Exam 7: Learning and Conditioning

In the operant-conditioning procedure of shaping, behaviours that are ordered in terms of increasing similarity or closeness to the desired response are called ________.

In classical conditioning, when the conditioned response is extinguished, but reappears later, the reappearance of the response is called:

In Chapter 6, we learned that some taste preferences (such as a liking for sweets) are universal-a part of our evolutionary heritage. Others are a matter of culture. When Thurston attends a dinner at a Japanese restaurant, he is fascinated as the chef prepares the food on a grill in front of him. When the appetizers are served, Thurston enjoys the raw oysters, but he cannot imagine eating the raw sea urchins and raw octopus that his friends are savouring. Use learning theory to explain the differences between Thurston's taste in foods and that of his friends.

Dr. Sardonicus wants to train a rat to play basketball. She could wait until she was old and grey, however, before she could reinforce the rat for playing basketball! What conditioning procedure does Dr. Sardonicus need to use? Outline, step by step, what she can do to meet her goal.

Which of the following statements is true of reinforcers?

In classical conditioning, ________ occurs when a stimulus that resembles the conditioned stimulus elicits the conditioned response.

According to the behaviourists:

Mary arrives home to find her son washing the dirty dishes left from his party the night before. When she discovers his first-semester grade report on the table and sees that he got straight A's, Mary rewards him by relieving him of the unpleasant task of finishing the dishes. Which operant process does the example illustrate?

Which of the following is a secondary reinforcer?

Which of the following is a primary reinforcer?

When 4-year-old Aileen goes to the store with her dad and whines for candy at the checkout, she gets the candy. When she goes with her mom, however, her whining never results in getting candy. Before long, Aileen only whines when she is at the store with her dad. This is called ________.

Extrinsic reinforcers are defined as reinforcers that:

Professor Inglot gives a student a D on a term paper that was completely inadequate. The D grade is an example of ________.

Learning is one of the mechanisms by which an animal can adapt its behaviour to its environment. For example, you learned in Chapter 7, Learning and Conditioning, that classical conditioning allows animals to prepare for biologically important events. In Chapter 3, Genes, Evolution, and Environment, you learned about how natural selection is another mechanism of adaptation. Compare and contrast learning and natural selection as mechanisms of adaptation. Include in your answer a specific example of how both mechanisms might affect an organism's behaviour.

A response will be easiest to extinguish if the animal has been trained:

In classical conditioning, ________ occurs when a stimulus similar to the conditioned stimulus fails to evoke the conditional response.

Brett's mom keeps a chart on his bedroom wall and adds a gold star for each day that his room is clean. His mom is using _______________ to strengthen the response.

In classical conditioning, the ________ elicits a reflexive response in the absence of learning.

The neutral stimulus, when paired with an unconditioned stimulus, becomes a(n) ________ in classical conditioning.

An analysis of classical conditioning reveals that: