Exam 5: Section 2: Learning

When competitive swimmers stayed focused on their practice techniques during swim team practice, they were rewarded by their coach playing popular music over the loudspeakers in the pool area. When they were inattentive or started ''goofing off,'' the coach played recordings of gloomy, off-key organ music. In this example, the coach is using _____ to help his swimmers stay focused.

Delores could see the sock on the floor behind the clothes dryer. She straightened out a wire clothes hanger, fashioned a hook on the end, and used it to fish the sock out from behind the dryer. Using operant conditioning terminology, straightening out the wire hanger and poking it behind the dryer would be the _____ and the retrieved sock would be the _____, assuming this increased Delores' use of the clothes wire to retrieve socks in the future.

Negative reinforcement _____ the likelihood of a behavior being repeated, and positive punishment _____ the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.

In a series of studies, Thorndike put hungry cats into specially constructed cages called ''puzzle boxes.'' There was a plate of food just outside the cage where the cats could see and smell it. At the end of his studies, Thorndike concluded that the cats:

If you own a dog that tends to salivate and get excited when you shake a box of dog biscuits, you may have noticed that your dog also drools when you shake a bag of cat food. If so, this would be an example of:

In psychologist Robert Rescorla's classical conditioning experiment, one group of rats experienced a tone just before each of 20 shocks. A second group of rats experienced the same number of tone-shock pairings plus an additional 20 shocks with no tone. Rescorla found that the rats in the first group showed a much stronger conditioned fear response than the rats in the second group. How did Rescorla explain this finding?

Steven Spielberg's classic movie Jaws was a thriller about a great white shark that terrorized tourists at a local beach. Just before the shark's appearance, eerie music began playing. As the unseen shark came closer, the tempo of the music picked up. After the audience had experienced this a few times, the sound of the music triggered the emotional reaction of fear in the audience even though the shark still had not appeared. At that point, the sound of the eerie music was a(n):

The early school or approach to psychology called behaviorism emphasized the scientific study of:

A stimulus or event that is naturally or inherently reinforcing for a given species is called a _____, and a stimulus or event that has acquired reinforcing value by being associated with a primary reinforcer is called a _____.

In the famous study of ''Little Albert,'' John Watson and Rosalie Rayner:

Habitual coffee drinkers often experience an almost immediate sense of alertness when they sip a fresh cup of coffee, even though it takes about twenty minutes for the caffeine in the coffee to reach significant levels in the bloodstream. What is the best explanation for this phenomenon?

According to Psych for Your Life: Using Learning Principles to Improve Self-Control, why should you try to study in the same location?

If you touch something hot, you will reflexively withdraw your hand. Using Pavlov's terminology, reflexively withdrawing your hand would be termed a(n):

Trisha's three young children frequently argue and fight. To reduce this problematic behavior, Trisha set an appropriate time limit during play time, and if the children refrained from squabbling during that period, they were immediately given positive reinforcement. According to the In Focus box: Changing the Behavior of Others, this strategy is called:

Which of the following psychologists has conducted extensive research on observational learning?

A rat in a Skinner box is reinforced with a food pellet every time it presses the bar. This is an example of:

According to psychologist Edward C. Tolman, learning that is not immediately demonstrated in overt behavior is termed:

Which of the following statements about B. F. Skinner is TRUE?

Which psychologist studied the development of taste aversions, noting how they seemed to violate the basic principles of classical conditioning?

Andrew works for NASA and gets paid once a month, whereas his friend George works at a fast-food restaurant and gets paid once a week. Despite the difference in when they are paid, both are paid on a _____ schedule of reinforcement.