Question 1

Jean wants her daughter to eat her vegetables so she is healthy.Jean tells her daughter that after she eats her vegetables she can play outside,which is one of her daughter's favorite things to do.In this situation,Jean is using ________ to increase her daughter's eating of vegetables.

Accepted Answer

The Premack principle states that a high-probability behavior (playing outside) can be used to reinforce a low-probability behavior (eating vegetables). In this scenario, Jean is using the opportunity to play outside (high-probability behavior) to reinforce her daughter to eat vegetables (low-probability behavior). This is an example of positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus, and this is not present in the scenario. Positive punishment involves the presentation of an aversive stimulus, which is also not present in the scenario. Primary reinforcement involves reinforcing a behavior directly, without the use of a secondary reinforcer like the opportunity to play outside.

Question 2

Channing believes that the best way to get his boyfriend to clean up after himself is by initiating sex as soon as his boyfriend cleans up the apartment.Channing knows that sex is a ________ reinforcer that will likely ________ the probability that his boyfriend will clean the apartment in the future.

Accepted Answer

Sex is a primary reinforcer because it is naturally rewarding. By pairing the behavior of cleaning the apartment with the reward of sex, the probability of the behavior occurring again in the future is likely to increase.

Question 3

Dante was recently bitten in the leg by a snake and now has learned to fear snakes.If his fear is out of proportion with the danger posed by snakes,then Dante has developed

Accepted Answer

If Dante's fear of snakes is out of proportion with the actual danger posed by snakes, he has developed a phobia.

Question 4

Percy wants to teach his daughter good manners.To increase the likelihood of her saying "Excuse me" when bumping into someone in a store,he should use a stimulus called a(n)

Accepted Answer

A reinforcer is a stimulus that increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again in the future. Therefore, by reinforcing his daughter whenever she says "excuse me" after bumping into someone, Percy can increase the likelihood of her displaying this polite behavior in the future.

Question 5

Vincent wants to use systematic desensitization to treat his patient's phobia of elevators.After the patient learns how to relax her muscles,Vincent's next step should be to

Accepted Answer

Once the patient has learned how to relax her muscles, the next step in systematic desensitization is to have the patient imagine the feared situation while continuing the relaxation exercises. This is done gradually, starting with imagining being near an elevator, then moving closer to an elevator, and eventually riding in an elevator while remaining relaxed. Only after the patient has successfully imagined these steps without fear should they move on to the actual exposure to the feared stimulus.

Question 6

Susie wants to use operant conditioning to teach her cat to sit up for a treat.A psychologist who has conducted research that would be useful to her in this situation is

Accepted Answer

Edward Thorndike's Law of Effect is fundamental to operant conditioning, which involves modifying behavior through the use of consequences, such as rewards and punishments. This law states that behaviors that are followed by positive outcomes are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors that are followed by negative outcomes are less likely to be repeated. Therefore, Thorndike's research on the principles of operant conditioning would be very useful to Susie in teaching her cat to sit up for a treat through positive reinforcement.

Question 7

During the famous experiment with "Little Albert," Albert learned to fear rats when researchers used classical conditioning and presented a

Accepted Answer

In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to a natural, reflexive response, which is called the unconditioned response (UCR). In the case of Little Albert, the loud sound was the UCS, as it naturally elicited a startle/fear response. The rat was then paired with the loud sound, eventually becoming the conditioned stimulus that led to the same fear response (now called the conditioned response or CR) without the presence of the loud sound.

Question 8

Sunil wants to classically condition his dog to fear skunks so he does not get sprayed again.This task should be much easier than teaching him to fear a house plant because a dog

Accepted Answer

Dogs, like many other animals, have a natural biological tendency to learn to fear potentially harmful stimuli, such as predators or poisonous animals. This makes it easier to condition them to fear skunks, which are a potential threat, compared to trying to condition them to fear a harmless object like a house plant.

