Deck 7: Learning and Adaptation: the Role of Experience

Question 1

Which of the following has the highest adaptive significance for humans in terms of its ability to save time and effort,and to reduce exposure to potentially dangerous trial-and-error processes?

A) observational learning
B) classical conditioning
C) higher order conditioning
D) operant conditioning
E) secondary reinforcement

Answer 1

observational learning

Question 2

You are training an animal to bar press for food.Which of the following schedules would be most resistant to extinction?

A) continuous reinforcement
B) FR 5
C) FI 60 seconds
D) VR 7
E) VI 5 minutes

Answer 2

VI 5 minutes

Question 3

Which of the following statement(s)is/are FALSE?

A) Behaviourists treated the organism as a tabula rasa,or blank tablet;ethologists argued that every species comes into the world biologically prepared to act in certain ways.
B) Ethologists treated the organism as a tabula rasa,or blank tablet;behaviourists argued that every species comes into the world biologically prepared to act in certain ways.
C) Ethologists focused on behaviour in the natural setting;behaviourists conducted most of their research in controlled laboratory settings.
D) Behaviourists focused on behaviour in the natural setting;ethologists conducted most of their research in controlled laboratory settings.
E) Both ethologists treated the organism as a tabula rasa,or blank tablet;behaviourists argued that every species comes into the world biologically prepared to act in certain ways AND behaviourists focused on behaviour in the natural setting;ethologists conducted most of their research in controlled laboratory settings are false.

Answer 3

Both ethologists treated the organism as a tabula rasa,or blank tablet;behaviourists argued that every species comes into the world biologically prepared to act in certain ways AND behaviourists focused on behaviour in the natural setting;ethologists conducted most of their research in controlled laboratory settings are false.

Question 4

An animal in a skinner box presses a lever and receives an electric shock.As a result,the lever pressing behaviour decreases.What has happened?

A) positive reinforcement
B) negative reinforcement
C) positive punishment
D) negative punishment
E) discrimination training

Question 5

A key principle in many therapies that treat phobias and fears is that the phobia or fear is learned and can therefore be

A) adaptive.
B) unlearned.
C) cognitively restructured.
D) habituated.
E) treated by drugs.

Question 6

Animals appear to be biologically prewired to easily learn behaviour that is related to their survival as a species because of evolutionary forces.This is referred to as _____________.

A) latent learning
B) operant extinction
C) preparedness
D) avoidance conditioning
E) fixed action patterning

Question 7

Escape conditioning and avoidance conditioning are maintained through

A) operant generalization.
B) operant discrimination.
C) negative reinforcement.
D) stimulus generalization.
E) positive reinforcement.

Question 8

When Pavlov was conditioning his dog to salivate in response to a tone,he first paired the tone with the presentation of food until the tone alone could induce salivation.In his experiments,which of the following was considered to be the unconditioned stimulus?

A) salivation in response to the food
B) the food
C) salivation in response to the tone
D) the tone
E) the food and the tone

Question 9

The schedule of reinforcement that is the most resistant to extinction is the:

A) fixed-interval schedule
B) variable-ratio schedule
C) fixed-ratio schedule
D) all of these are equally resistant to extinction
E) none of these are resistant to extinction

Question 10

Animals placed on this schedule of reinforcement often show a pause in responding briefly after being reinforced possibly because they have learned that the next response is never reinforced.This behaviour is indicative of the ____________ schedule of reinforcement.

A) fixed-interval
B) fixed-ratio
C) variable-interval
D) variable-ratio
E) intermittent ratio

Question 11

Billy is a young child who cannot demonstrate the ability to delay gratification.Research shows that Billy:

A) is unlikely to become a criminal
B) will have more difficulty coping with stress and frustration as an adolescent
C) is able to forego an immediate but smaller reward for a delayed but more satisfying outcome
D) cannot forego an immediate but smaller reward for a delayed but more satisfying outcome
E) both will have more difficulty coping with stress and frustration as an adolescent AND cannot forego an immediate but smaller reward for a delayed but more satisfying outcome

Question 12

Olga has severe symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder.It is likely that neuroimaging studies will show

A) increased activation of the frontal cortex only.
B) decreased activation of the frontal cortex only.
C) decreased activation of the right amygdala only.
D) increased activation of the frontal cortex and decreased activation of the right amygdale.
E) decreased activation of the frontal cortex and increased activation of the right amygdale.

