Exam 7: Learning and Conditioning

Which of the following is a secondary reinforcer?

Tim yells at his daughter Allison for soiling her pants. He also threatens to spank her if she ever does it again. Next week, she soils her pants again. According to studies on punishment, why did Tim's approach fail?

The automatic, involuntary responses involved in blood pressure and muscle contractions cannot be classically conditioned.

Learning is one of the mechanisms by which an animal can adapt its behavior 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 behavior.

What is learning that has taken place but is not demonstrated called?

Negative reinforcement is best thought of as:

Learning is defined in the textbook as a relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavioral potential) due to experience.

Robert Rescorla said that a stimulus must reliably _______________ an unconditioned stimulus for the stimulus to begin eliciting conditioned responding.

A variation of the counterconditioning procedure developed by Watson and Jones has been used to treat adult phobias. This variation is called:

Which of the following is a primary reinforcer?

_______________ is a procedure in which a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus through association with an already established conditioned stimulus.

________ founded American behaviorism and recognized the real-life implications of classical conditioning.

________ is an operant-conditioning procedure in which successive approximations of a desired response are reinforced.

Every week, Jade spends her allowance on ½ pound of sour lemon gummy candies even though they always make her mouth water. One day, as she is walking down the street, Jade sees a girl carrying a little white bag that looks like a candy shop bag! Jade notices that her mouth is puckering and overflowing with saliva. In this example, the unconditioned stimulus is the:

Highlight the differences between positive and negative reinforcement.

Which of the following statements is true of reinforcers?

Which of the following fears can be easily conditioned in human beings?

In operant conditioning, extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

Punishment occurs every day in families, schools, and workplaces. But often the intended results fail to occur. Explain, in detail, six reasons why punishment fails. When punishment must be used, what guidelines should be followed?

Social-cognitive theorists would argue that learning is not just a change in behavior, but it is also a change in knowledge that has the potential for affecting behavior.