Question 9

Katie is afraid of clowns.She has been trying to overcome this fear by getting into a relaxed state and then looking at pictures of clowns.After months of this exposure,she is no longer afraid when she sees a clown.Katie has been using ________ to overcome her fear.

Accepted Answer

Katie has been using systematic desensitization to overcome her fear. This technique involves gradually exposing the person to the feared object or situation in a relaxed state, allowing them to associate a new response (relaxation) with the fear-inducing stimulus.

Question 10

Positive punishment causes a(n)________ in behavior through the ________ of a stimulus.

Accepted Answer

Positive punishment involves adding an aversive stimulus to decrease the behavior. Therefore, the correct answer is (C) decrease; addition.

Question 11

Dr.Brimfield believes that humans learn best when they are given the opportunity to act on their environments and make associations between their behavior and the effects it produces.Dr.Brimfield believes in

Accepted Answer

Operant conditioning is the type of learning in which behavior is strengthened or weakened by the consequences that follow it. Dr. Brimfield's belief that humans learn best through their own actions and the associations they make between their behavior and its effects aligns with the principles of operant conditioning, making option B the correct choice. Classical conditioning (A) involves learning by associating a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response. Observational learning (C) and modeling (D) involve learning by observing the behaviors of others and imitating them. While these types of learning can also be effective, they do not necessarily involve the same level of personal experience and internalization that operant conditioning does.

Question 12

When Kathy is in the shower and someone flushes the toilet,the water turns hot and she gets burned.Soon,Kathy becomes classically conditioned to fear the toilet flushing when she is in the shower.When Kathy visits her parents she does not get burned when someone flushes the toilet while she is in the shower.When she returns home and hears the toilet flush while in the shower,Kathy immediately feels a surge of fear.This example best illustrates the fact that extinction is

Accepted Answer

The scenario described is an example of classical conditioning, where the reflexive behavior of feeling fear became associated with the sound of a toilet flushing. Extinction refers to the process of inhibiting or weakening this learned association, which can occur if the conditioned stimulus (toilet flushing) is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus (hot water). However, in this case, extinction did not occur fully since Kathy only experienced the sound of a flushing toilet without the negative consequence while visiting her parents, but the association remained intact when she returned home. This suggests that extinction is a form of learning that inhibits the learned association rather than completely deleting it.

Question 13

Last year,Martina was in love with Robert,but they eventually broke up.Today in the mall,Martina smells someone wearing the same cologne that Robert always wore.She is immediately filled with positive feelings,which is most likely due to

Accepted Answer

The answer of Last year,Martina was in love with Robert,but...

Question 14

Derek is conducting research with chimpanzees and realizes that when the chimps' behaviors lead to some sort of satisfaction,they repeat those behaviors.Derek's observations are most consistent with

Accepted Answer

The law of effect, proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike, states that behaviors leading to satisfying outcomes are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors leading to unsatisfying outcomes are less likely to be repeated. Derek's observations with the chimpanzees match with this principle, as he noticed that the chimps repeat behaviors that lead to satisfaction.

Question 15

Sampson is a dolphin trainer who trains his dolphins to perform tasks by blowing a high-pitched whistle immediately after the dolphins do the task.The dolphins enjoy the sound of the whistle because it had previously been paired with the fish they were given to eat.Based on this,you know that Sampson is using the whistle as a ________ reinforcer to train the dolphins.

Accepted Answer

The whistle has been previously paired with the fish (which is a primary reinforcer) and therefore has acquired the ability to function as a conditioned or secondary reinforcer.

Question 16

Professor McCready wants to study animal learning by putting birds in a cage where they have to figure out how to peck a button to receive food.Professor McCready is using ________ to modify animal behavior.

Accepted Answer

The use of a cage where animals learn to peck a button to receive food is a classic example of a Skinner box, which is an apparatus designed to study operant conditioning and animal learning. Neither punishment nor the Premack principle (which involves using a preferred activity or reward to reinforce a less preferred activity) are at play in this scenario. Shaping, which involves sequentially reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior, may be involved in the process of birds learning to peck the button, but it is not the main technique being employed here.

