Exam 7: Learning

An animal trainer is conditioning an elephant to startle at the sound of a trombone.Every time she plays the trombone,she then shows the elephant a mouse,which startles the elephant.Eventually,the elephant startles at just the sound of the trombone.However,after playing the trombone 10 more times,without a mouse appearing,the elephant exhibits no response.The lack of a response is an example of:

A reflexive reaction that is reliably elicited by an unconditioned stimulus is called a(n)_____ response.

Which statement is a CORRECT description of a diffusion chain?

A parrot identified a new fruit that was good to eat.After watching the parrot eat the fruit,the other parrots in the flock also began eating it.The behaviour of the flock illustrates:

The unconditioned stimulus in the Little Albert study initially was a white rat.

According to the Rescorla-Wagner model,the US (unconditioned stimulus)sets up an expectation for the CS (conditioned stimulus).

Use the following to answer questions : Scenario II A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behaviour such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework.Curiously,he engages in this behaviour when his father is around but usually not when his mother is.An applied behaviour analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behaviour is occurring.She notes that,on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behaviour in the presence of his mother,the mother simply ignores this behaviour.However,after the problem behaviour occurs a number of times in the presence of the father,the father often intervenes.While he does not provide attention to his son,he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes,essentially giving the boy a break.This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behaviour.The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behaviour before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable;sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances,and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on task with his homework as long as possible. -(Scenario II)The father appears to be functioning as a(n): _____ stimulus.

Stimuli that help us satisfy biological needs are termed secondary reinforcers.

A rat's lever presses occasionally produce food.Across conditions,the food is delivered either immediately after a lever press or after some delay.Which statement is TRUE?

A conditioned compensatory response is a:

In a study on latent learning,Tolman demonstrated that rats who never received a food reward at the end of a maze nevertheless ran it faster and faster each day.

What was the US in the Little Albert study?

Pavlov's dogs,which were conditioned to salivate at the sound of a metronome,also may salivate at the sound of a ticking clock,illustrating spontaneous recovery.

Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by following the bell with food.How could Pavlov use extinction to eliminate salivating to bells?

In an experiment studying classical conditioning,a tone sounds and 0.5 seconds later a puff of air is delivered to a participant's eye.The participant blinks.This process is repeated once per minute.After a number of trials,the participant blinks as soon as the tone sounds and before the puff of air is actually delivered.Within the context of this example,what is the CR?

Tolman's views on operant conditioning are similar to Rescorla and Wagner's views on classical conditioning.

Rachel is training her dog Duke to bark every time someone knocks on the door.She already knows that seeing the family cat will make Duke bark,so she decides to knock on the door and then open it to reveal the cat in an effort to condition Duke to bark.What is serving as the unconditioned stimulus?

Two-year-old Owen watches 6-year-old Evan behave aggressively with his stuffed animals.Owen would be MOST likely to imitate Evan if:

In negative punishment,an unpleasant stimulus is removed upon the occurrence of the target behaviour.

Rescorla and Wagner argued that when the CS (conditioned stimulus)predicts the US (unconditioned stimulus),the occurrence of the CS will lead the organism to expect that the US is forthcoming.