Question 1

Consider the table below. Pigeons are trained in a symbolic matching-to-sample task in which many different sample stimuli are mapped to two comparisons: given Red (R) or Yellow (Y), pick (→) Vertical (V); given Green (G) or Blue (B), pick Horizontal (H). Then one group of pigeons is trained with everything reversed: given Red or Yellow, pick Horizontal; given Green or Blue, pick Vertical. The other group is given a partial reversal: given Red or Green, pick Horizontal; given Yellow or Blue, pick Vertical. Given what you know about "common coding" or mediated generalization, which reversal should be learned more easily? Why?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Consider the table below. Pigeons are trained...

Question 2

Refer to the scenario below to answer the questions that follow.
Clayton and Dickinson demonstrated episodic memory in scrub jays. The birds were allowed to hide worms (their preferred food) and peanuts. They then were allowed to retrieve the cached items 4 hours later and 124 hours later. For the experimental group, the cached worms were "spoiled" by the researcher just before the 124-hour retrieval. On subsequent trials, after a 4-hour period, the jays search for worms (the preferred food) more than for peanuts, but after a 124-hour period, they search for peanuts (the less preferred food) more than worms.
-If the scrub jays had only procedural memory, what would they have done on the two tests. Justify your answer.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Refer to the scenario below to answer...

Question 3

Refer to the scenario below to answer the questions that follow.
Clayton and Dickinson demonstrated episodic memory in scrub jays. The birds were allowed to hide worms (their preferred food) and peanuts. They then were allowed to retrieve the cached items 4 hours later and 124 hours later. For the experimental group, the cached worms were "spoiled" by the researcher just before the 124-hour retrieval. On subsequent trials, after a 4-hour period, the jays search for worms (the preferred food) more than for peanuts, but after a 124-hour period, they search for peanuts (the less preferred food) more than worms.
-If the scrub jays had both procedural and semantic memory, but not episodic memory, what would they have done on the two tests? Justify your answer.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Refer to the scenario below to answer...

Question 4

A rat is allowed to explore for food in a 12-arm radial maze and is interrupted on some trials after it has explored four arms and interrupted on other trials after it has explored eight arms. Explain the navigation choices that it is likely to make following these interruptions. Explain your answer from the perspectives of retrospective and prospective coding.

Accepted Answer

The answer of A rat is allowed to explore for...

Question 5

Describe the peak procedure and discuss what it is used for.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the peak procedure and discuss what...

Question 6

Describe the scalar property of timing and provide an example (real or imagined).

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the scalar property of timing and...

Question 7

Describe a geometric module and observations that suggest that such a processing module operates in spatial learning.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe a geometric module and observations that...

Question 8

After being trained to locate a platform in corner A of the rectangle in the figure below, different groups of rats were then trained to locate the platform when it was in either corner G or E of the kite shape. Explain what the results shown in the graph tell us about local versus geometric cues.

Accepted Answer

The answer of After being trained to locate a platform...

Question 9

In the metacognition experiment described in the text, a monkey was shown a sample and then given a choice: It may proceed with the trial, or skip the trial and get a piece of not-so-yummy monkey chow. If it proceeds, it is presented with several stimuli and must choose the one it was just shown. If the monkey chooses correctly, it gets a yummy peanut. If the monkey chooses incorrectly, it gets nothing and experiences a longer wait before the next trial. The monkey became more likely to skip the trial as the time between the sample presentation and the choice to proceed increased. How does this experiment assess metacognition?

Accepted Answer

The answer of In the metacognition experiment described in the...

Question 10

Over time, the features of an organism that indicate that it might be a tasty meal for a predator A) are adaptive for the organism in an evolutionary sense. B) become powerful S^Δ^'s. C) change over time, becoming more cryptic via predation and natural selection. D) change over time, becoming less cryptic via predation and natural selection.

