Exam 7: Learning and Conditioning

________ is a relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavioral potential) that occurs due to experience.

Ayden is afraid of swings. To overcome this fear, his father places him on a swing and gives Ayden an ice pop to eat while gently pushing it. This is an example of ________.

Which of the following is a secondary punisher?

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?

A stimulus that is inherently reinforcing is called a secondary reinforcer.

Dr. Sardonicus wants to train a rat to play basketball. She could wait until she was old and gray, 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.

Gary trains his hamster to roll a marble. First, he reinforces the hamster when it walks toward the marble, then he reinforces when it touches the marble with its nose. Finally, the hamster learns to roll the marble and is reinforced for it. This example illustrates ________.

A conditioned stimulus is an event or a thing that elicits a response automatically or reflexively.

Working in a room with a comfortable air temperature would be an example of a secondary reinforcer.

In operant conditioning, when a response is first acquired, learning is usually most rapid if the response is reinforced:

In classical conditioning, ________ occurs when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

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

Research discussed in your textbook suggests that a specific drug can speed up the extinction of a phobia (fear of heights) if taken during virtual reality treatments. This drug is believed to enhance a certain type of receptor in the _________.

A basic principle governing operant conditioning is that:

For classical conditioning to be most effective, the stimulus to be conditioned should:

Harry and Sally want their cat to jump through a hoop 3 feet off the ground. Because the cat would never spontaneously jump through the hoop on its own, what operant conditioning procedure will Harry and Sally need to use? Briefly explain how they might proceed.

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

A negative reinforcer makes a response more likely to reoccur.

Stimulus discrimination occurs when, after conditioning, an organism responds to a stimulus that resembles the stimulus involved in the original conditioning.

Counterconditioning occurs when a learned response reoccurs after its apparent extinction.