Exam 5: Learning

A child is scolded for fighting with his sister. The scolding stops when the child stops bickering with his sibling. Stopping the scolding is an example of ________ reinforcement.

Kirk's dorm is rather old, and the plumbing is problematic. Each time he is in the shower, and the toilet flushes, the water automatically runs cold, causing Kirk to flinch and jump back. Eventually, Kirk started jumping back whenever he heard the toilet flush. In this situation, the cold water is a ________.

The two researchers most closely associated with operant conditioning are ________.

The ability to become increasingly more effective in solving problems as more problems are solved is known as ________.

A "Skinner box" is most likely to be used in research on ________.

A pigeon learns to peck at a red disk. It will not peck at an identical disk of any other color. This illustrates the concept of ________.

Briefly describe how extinction and spontaneous recovery work in classical and in operant conditioning.

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, salivation to the bell was the ________.

Your dog Hans loves to ride in the car. Whenever anyone picks up a set of keys he races for the door. When your grandmother, who is afraid of dogs, arrives for a visit, Hans is not allowed to ride in the car. By the end of her two-week visit, he has ceased going to the door when the keys come out. However, after a brief vacation away from home, he's back at the door again as soon as he hears the keys. Why?

Food aversion takes much longer to learn by classical conditioning compared to other behaviors.

Learning that depends on mental processes that are not directly observable is called ________ learning.

Superstitious behaviors are most commonly learned through ________.

After extinction, a classically conditioned response reappears on its own. This phenomenon is called generalization.

Which of the following statements is not true?

An animal is placed in a box with a bar and also a wire floor that can deliver a mild shock. The experimenter first sounds a buzzer, then a few seconds later turns on the shock. Pressing the bar after the buzzer sounds but before the shock is delivered will prevent the shock from occurring. This is an example of ________.

Social learning theorists focus on vicarious, or observational, learning.

Gambling behavior is very hard to extinguish because it is reinforced according to a ________ schedule of reinforcement.

Social learning theory's foremost proponent is ________.

Explain what higher order conditioning is and how it works. Also, explain the difference between primary and secondary reinforcers.

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