Accepted Answer

Features that make an organism a more obvious target for predators (less cryptic) are typically selected against over time through natural selection. Organisms that are better at avoiding predation by being more cryptic (harder to find or recognize) tend to survive and reproduce, passing on their traits to the next generation.

Question 11

Stimulus control is beneficial to an organism because it
A) allows the organism to improve its memory capacity.
B) allows the organism to respond efficiently by being selective.
C) contributes to the organism's capacity for complex learning.
D) contributes to the organism's attention span.

Accepted Answer

Stimulus control allows an organism to respond more efficiently to its environment by being selective about the stimuli to which it responds, thus conserving energy and resources and improving survival chances.

Question 12

An animal's ability to respond to a novel example of a polymorphous concept
A) demonstrates exceptional memory capacity.
B) can be demonstrated only with a stimulus that might be naturally encountered.
C) is demonstrated by some corvids (jays and crows).
D) has to be demonstrated before one can infer that a concept has been acquired.

Accepted Answer

The answer of An animal's ability to respond to a...

Question 13

A young child often can recognize many common birds (e.g., robins, cardinals, blue jays, gold finches, etc.) as birds, but is stumped when presented with a picture of an exotic-looking peacock. This inability to extend the learned generalization to a novel species illustrates the _______ theory of concept learning.
A) transfer
B) feature
C) prototype
D) exemplar

Accepted Answer

The answer of A young child often can recognize many...

Question 14

Travis correctly identifies a painting he has not seen before as a Picasso. When asked how he recognized the painter, he points to the cubes as a characteristic element in of Picasso's paintings. Travis's behavior would support which theory of category learning?
A) Geon
B) Feature
C) Prototype
D) Exemplar

Accepted Answer

Travis's ability to identify the painting by pointing out a specific characteristic (cubes) aligns with the Feature Theory of category learning. This theory suggests that objects are categorized based on a set of individual features that are characteristic of a particular category.

Question 15

A pigeon is reinforced for pecking a yellow, but not a purple, key. When tested with colors similar to yellow, responding falls off gradually as the color becomes more different. Which of the following statements is true? A) According to theories of attention like that of Mackintosh, this gradient would probably have been much flatter if there had been no S^Δ and no opportunity to learn the exact features of light that make it a good predictor. B) This gradient is a natural function of the degree of similarity between stimuli. C) The gradient would have been much steeper if there had been no S^Δ. D) The gradient should not be affected by an S^Δ unless the S^D and S^Δ are very similar.

Accepted Answer

Theories of attention, like Mackintosh's, suggest that the presence of an S^Δ (a stimulus signaling no reinforcement) helps the organism learn to discriminate between stimuli, leading to a steeper gradient. Without an S^Δ, the gradient would be flatter as the organism would not learn the specific features that predict reinforcement.

Question 16

A pigeon is trained with two separate S^D stimuli, a tone and a yellow light. Assume that a green light serves as an S^Δ and acquires an extraordinary amount of inhibition, such that it will generalize very widely across the spectrum. What should happen to peak shift around the S^D? A) Nothing. B) It should be shifted very far toward red. C) It will be reduced (i.e., the spread of inhibition will go past the S^D, making the excitatory gradient around the S^D very narrow). D) It will actually reverse the peak shift, moving it to wavelengths below green.

Accepted Answer

The peak shift phenomenon occurs when discrimination training leads to a preference for stimuli that are even further from the non-reinforced stimulus (in this case, the green light) than the reinforced stimulus (the yellow light). Given the green light acquires a significant amount of inhibition and generalizes widely, the peak of preference should shift away from green, towards the opposite end of the spectrum, which is towards red. This is because the presence of inhibition around the green light makes stimuli that are further away from green (and closer to red) more attractive, as they are less inhibited and thus more associated with reinforcement.

Question 17

In which situation has a "peak shift" phenomenon occurred? A) Discrimination training using an orange S^D and yellow-orange S^Δ light produces maximal responding to a red stimulus. B) Discrimination training results in a flat peak, with equal responding to the original training stimulus and several similar stimuli on either side of it. C) Discrimination training using a loud tone and a bright light produces maximal responding to comparison tones and lights of moderate intensity. D) Discrimination training produces two peaks in responding, one occurring at the S^Dandthe other at the S^Δ.