Question 17

Dr.Shaw has a patient who has a phobia of spiders and also loves doing puzzles.Dr.Shaw exposes the patient to spiders briefly while having the patient complete a fun puzzle.Dr.Shaw is using ________ to treat his patient's phobia.

Accepted Answer

Dr. Shaw is using counterconditioning by combining the pleasant activity of completing a fun puzzle with the unpleasant stimulus of the spider in order to change the patient's emotional response to spiders.

Question 18

You want to teach your dog to stop scratching at the door when he wants to go out.You do so by swatting his nose with a newspaper each time he scratches the door.By creating consequences for your dog's behavior,you have used ________ to train him.

Accepted Answer

The use of consequences (in this case, swatting the dog's nose with a newspaper) to modify behavior is an example of operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves pairing a neutral stimulus with a naturally occurring stimulus to elicit a response, such as Pavlov's dogs salivating at the sound of a bell. Modeling involves learning through observation of others. The Premack principle involves using a desirable behavior to reinforce a less desirable behavior, such as allowing a child to play video games after completing their homework.

Question 19

Rachel's dog loves meat and salivates when he sees it.Rachel repeatedly shows her dog a picture of a circle before showing him a piece of meat.Soon,the dog salivates to the picture of the circle.When Rachel shows her dog a picture of an oval,the dog does not salivate,which is best explained by

Accepted Answer

The dog's ability to differentiate between the circle and oval images shows stimulus discrimination.

Question 20

Ellie hates it when her teenagers leave their dirty clothes on the floor.If Ellie decides to use the Premack principle to help her teens change their behavior,she should ________ to reward them for doing a less valued activity.

Accepted Answer

The Premack principle suggests that a more valued activity can be used as a reward to reinforce a less valued activity. Ellie should promise her teenagers a more valued activity as a reward for picking up their dirty clothes.

Quiz 6: Learning

Jean wants her daughter to eat her vegetables so she is healthy.Jean tells her daughter that after she eats her vegetables she can play outside,which is one of her daughter's favorite things to do.In this situation,Jean is using ________ to increase her daughter's eating of vegetables.

Channing believes that the best way to get his boyfriend to clean up after himself is by initiating sex as soon as his boyfriend cleans up the apartment.Channing knows that sex is a reinforcer that will likely the probability that his boyfriend will clean the apartment in the future.

Dante was recently bitten in the leg by a snake and now has learned to fear snakes.If his fear is out of proportion with the danger posed by snakes,then Dante has developed

Percy wants to teach his daughter good manners.To increase the likelihood of her saying "Excuse me" when bumping into someone in a store,he should use a stimulus called a(n)

Vincent wants to use systematic desensitization to treat his patient's phobia of elevators.After the patient learns how to relax her muscles,Vincent's next step should be to

Susie wants to use operant conditioning to teach her cat to sit up for a treat.A psychologist who has conducted research that would be useful to her in this situation is

During the famous experiment with "Little Albert," Albert learned to fear rats when researchers used classical conditioning and presented a

Sunil wants to classically condition his dog to fear skunks so he does not get sprayed again.This task should be much easier than teaching him to fear a house plant because a dog

Katie is afraid of clowns.She has been trying to overcome this fear by getting into a relaxed state and then looking at pictures of clowns.After months of this exposure,she is no longer afraid when she sees a clown.Katie has been using ________ to overcome her fear.

Positive punishment causes a(n) in behavior through the of a stimulus.

Dr.Brimfield believes that humans learn best when they are given the opportunity to act on their environments and make associations between their behavior and the effects it produces.Dr.Brimfield believes in

Last year,Martina was in love with Robert,but they eventually broke up.Today in the mall,Martina smells someone wearing the same cologne that Robert always wore.She is immediately filled with positive feelings,which is most likely due to

Derek is conducting research with chimpanzees and realizes that when the chimps' behaviors lead to some sort of satisfaction,they repeat those behaviors.Derek's observations are most consistent with

Professor McCready wants to study animal learning by putting birds in a cage where they have to figure out how to peck a button to receive food.Professor McCready is using ________ to modify animal behavior.

