Question 1

A shy and timid child works up the courage to raise his hand to answer a question. The teacher calls on him and the child delivers an excellent answer. The teacher exclaims, "That is the best answer I have heard all week! Great job! Come up to the front of the room to get a sticker!" Unfortunately, the child found all of this attention unpleasant, and no longer answers questions in class. His behavior of answering questions was:

Accepted Answer

The child's behavior of answering questions was positively punished because the consequence (receiving unwanted attention) made the behavior less likely to occur in the future. Positive punishment involves adding an unpleasant outcome after a behavior, which decreases the likelihood of the behavior happening again.

Question 2

Behavior that an organism produces, which has some impact on the environment, is known as:

Accepted Answer

Operant behavior refers to actions or responses that an organism emits which have some impact on the environment, either increasing or decreasing the likelihood of that behavior happening again. This behavior is shaped through reinforcement, either positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. The other options, law of effect, classical conditioning, and reinforcer, are related concepts, but do not specifically refer to behavior that impacts the environment.

Question 3

The grid floor in an operant chamber is electrified. Each time a rat presses a lever, however, the shock is turned off for one minute. The rat quickly learns to press the lever the second that the grid becomes electrified. Lever pressing has been:

Accepted Answer

Negative reinforcement is the removal or avoidance of an aversive stimulus, in this case the shock, which increases the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. The rat's behavior of pressing the lever is being strengthened by the removal of the shock, which is an example of negative reinforcement.

Question 4

When your 3-year-old sister threw a tantrum over the candy she wanted, your mother gave it to her so that she would calm down. Although counterproductive in the long-run, in that moment, your mother's behavior was being _____ by _____.

Accepted Answer

Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior is strengthened by removing or avoiding a negative outcome, in this case, the tantrum.

Question 5

One day, in the midst of his babbling, baby Chad uttered the sound "mama" in the presence of his mother. Chad's mother screamed in delight. This noise startled baby Chad; he stopped uttering that sound for quite some time, illustrating the effects of:

Accepted Answer

The mother's reaction of screaming in delight can be considered positive reinforcement, but since the sound of "mama" stopped after the mother's reaction, it can be inferred that the mother's reaction was too intense and scared baby Chad, resulting in the behavior of saying "mama" being punished. Therefore, this is an example of positive punishment where the addition of a stimulus (the mother's reaction) decreases the behavior (saying "mama") that preceded it.

Question 6

A teenager swears at the dinner table, and as a result, her parents take away her iPod for one week. The teenager is now much less likely to swear at the dinner table, illustrating:

Accepted Answer

This scenario illustrates negative punishment, as the removal of the iPod is a decrease in the likelihood of the teenager swearing again in the future. It is negative because it involves the removal of something (the iPod), and it is punishment because it is intended to decrease the behavior (swearing at the dinner table).

Question 7

A parent spanked a child for misbehaving, and the misbehavior stopped. By definition, the spanking served as a _____ for the misbehavior.

Accepted Answer

A punisher is anything that reduces the frequency of a behavior it follows. In this case, the spanking (an aversive consequence) reduced the frequency of the misbehavior, therefore it serves as a positive punisher. A positive reinforcer would increase the frequency of the behavior it follows, which is not the case here. A negative reinforcer would be the removal of an aversive stimulus after a behavior, which also does not apply to this scenario. A negative punisher would be the removal of a desired stimulus after a behavior, which is not what happened here.

Question 8

In what way did Thorndike's experiments significantly differ from Pavlov's?

Accepted Answer

Thorndike's experiments relied on the law of effect, which stated that the behavior of the animal determined what happened next. In contrast, Pavlov's experiments relied on classical conditioning, where the US occurred on every trial regardless of the animal's behavior. Therefore, the best choice is C.

Question 9

When your 3-year-old sister threw a tantrum over the candy she wanted, your mother gave it to her so that she would calm down. Unfortunately, your sister's temper tantrums probably have been:

Accepted Answer

Positive reinforcement is the process of increasing the likelihood that a behavior will occur again by adding something desirable after the behavior occurs. In this case, giving the candy to the child after the tantrum was thrown is a form of positive reinforcement because it increases the likelihood that the child will throw tantrums in the future to get what she wants.

Question 10

A baby will not stop crying, and he is driving his parents crazy. As a last resort, the father puts the baby in a laundry basket and sets the basket on top of the running dryer. The vibrations of the dryer soothe the baby and he falls asleep. The father congratulates himself on discovering this solution, which he most definitely will employ the next time the baby cannot be consoled. The dryer trick has thus been:

Accepted Answer

Negative reinforcement involves removing or avoiding something unpleasant to increase the likelihood of a behavior being repeated in the future. In this case, the father removed the unpleasant experience of the baby crying by placing him on the running dryer, which resulted in the desirable outcome of the baby falling asleep. Therefore, the behavior of using the dryer to soothe the baby was negatively reinforced.