Accepted Answer

Peak shift occurs when discrimination training with two stimuli (one reinforced, one not) leads to a maximal response to a new stimulus that is further away from the non-reinforced stimulus than the reinforced one, as seen in the shift towards a red stimulus after training with orange and yellow-orange lights.

Question 18

After not seeing a light that signaled food for a month, a rat now shows substantial fear to the light. What might have happened?
A) The rat forgot the light‒food association.
B) Prospective coding made the rat anticipate that something new was going to occur.
C) Another stimulus such as a tone was paired with a shock, and the rat showed peak shift.
D) Another stimulus that also predicted food became a predictor of something fearful during the interval, and acquired equivalence led the rat to also fear the light.

Accepted Answer

The rat likely experienced a phenomenon known as acquired equivalence, where after learning that two stimuli predict the same outcome (in this case, food), if one of those stimuli later becomes associated with something negative (like a shock or a fearful event), the rat may also develop a fear response to the other originally neutral or positive stimulus (the light). This is because the rat has learned to equate the two stimuli due to their initial similar outcomes, leading to a transfer of the fear response from the newly negative stimulus to the originally positive one.

Question 19

Which scenario illustrates perceptual learning?
A) A person who grows up in the country playing on the ground can readily learn to discriminate between fertile and poor soil later in life.
B) A child whose parents played only classical music in the home grows up to prefer classical music to any other kind of music.
C) A child with a significant hearing loss is helped by his speech therapist to articulate the differences in sound between the letters p and
D) A couple finds that working with a professional relationship counselor helps them better understand each other's perspectives and avoid arguments.

Accepted Answer

Perceptual learning involves long-term changes in perception that result from experience or practice. In scenario A, the person learns to discriminate between different types of soil based on their early experiences, which is an example of perceptual learning.

Question 20

_______ is a procedure used to study working memory.
A) Divided attention
B) Symbolic DMTS
C) Attentional priming
D) Entropy detection

Accepted Answer

The answer of _______ is a procedure used to study...

Quiz 8: How Stimuli Guide Instrumental Action

Describe the peak procedure and discuss what it is used for.

Describe the scalar property of timing and provide an example (real or imagined).

Describe a geometric module and observations that suggest that such a processing module operates in spatial learning.

After being trained to locate a platform in corner A of the rectangle in the figure below, different groups of rats were then trained to locate the platform when it was in either corner G or E of the kite shape. Explain what the results shown in the graph tell us about local versus geometric cues.

Over time, the features of an organism that indicate that it might be a tasty meal for a predator

Stimulus control is beneficial to an organism because it

An animal's ability to respond to a novel example of a polymorphous concept

Travis correctly identifies a painting he has not seen before as a Picasso. When asked how he recognized the painter, he points to the cubes as a characteristic element in of Picasso's paintings. Travis's behavior would support which theory of category learning?

A pigeon is reinforced for pecking a yellow, but not a purple, key. When tested with colors similar to yellow, responding falls off gradually as the color becomes more different. Which of the following statements is true?

A pigeon is trained with two separate SD stimuli, a tone and a yellow light. Assume that a green light serves as an SΔ and acquires an extraordinary amount of inhibition, such that it will generalize very widely across the spectrum. What should happen to peak shift around the SD?

In which situation has a "peak shift" phenomenon occurred?

After not seeing a light that signaled food for a month, a rat now shows substantial fear to the light. What might have happened?

Which scenario illustrates perceptual learning?

_______ is a procedure used to study working memory.

A pigeon is trained with two separate S^D stimuli, a tone and a yellow light. Assume that a green light serves as an S^Δ and acquires an extraordinary amount of inhibition, such that it will generalize very widely across the spectrum. What should happen to peak shift around the S^D?