Dr.Shaw has a patient who has a phobia of spiders and also loves doing puzzles.Dr.Shaw exposes the patient to spiders briefly while having the patient complete a fun puzzle.Dr.Shaw is using ________ to treat his patient's phobia.

You want to teach your dog to stop scratching at the door when he wants to go out.You do so by swatting his nose with a newspaper each time he scratches the door.By creating consequences for your dog's behavior,you have used ________ to train him.

Rachel's dog loves meat and salivates when he sees it.Rachel repeatedly shows her dog a picture of a circle before showing him a piece of meat.Soon,the dog salivates to the picture of the circle.When Rachel shows her dog a picture of an oval,the dog does not salivate,which is best explained by

Ellie hates it when her teenagers leave their dirty clothes on the floor.If Ellie decides to use the Premack principle to help her teens change their behavior,she should ________ to reward them for doing a less valued activity.

Quiz 6: Learning

Jean wants her daughter to eat her vegetables so she is healthy.Jean tells her daughter that after she eats her vegetables she can play outside,which is one of her daughter's favorite things to do.In this situation,Jean is using ________ to increase her daughter's eating of vegetables.

Dante was recently bitten in the leg by a snake and now has learned to fear snakes.If his fear is out of proportion with the danger posed by snakes,then Dante has developed

Percy wants to teach his daughter good manners.To increase the likelihood of her saying "Excuse me" when bumping into someone in a store,he should use a stimulus called a(n)

Vincent wants to use systematic desensitization to treat his patient's phobia of elevators.After the patient learns how to relax her muscles,Vincent's next step should be to

Susie wants to use operant conditioning to teach her cat to sit up for a treat.A psychologist who has conducted research that would be useful to her in this situation is

During the famous experiment with "Little Albert," Albert learned to fear rats when researchers used classical conditioning and presented a

Sunil wants to classically condition his dog to fear skunks so he does not get sprayed again.This task should be much easier than teaching him to fear a house plant because a dog

Katie is afraid of clowns.She has been trying to overcome this fear by getting into a relaxed state and then looking at pictures of clowns.After months of this exposure,she is no longer afraid when she sees a clown.Katie has been using ________ to overcome her fear.

Positive punishment causes a(n) ________ in behavior through the ________ of a stimulus.

Dr.Brimfield believes that humans learn best when they are given the opportunity to act on their environments and make associations between their behavior and the effects it produces.Dr.Brimfield believes in

Last year,Martina was in love with Robert,but they eventually broke up.Today in the mall,Martina smells someone wearing the same cologne that Robert always wore.She is immediately filled with positive feelings,which is most likely due to

Derek is conducting research with chimpanzees and realizes that when the chimps' behaviors lead to some sort of satisfaction,they repeat those behaviors.Derek's observations are most consistent with

Professor McCready wants to study animal learning by putting birds in a cage where they have to figure out how to peck a button to receive food.Professor McCready is using ________ to modify animal behavior.

Dr.Shaw has a patient who has a phobia of spiders and also loves doing puzzles.Dr.Shaw exposes the patient to spiders briefly while having the patient complete a fun puzzle.Dr.Shaw is using ________ to treat his patient's phobia.

You want to teach your dog to stop scratching at the door when he wants to go out.You do so by swatting his nose with a newspaper each time he scratches the door.By creating consequences for your dog's behavior,you have used ________ to train him.

Rachel's dog loves meat and salivates when he sees it.Rachel repeatedly shows her dog a picture of a circle before showing him a piece of meat.Soon,the dog salivates to the picture of the circle.When Rachel shows her dog a picture of an oval,the dog does not salivate,which is best explained by

Ellie hates it when her teenagers leave their dirty clothes on the floor.If Ellie decides to use the Premack principle to help her teens change their behavior,she should ________ to reward them for doing a less valued activity.

Positive punishment causes a(n) in behavior through the of a stimulus.