Question 11

Booker has a really bad headache, so he takes a new painkiller. The drug works wonderfully to relieve his headache. The next time Booker has a headache, he definitely will take that drug. Booker's behavior of taking the new drug has been:

Accepted Answer

The answer of Booker has a really bad headache, so...

Question 12

The "positive" in positive reinforcement and positive punishment means that:

Accepted Answer

Positive reinforcement and positive punishment both involve the presentation of a stimulus upon the occurrence of the behavior, rather than the removal of an unpleasant stimulus. In the case of positive reinforcement, the stimulus presented is something desired or pleasurable, and the target behavior is more likely to occur in the future. In the case of positive punishment, the stimulus presented is something aversive or unpleasant, and the target behavior is less likely to occur in the future. Therefore, choice C is the correct answer.

Question 13

Behaviorists were influenced by the work of Thorndike for all of these EXCEPT:

Accepted Answer

The law of effect did not emphasize the role of expectancy, but rather the association between a behavior and the consequences that follow it. The other options are all true statements about Thorndike's influence on behaviorism.

Question 14

Skinner's approach to the study of learning focused on _____ and _____.

Accepted Answer

Skinner's approach to the study of learning focused on reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is used to strengthen behavior, while punishment is used to weaken behavior. Skinner believed that behavior is shaped by the consequences that follow it, rather than by the internal workings of the mind. He also believed that behavior can be controlled and shaped through a system of rewards and punishments. Therefore, option B, which includes reinforcement and punishment, is the best choice.

Question 15

Frank flings a paper airplane through the air in history class. All of the students laugh. Their teacher, Mr. Curtis, becomes irate; his face turns beet red, and large veins bulge from his neck. "Frank!" Mr. Curtis screams, "You are in big trouble now!" Frank really doesn't care about the trouble. The combination of the attention from the students and the emotional reaction from Mr. Curtis was plenty to keep him misbehaving far into the future. Throwing the paper airplane, then, was:

Accepted Answer

Frank's behavior of throwing the paper airplane was positively reinforced because the attention and laughter from his peers served as a reward for his behavior, thus increasing the likelihood of him doing it again in the future. The fact that Mr. Curtis became angry may have even further reinforced Frank's behavior because it added an element of excitement and rebellion. However, it was not positively punished because there was no punishment involved, and it was not negatively reinforced or punished because there was no removal or addition of a stimulus to increase or decrease the behavior.

Question 16

When something desirable is presented upon the occurrence of a behavior, and as a result that behavior is strengthened, _____ has happened.

Accepted Answer

Positive reinforcement is the presentation of something desirable (such as a reward or praise) upon the occurrence of a behavior, which strengthens that behavior. Positive punishment involves the presentation of something aversive, while negative reinforcement involves the removal of something aversive. Negative punishment involves the removal of something desirable.

Question 17

When something undesirable has been removed upon the occurrence of a behavior, and as a result that behavior is strengthened, _____ has happened.

Accepted Answer

Negative reinforcement involves the removal of aversive stimuli in response to a behavior, which increases the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. In this scenario, the undesirable stimulus was removed, which strengthened the behavior, indicating negative reinforcement. Positive punishment involves adding an unpleasant consequence after a behavior to decrease the likelihood of it being repeated. Positive reinforcement involves adding a desirable consequence after a behavior to increase the likelihood of it being repeated. Negative punishment involves removing a desirable stimulus after a behavior to decrease the likelihood of it being repeated.

Question 18

Positive reinforcers _____ and negative reinforcers _____ the future probability of the behavior that led to these respective consequences.

Accepted Answer

Positive reinforcers increase the future probability of the behavior that led to them, as the individual will be motivated to repeat the behavior to receive the reinforcing consequence. Negative reinforcers also increase the future probability of the behavior, as the removal of an aversive stimulus is reinforcing. Therefore, both positive and negative reinforcers increase the likelihood of the behavior being repeated in the future. Option B is incorrect as negative reinforcers do not decrease the future likelihood of a behavior. Option C is incorrect as both positive and negative reinforcers increase the future probability of the behavior. Option D is incorrect as positive reinforcers do not decrease the future likelihood of a behavior.

Question 19

Reinforcers _____ and punishers _____ the future probability of the behavior that led to these respective consequences.

Accepted Answer

Reinforcers increase the future probability of the behavior, while punishers decrease the future probability of the behavior.

Question 20

The technical term for a Skinner box is a(n):

Accepted Answer

The technical term for a Skinner box is an operant conditioning chamber, as it was designed by B.F. Skinner to study and modify behavior through reinforcement and punishment. The other options, such as radial arm mazes and puzzle boxes, are used to study different aspects of cognition and learning.

Quiz 7: Section 2: Learning