Exam 5: Learning

In using operant conditioning principles to train animals to perform tricks, Keller and Marian Breland found that:

In learning theory, the cognitive perspective emphasizes:

Which psychologist proposed a cognitive explanation of classical conditioning?

Whenever she sees a bolt of lightning streak across the sky, Maria quickly unplugs her computer equipment to keep it from being damaged by an electrical surge. Using operant conditioning terms, Maria's behavior is maintained by:

Based on a review of decades of research, the American Psychological Association and other public health organizations stated that viewing media violence:

Describe a study that shows indirect evidence of mirror neurons in humans.

Psychologist John Garcia found that rats did not learn to associate a taste with flashing lights and noise. However, rats do learn to associate a taste with getting ill. Which of the following concepts best accounts for this observation?

Mike's girlfriend dumps him because he was flirting with another woman. Now Mike no longer flirts with other women in front of his girlfriends. This is an example of negative reinforcement.

John Watson believed that human emotions were:

The phenomenon of learned helplessness, discovered by Martin Seligman and Steven Maier, demonstrated that expectations can play a significant role in classical and operant conditioning.

According to psychologist _____ and the _____ perspective, classical conditioning involves learning the relationship between events rather than simply associating two events.

Initially, an infant has no response to a nurse's white uniform, but after a couple of painful experiences of getting a vaccination shot from a nurse in a white uniform, the infant will react with fear in response to a nurse in a white uniform who simply walks into the examining room. In this example, the sight of a nurse in a white uniform has become a(n) _____ to the infant.

Acquiring a sense of control over environmental challenges is one way to begin to overcome learned helplessness.

According to B. F. Skinner:

What conditions increase the likelihood that a behavior will be imitated?

New studies have provided the first direct evidence for the existence of mirror neurons in humans. In these studies, researchers temporarily implanted electrodes in the brains of epileptic patients as part of their preparation for surgery. Researchers recorded the activity of individual neurons while the patients performed simple actions, such as grasping a cup and making facial expressions. Then the researchers recorded neuron activity while the patients simply viewed short video clips and photographs of others executing the same actions. What was one result of these studies?

Research on taste aversions has demonstrated that classical conditioning can occur with a single pairing of the CS and the UCS.

A rat in a Skinner box receives a food pellet every 10 times it presses a bar. The rat is on a _____ schedule of reinforcement.

Only humans are able to form cognitive maps.

Explain how psychologists can apply the idea of biological preparedness to human phobias.