Exam 5: Learning

Which of the following behaviors will be easiest to extinguish?

Operant conditioning focuses on voluntary behaviors.

An example of a behavior that is learned through operant conditioning is ________.

Any event whose presence increases the likelihood that an ongoing behavior will recur is a(n) ________.

The process by which some stimuli, such as snakes, serve readily as conditioned stimuli for certain responses, such as fear in humans, is called ________.

A pet dog loves to go for rides in the family car. Every time it sees someone take out a set of keys, it goes to the garage door and waits expectantly. When grandma, who is afraid of dogs, comes to visit for two weeks in the summer, the family decides not to let the dog ride in the car during her stay. By the end of grandma's visit, the dog has stopped going over to the garage door when someone takes out a set of keys. The best explanation for this change in behavior is that ________.

A puppy has ruined four pairs of shoes by chewing them up at times when the family is not home. Which of the following is the most effective way to use punishment to teach the puppy not to chew shoes?

Positive reinforcement ________ the likelihood that the behavior preceding it will happen again while negative reinforcement ________ the likelihood that the preceding behavior will happen again.

By pairing the ringing of a bell with the presentation of meat, Pavlov trained dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell even when no meat was presented. In this experiment, the meat was the ________.

In negative reinforcement, the ________ of a(n) ________ stimulus follows a response and changes the likelihood of that response reoccurring.

In classical conditioning, extinction occurs because the ________ is no longer paired with the ________.

Each of the following is true of punishment except it ________.

To teach a tiger to jump through a flaming hoop, the tiger is first reinforced for jumping up on a certain pedestal, then for leaping from that pedestal to another. Next, the tiger has to jump through a hoop between the pedestals to get the reward. Finally, the hoop is set afire and the tiger must jump through it to get the reward. This is an example of ________.

Discuss the importance of contingencies in classical conditioning. In your discussion, explain what backward conditioning is and how it works.

A researcher trains a little boy to fear a rabbit by making a loud, frightening noise every time the boy approaches the rabbit. This type of learning is known as ________.

Reinforcement experienced by models that affects the willingness of others to perform the behavior they learned by observing those models is called ________ reinforcement.

Pairing the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus on only a portion of the learning trials is called ________.

A girl learns that whenever her older brother shares his cookie with her, her mother gives him a piece of candy. The girl's learning is a demonstration of ________.

Thorndike was known for his work with ________.

A reinforcer that adds something rewarding to a situation is a(n) ________ reinforcer.