Question 1

Your dog Hans loves to ride in the car. Whenever anyone picks up a set of keys he races for the door. When your grandmother, who is afraid of dogs, arrives for a visit, Hans is not allowed to ride in the car. By the end of her two-week visit, he has ceased going to the door when the keys come out. However, after a brief vacation away from home, he's back at the door again as soon as he hears the keys. Why?

Accepted Answer

Spontaneous recovery has occurred, which means that a previously extinguished behavior (not going to the door when the keys come out) can reoccur after a period of time without reinforcement. In this case, Hans had not been exposed to the keys for two weeks during his grandmother's visit, but as soon as he heard them again after his brief vacation, he resumed his previous behavior of going to the door.

Question 2

Extinction and spontaneous recovery occur in ________ conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Extinction and spontaneous recovery can occur in both classical and operant conditioning.

Question 3

Sandy's favorite activity is to go to Las Vegas and play the slot machines. Her gambling behavior is being reinforced on a ________ schedule.

Accepted Answer

Variable-ratio schedules are the most resistant to extinction, meaning that the behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses (in this case, pulling the lever on a slot machine) which can lead to the individual becoming addicted to the behavior as they are unsure when they will receive a reward (winning money). This type of reinforcement schedule is commonly seen in gambling behaviors.

Question 4

Abigail is trying to figure out how she can best use employee pay to elicit a high rate of employee productivity over a long period of time. If employees' responses to pay schedules are similar to people's general responses to reinforcement schedules, she should use a ________ schedule.

Accepted Answer

Variable-ratio schedules have been shown to elicit the highest rate of responding over a long period of time, as the reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable number of responses. This can be compared to a commission-based pay system, where employees receive payment based on the number of tasks they complete, but with occasional bonuses or incentives thrown in to keep them motivated.

Question 5

In classical conditioning, during extinction the ________ is consistently omitted and the ________ gradually disappears.

Accepted Answer

The answer of In classical conditioning, during extinction the ________...

Question 6

An unruly child has become conditioned to fear the sight of the principal's door. Over the past month, however, he had no contacts with the principal. Now the child will probably ________.

Accepted Answer

The child's fear of the principal's door was due to classical conditioning, where the sight of the door was associated with negative experiences. However, in the absence of any recent negative experiences with the principal, the conditioned fear response is likely to decrease gradually over time. This is known as extinction, where the conditioned response weakens and eventually disappears if the conditioned stimulus (i.e. the principal's door) is no longer associated with the unconditioned stimulus (i.e. negative experiences with the principal). Therefore, the child will probably gradually stop fearing the sight of the principal's door.

Question 7

Which of the following statements is true for operant conditioning?

Accepted Answer

Avoidance training is especially difficult to extinguish because it involves learning to respond to a stimulus by avoiding or escaping it. Once this behavior is learned, it can be difficult to unlearn because the individual has been reinforced for avoiding the stimulus.

Question 8

A pet dog loves to go for rides in the family car. Every time it sees someone take out a set of keys, it goes to the garage door and waits expectantly. When grandma, who is afraid of dogs, comes to visit for two weeks in the summer, the family decides not to let the dog ride in the car during her stay. By the end of grandma's visit, the dog has stopped going over to the garage door when someone takes out a set of keys. The best explanation for this change in behavior is that ________.

Accepted Answer

The change in behavior suggests that the dog's original conditioned response of going to the garage door when seeing someone take out keys has been extinguished because it is no longer being reinforced with a car ride.

Question 9

________ occur(s) in classical conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Both extinction and spontaneous recovery occur in classical conditioning. Extinction is the decrease in response that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of the conditioned response after a period of extinction has occurred.

Question 10

A dog, taught to salivate to the sound of a buzzer, learned that the buzzer was no longer followed by food and stopped salivating to the buzzer. If the the buzzer was again paired with food after a few weeks, the dog would probably ________.

Accepted Answer

The dog would probably salivate again if the buzzer was once again paired with food, due to the process of classical conditioning. The previously learned association between the buzzer and food would be re-established, leading to the conditioned response of salivation.

Question 11

________ occur(s) in operant conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Both extinction and spontaneous recovery occur in operant conditioning. Extinction is the gradual decrease in the frequency of a behavior after it is no longer reinforced. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a previously extinguished behavior even though it has not been reinforced.

Question 12

Which of the following statements is not true?

Accepted Answer

Behaviors learned through punishment are not easily extinguished, as punishment can actually have the unintended effect of increasing the frequency of the behavior being punished, rather than decreasing it.

Question 13

When the US is no longer paired with the CS or when reinforcement is no longer presented following a learned response, a process called ________ occurs.

Accepted Answer

Extinction is the process where a learned behavior that was previously reinforced is no longer reinforced or paired with a stimulus, leading to a decrease in the frequency or strength of that behavior. Generalization refers to the tendency to respond in a similar way to stimuli that are similar to the original training stimulus. Counterconditioning is a type of therapy that replaces an undesirable response with a more positive one. Disinhibition is the temporary reduction in response inhibition that can occur in certain circumstances, such as alcohol consumption.

Question 14

The process of presenting the conditioned stimulus alone so often that the learner no longer associates it with the unconditioned stimulus and stops making the conditioned response is called ________.

Accepted Answer

Extinction is the process of presenting the conditioned stimulus alone so often that the learner no longer associates it with the unconditioned stimulus and stops making the conditioned response.

Question 15

In operant conditioning, extinction occurs as a result of withholding ________.

Accepted Answer

Extinction occurs in operant conditioning when a behavior is no longer reinforced, making it less likely to occur in the future. The other options (B, C, and D) do not relate to the concept of extinction in operant conditioning.

Question 16

In classical conditioning, extinction occurs because the ________ is no longer paired with the ________.

Accepted Answer

Extinction in classical conditioning occurs when the conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus (US), leading to a decrease in the conditioned response over time.

Question 17

A fourth-grade teacher realized that one of his students was misbehaving in order to receive attention. The teacher decided to ignore all instances of the misbehavior. The teacher is using ________.

Accepted Answer

The teacher is using extinction, which involves withholding reinforcement for a behavior in order to reduce its occurrence. By ignoring the misbehavior, the teacher is not giving the student any attention or reinforcement for it, which should ultimately lead to a decrease in the misbehavior. Negative reinforcement involves removing an aversive stimulus to increase a behavior, and the Premack principle involves using a preferred activity to reinforce a less preferred activity. Avoidance training involves teaching an individual to avoid a negative consequence by engaging in a particular behavior.

Question 18

The process in which a learned response that has been extinguished suddenly reappears on its own with no retraining is called ________.

Accepted Answer

Spontaneous recovery refers to the reappearance of the learned response that had been previously extinguished, without any additional training or cues.

Question 19

Gambling behavior is very hard to extinguish because it is reinforced according to a ________ schedule of reinforcement.

Accepted Answer

Variable ratio schedules provide reinforcement after a variable number of responses, making the behavior more resistant to extinction. This is why gambling behavior, which is often reinforced on a variable ratio schedule (i.e. slot machines), is difficult to extinguish.

Question 20

A dog, taught to salivate to the sound of a whistle, is now going through many trials in which the whistle sound is not followed by food. The dog will probably ________.

Accepted Answer

The dog is going through extinction trials, in which the conditioned stimulus (whistle sound) no longer predicts the unconditioned stimulus (food). Therefore, the dog will gradually stop salivating to the sound of the whistle. This is known as extinction.

Quiz 5: Learning