Exam 10: A Synthetic Perspective on Instrumental Action

A rat has been trained to lever press for food in the presence of a light SD, and chain pull for food in the presence of a click SD. The rat has also received Pavlovian conditioning in which a tone signals food. Both the light and the tone will increase chain pulling, but by different mechanisms. Discuss what these mechanisms are.

Cookies are freely available in the kitchen, except when your mother is home. Then, you have to ask for them. Your behavior toward your mother is governed by

Which set of events below would be most likely to elicit an adjunctive behavior while a rat is pressing a lever on a lean variable ratio schedule?

Learned helplessness has been put forth as a valid model for understanding

You reduce your speed on the interstate highway when you see a sign indicating radar ahead. One day you get a ticket in town for driving too slowly. Back on the interstate, you again see a sign that indicates that radar is in use ahead and you slow down-the very behavior that produced a ticket the last time it occurred. Explain this paradoxical behavior from what we know of avoidance learning.

Travis's partner cheated on him. Once a powerful reinforcer, his partner has been "devalued." Travis avoids the phone when it rings. This avoidance is likely due to

Adele and Tricia want Dan to help them with their statistics project. Tricia calls Dan two, three, and four times a day before finally reaching him and speaking with him about her project. Adele knows Dan is only available in the late afternoon, so waits to call about her project at that time. Then, Dan decides he doesn't want to provide free help and tells them both not to call him anymore. He has just "devalued" himself. Who will continue to call Dan, hoping to change his mind?

In Staddon and Simmelhag's study of pigeons, subjects receiving fixed-time, noncontingent grain deliveries were most likely to engage in pecking in and around the grain hopper when the grain was about to be delivered. The researchers referred to these actions as _______ behaviors.

Turning off a warning signal

Interim and terminal behaviors are most analogous to

To make a rat stop pressing a lever, it is punished by a footshock when it presses. The rat no longer presses the lever by avoiding it completely. Applying what you know about punishment and Pavlovian-instrumental interactions, in what sense is the lack of lever-pressing a "misbehavior?"

Which of the following is not part of the definition of an SSDR?

Sydney has been dancing with Eric and Travis all night. Both are equally happy to dance when she asks. Late in the evening, she hears that Travis has become intoxicated and belligerent. When she sees both Eric and Travis again, she asks Eric to dance. She is making effective use of

A rat is first confined in a running wheel where it experiences inescapable shocksnext, and after a period of time it is placed in a box that allows it to jump onto a ledge to avoid shock. The failure of the rat to learn the jump response may be due to

Which of the following students would be most likely to experience learned helplessness?

What is the evidence that sign tracking is controlled by the stimulus-outcome contingency rather than the response-outcome contingency.

Escaping a cue paired with shock can reinforce

As training becomes extensive, the _______ association more and more strongly regulates performance, to the point that the behavior occurs automatically.

Research on avoidance learning has shown that it

Which group is not needed to demonstrates learned helplessness?