Exam 5: Learning

John Garcia's research demonstrated that taste aversions could be conditioned, but only after a minimum of five pairings of the CS (taste) and UCS (illness).

What was the conditioned response (CR) in Watson and Rayner's famous "Little Albert" study?

Phobias of heights, storms, snakes, and spiders are much more common than phobias of cars, stairs, stoves, or sharp objects. According to psychologist Martin Seligman, the reason is that:

Your dog jumps up on a visitor and you smack him with a rolled up newspaper. The next time you have visitors, your dog doesn't jump on them. This is an example of positive punishment, or punishment by application.

Professor Lake is a strong advocate of the behavioral perspective. He would most likely agree with which of the following statements?

Two Skinner boxes are side by side. The rat in the first Skinner box gets a food pellet every time it presses the bar. The rat in the second Skinner box gets a food pellet every 10 times it presses the bar. If the food-dispensing mechanism is shut off, the rat in the first Skinner box will quit pressing the bar sooner than the rat in the second Skinner box does.

Which of the following would be considered a conditioned reinforcer?

A rat in a Skinner box is reinforced for the first bar press it makes after one minute has elapsed. The rat is on a _____ schedule of reinforcement.

John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner's famous study of Little Albert is considered to be a model experiment because it was a carefully controlled study with very precise and objective measures of the variables, including Albert's fear response.

After lightning caused an electrical power surge and damaged his computer, Damon no longer turns his computer on during thunderstorms. This change in Damon's behavior is the result of:

John Garcia is the psychologist credited with demonstrating the importance of an evolutionary approach to classical conditioning through his research showing that particular associations are more readily conditioned than others.

According to the box titled "Focus on Neuroscience: Mirror Neurons: Imitation in the Brain?" neurons that fire both when action is performed and when action is simply perceived are called:

A fixed-interval schedule typically produces a pattern of responding in which the number of responses tends to increase as the time for the next reinforcer draws near.

Discuss how classical conditioning can be involved in placebo responses.

Classical conditioning involves _____, while operant conditioning involves _____.

List the criteria that determine whether observed actions are likely to be imitated, and apply these criteria to the depictions of violence in U.S. television programs.

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 is an example of stimulus generalization.

A young child has learned to associate the sight of a nurse's white uniform with the fear and pain of getting an injection. Using Pavlov's terminology, when the white uniform elicits a fear response, it would be termed a(n):

Most television violence is performed by unattractive villains who are punished for their misdeeds, clearly sending the message that "violence does not pay."

B. F. Skinner was able to produce learned helplessness in birds, monkeys, dogs, and rats by alternating fixed-interval and variable-ratio schedules of reinforcement.