Exam 7: Learning and Adaptation: the Role of Experience

When first training your dog,you say,"Good dog" and give her a doggie treat every time she lies down the way you want her to.After several learning trials,your dog learns that there is an association between the phrase "Good dog" and the appearance of a doggie treat and she will become excited and salivate each time you use this phrase.In fact,this same phrase can be used without doggie treats to reinforce your dog for learning other tricks.In this example,the phrase "Good dog" is both a:

Susan is staying with some friends who have a dog.Each night,when she has turned off the TV and is heading for bed,she gives the dog a treat.Soon the dog gets very excited whenever Susan turns of the TV at night because he has learned what this signal means.When Susan eventually leaves her friends' house,the dog continues to get excited when the owners turn off the TV,but since the owners don't give the dog a treat at this time,the dog's behaviour soon returns to normal.The change in the dog's behaviour after Susan's departure best illustrates the concept of:

In classical conditioning,a neutral stimulus eventually becomes an unconditioned stimulus.

One of the key differences between classical and operant conditioning is that in classical conditioning behaviour is triggered involuntarily like a reflex,while in operant conditioning behaviour is ___________.

In explaining the effects of operant conditioning,which of the following is most likely to be emphasized by a cognitive psychologist?

Animals appear to be biologically prewired to easily learn behaviours that are related to their survival as a species because of evolutionary forces.This is referred to as ______________ .

Define,and provide examples for the following four operant conditioning terms: positive reinforcement,negative reinforcement,positive punishment,negative punishment.

According to the principles of operant conditioning,natural stimuli such as food and water that an organism naturally finds reinforcing are called:

Don's parents want to him to do more chores around the house so they decide to pay him a small amount (50 cents)for each chore he does.Initially,this produces a large increase in the number of chores that Don does,but his parents soon tire of paying him for his work and discontinue the monetary reward program.Don continues his chores for a short while but once he realizes that he's no longer being paid,he stops doing them all together.The discontinuing of Don's chore behaviour best illustrates the process of:

In order to cure himself of smoking,a man regularly places his package of cigarettes next to a particularly disturbing picture of two lungs that are black from a lifetime of smoking.After a week of this,the man can't pick up his cigarettes without thinking of this intense image,and as a result he smokes less.In this example,since the picture naturally inspires negative feelings for the man,the picture would be considered a(n):

Shannon is used to eating dinner every night about 7:00 pm,but now that she is away at college she eats earlier because the dining hall is open from 4-6pm every night for dinner.Shannon eats dinner without feeling hungry for several weeks.Then one day while walking to the dining hall,Shannon starts feeling very hungry.Those first several weeks of eating early are considered the _________________ phase of her conditioned response.

A researcher in a classical conditioning experiment is attempting to condition a startle response to a green light.To do this,she illuminates the light at the same time that she plays a very loud noise.This experiment is utilizing what is called simultaneous pairing of the:

A child probably only needs to burn her hand on a hot stove once to learn to avoid doing this in the future.Psychologists involved in classical conditioning would most likely consider this an example of:

Edward Thorndike assumed that animals were able to escape his puzzle box because:

This form of learning has strong adaptive significance because if we responded continuously to every stimuli in the environment,we would quickly become fatigued and overwhelmed.This form of learning is called:

You are conducting a classical conditioning experiment in which you wish to train a dog to jump a fence in response to the ringing of a bell.Assuming that you use electric shock to get the dog to jump,explain how you would set up this experiment.Be sure to use the following labels: CS,CR,UCS,UCR.

The term "adaptive significance" specifically refers to how a particular behaviour can affect _______________.

In a research study,a dog learned to salivate in response to a tone presented alone.In this case,the salivation would technically be considered a(n):

Researchers in the field of operant conditioning have learned that partial reinforcement schedules are more resistant to extinction than ___________ reinforcement schedules.

Define the constructs of preparedness and instinctual drift and provide an example of each.What do these concepts suggest about the relationship between biology and learning?