Question 1

Sampson is a dolphin trainer who trains his dolphins to perform tasks by blowing a high-pitched whistle,the sound of which dolphins enjoy,immediately after the dolphins do the task.Sampson is using _______ reinforcers to train the dolphins.

Accepted Answer

Sampson is using secondary reinforcers, also known as conditioned reinforcers, as he is using the sound of a whistle to reinforce the behavior of the dolphins, which would not typically be reinforcing on its own. This is different from primary reinforcers, which are naturally reinforcing, such as food or water. Negative reinforcement involves removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior, which is not the case here. Variable reinforcement involves providing reinforcement on an unpredictable schedule, which is not relevant to this scenario.

Question 2

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 without then showing him a piece of meat,the dog does not salivate,which is best explained by _______.

Accepted Answer

The dog's ability to distinguish between the circle and oval shows stimulus discrimination. The dog has learned to associate the circle with the meat, but not the oval. Stimulus generalization would be if the dog salivated to all shapes similar to the circle, not just the circle itself. Spontaneous recovery refers to the reappearance of a conditioned response after a period of extinction, which is not described in the scenario. Second-order conditioning describes a situation where a neutral stimulus is associated with a conditioned stimulus, resulting in the neutral stimulus eliciting the conditioned response. This is not evident in the scenario.

Question 3

Vincent wants to use systematic desensitization to treat his patient's phobia of elevators.Vincent's first step in this process should be to _______.

Accepted Answer

The first step in systematic desensitization is to introduce the patient to the feared object or situation in a non-threatening way, such as showing a picture of an elevator. The patient is then slowly exposed to more and more anxiety-provoking situations related to elevators until they can comfortably ride in an elevator without experiencing fear or panic. Prescribing medication (A) or giving the patient a reward (D) are not part of the systematic desensitization process. While explaining what is going on in the patient's brain (B) may be helpful in some cases, it is not the first step in the process.

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 desired behavior occurring again in the future. In this case, if Percy wants his daughter to say "Excuse me" when bumping into someone in a store, he can use positive reinforcement by rewarding her with praise or a small treat when she does so. This will increase the likelihood of her saying "Excuse me" in the future.

Question 5

Dante was sitting on a rock to rest during a hike.Suddenly,he felt immense pain and looked down to see a snake had bitten him in the leg.Because of this,Dante has learned to fear snakes.If his fear is out of proportion with the danger posed by snakes,then Dante has developed _______.

Accepted Answer

A phobia is an irrational fear that is out of proportion with the actual danger posed by the object or situation. It is likely that Dante's fear of snakes is a phobia as his fear is not in proportion to the danger posed by snakes.

Question 6

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 to treat the patient's phobia of spiders by pairing the feared stimulus (spiders) with a positive experience (completing a fun puzzle) to reduce the fear response.

Question 7

Positive punishment causes _______.

Accepted Answer

Positive punishment involves adding an aversive stimulus to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring again. Therefore, it causes a decrease in behavior through the addition of a stimulus.

Question 8

Kathy goes to a boarding school.When she is in the shower and someone flushes the toilet,the water turns hot and she gets burned.So,Kathy becomes classically conditioned to fear the toilet flushing when she is in the shower.Over the summer,Kathy returns home,and if someone flushes the toilet while she is in the shower,she does not get burned.But in August when she returns to school,she is once again in the shower and hears the toilet flush and immediately feels a surge of fear.This example best illustrates the fact that extinction is _______.

Accepted Answer

The example shows that even though Kathy experiences the unconditioned stimulus (hot water) paired with the conditioned stimulus (toilet flushing) for a period of time, when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus, the fear response is not completely erased. Rather, it is inhibited or suppressed, and can quickly re-emerge when the conditioned stimulus is reintroduced. This is characteristic of classical conditioning extinction, where the original association is not completely deleted but rather inhibited.

Question 9

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 the foundational principle of operant conditioning, which states that behaviors that are followed by desirable consequences are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors that are followed by negative consequences are less likely to be repeated. This principle would be useful for Susie in training her cat to sit up for a treat using positive reinforcement.

Question 10

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

Operant conditioning is a learning process that involves changing behavior based on the consequences that follow that behavior. In this scenario, the dog's behavior of scratching the door is being changed by the consequence of getting swatted with a newspaper, which is a form of punishment. Therefore, operant conditioning is being used. Classical conditioning (B) involves associating a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response in order to create a new stimulus-response association. Modeling (C) involves learning by observing and imitating others' behavior. The Premack principle (D) involves using preferred activities as a reward for less preferred activities, which is not being used in this scenario.

Question 11

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 12

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

Accepted Answer

During the experiment, a loud sound was used as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and was paired with a rat, which was originally a neutral stimulus (NS). Over time, Albert began to fear the rat (now a conditioned stimulus) due to the association with the loud sound (now a conditioned response).

Question 13

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 are biologically wired to fear animals that might cause them harm, such as skunks, snakes, and bees. This evolutionary adaptation makes it easier to condition dogs to fear skunks than an unrelated object like a house plant.

Question 14

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 involves using a more valued activity to reinforce a less valued activity. In this case, Ellie can use a promise of a more valued activity (such as allowing the teens to go out with friends, watch TV, or play video games) as a reinforcement for doing the less valued activity (picking up their dirty clothes). Option A involves giving a primary reinforcer (such as food or water), which is not applicable in this situation. Option B involves giving a secondary reinforcer (such as praise or tokens), which may not be effective in changing this particular behavior. Option C involves using shaping (reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior), which may not be necessary or suitable for this behavior. Therefore, option D is the best choice.

Question 15

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 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 scenario describes the use of a Skinner box, which is a type of operant conditioning chamber used to study animal behavior and learning through reinforcement. The birds are required to peck a button in order to receive food, which would be a form of positive reinforcement.

Question 17

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 is most likely to use _______ to teach his daughter to play the violin.

Accepted Answer

Dr.Brimfield's belief in "learning by doing" suggests he would use operant conditioning, which focuses on the consequences of behavior, to teach his daughter to play the violin. For instance, he may reward her for correctly playing a certain note or string, which would increase the likelihood that she will repeat that behavior in the future.

Question 18

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 more preferred activity can be used to reinforce a less preferred activity. Jean is using her daughter's love for playing outside as a reinforcer for eating her vegetables, which is a less preferred activity for her daughter. This technique is based on the Premack principle.

Question 19

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 states that behaviors followed by satisfying outcomes are more likely to be repeated in the future. This is exactly what Derek is observing with the chimpanzees in his research.

Question 20

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 gradually exposed to her fear of clowns through systematic desensitization. This process involves gradually exposing an individual to their feared object or situation while in a relaxed state, allowing them to eventually become desensitized to the fear. The use of pictures is a common first step in this process before moving on to more direct exposure.

Quiz 6: Learning