to be nervous on Friday mornings, just before each quiz. Halfway through the semester, Dr. Cruz stopped giving quizzes on Fridays and the students' anxiety began to diminish with each passing week in which there was no quiz. The decrease in the students' anxiety may be attributed to the process of:

Accepted Answer

The decrease in anxiety can be attributed to extinction, as the previous behavior (anxiety before Friday quizzes) is no longer being reinforced by the absence of quizzes on Fridays. Spontaneous recovery refers to the sudden reappearance of a behavior that had previously been extinguished, which is not the case here. Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency for stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response, which is not relevant to this situation. Latent learning refers to learning that occurs without reinforcement and may not be immediately apparent, which is also not relevant to this situation.

Question 17

A conditioned stimulus from one learning trial is used in place of an unconditioned stimulus in a new conditioning trial, where it is paired with a second conditioned stimulus. The second conditioned stimulus then comes to elicit the conditioned response, even though it has never been directly paired with the unconditioned stimulus. This is a description of a procedure called:

Accepted Answer

This is a clear description of higher order conditioning or second-order conditioning, where a previously conditioned stimulus becomes the unconditioned stimulus for a new conditioned stimulus.

Question 18

The phenomenon of spontaneous recovery provides support for the idea that:

Accepted Answer

Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a conditioned response after a period of extinction. This suggests that the conditioned response that was thought to have been eliminated or unlearned was actually just suppressed, as the learned association can still be reactivated by the presentation of the conditioned stimulus.

Question 19

Which of the following has the greatest impact on the strength of the conditioned response?

Accepted Answer

The timing of stimulus presentations, specifically the temporal relationship between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus, has a significant impact on the strength of the conditioned response. This is because the more closely the conditioned stimulus is temporally paired with the unconditioned stimulus, the stronger the associative relationship between the two will become.

Question 20

At the beginning of the twentieth century, psychology's early founders defined psychology as the scientific study of the mind. These early founders advocated the use of introspective self-reports to achieve two fundamental goals. What were these two goals?

Accepted Answer

The early founders of psychology defined it as the scientific study of the mind with the goal of describing and explaining conscious thought and perceptions through introspective self-reports. Therefore, option A is the correct answer. The other options focus on theories of learning and learned behaviors and emotional responses, which were not the primary goals of psychology's early founders.

Quiz 5: Learning