Some animals will not begin a session of lever pressing for rewarding brain stimulation unless they are given a few free stimulations.This is called
A) extinction.
B) priming.
C) conditioning.
D) generalizing.
E) the helping-hand phenomenon.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The phenomenon described is called priming, which means that the animal needs a few free stimulations to "prime" their brain before they will begin lever pressing to receive the rewarding stimulation. This is different from conditioning, which is the process of learning an association between a behavior and a reward or punishment, and from extinction, which is the gradual decrease in a behavior when the reward is no longer given. Generalizing refers to the ability to apply a learned behavior to similar situations, and the helping-hand phenomenon is not a recognized term in psychology.

Some Animals Will Not Begin a Session of Lever Pressing