Question 13

When the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus,the conditioned response will gradually weaken in a process called

A) extinction.
B) negative reinforcement.
C) discrimination.
D) habituation.
E) positive reinforcement.

Question 14

According to the ______________ perspective of operant conditioning,the best predictor of behaviour is the perceived contingency between behaviour and its consequences.

A) traditional
B) social
C) behavioural
D) biological
E) cognitive

Question 15

You are taking a shower in your dorm and you hear a toilet being flushed nearby.You briefly step out of the flow of water because you have learned that the water becomes very hot for a few moments after this happens.In this example,which of the following would be considered to be the discriminative stimulus?

A) the avoidance of hot water
B) the exposure to hot water
C) stepping out of the shower
D) the sound of the toilet being flushed
E) exposure to the dorm bathroom

Question 16

In a classical conditioning experiment that is utilizing backward pairing,the conditioned stimulus is presented after the __________________.

A) unconditioned stimulus
B) conditioned response
C) unconditioned response
D) forward trace pairing
E) simultaneous pairing

Question 17

A decreasing response to a repeated stimulus is called _______________.

A) extinction
B) latent learning
C) habituation
D) shaping
E) discrimination

Question 18

Every time Jeff gets his paycheque,he feels really good.Lately,he has noticed that he has started to like the person who hands him his paycheque every week.From a classical conditioning perspective,the person who hands Jeff his paycheque is a(n)

A) unconditioned stimulus.
B) unconditioned response.
C) conditioned stimulus.
D) conditioned response.
E) positive reinforcer.

Question 19

If you were training an animal and wanted to generate the highest rate of responding you would use

A) an interval schedule.
B) a continuous reinforcement schedule.
C) a ratio schedule.
D) a discriminative stimulus.
E) a secondary reinforcer.

Question 20

A child typically needs to burn her hand on a hot stove only once to learn to avoid doing this in the future.Psychologists involved in classical conditioning would most likely consider this as an example of

A) uni-trial extinction.
B) negative reinforcement.
C) punishment.
D) fear conditioning.
E) habituation.

Question 21

Animals trained on schedules of reinforcement sometimes show a post-reinforcement pause-they stop responding for a while immediately after reinforcement is delivered.Which of the following schedules would NOT show a post-reinforcement pause?

A) fixed-interval
B) fixed-ratio
C) variable-interval
D) short-delay schedule
E) intermittent ratio

Question 22

Most people like having a job because they receive money for their work.According to conditioning principles,people are actually working for

A) primary reinforcers.
B) chained responses.
C) a post- reinforcement pause.
D) variable schedules.
E) secondary reinforcers

Question 23

If you want to train a dog to perform really complex behaviours such as those seen in movies,it might be a good idea to use a procedure called

A) extinction.
B) chaining.
C) discrimination.
D) habituation.
E) backward pairing.

Question 24

It is virtually impossible to train a rat to peck a key for food,but very easy for a pigeon to learn this task.Most likely this reflects the operation of

A) latent learning.
B) preparedness.
C) discrimination.
D) avoidance conditioning.
E) fixed action patterning.

Question 25

You are trying to convince a parent that allowing her children to watch violence on TV can result in the children picking up the violent behaviour themselves.Your argument is based on

A) social learning theory.
B) preparedness.
C) applied behaviour analysis.
D) insight.
E) latent learning.

Question 26

If a conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus,the conditioned response will __________ in a process called _________.

A) decrease in strength;extinction
B) increase in strength;negative reinforcement
C) become the unconditioned response;discrimination
D) become a secondary reinforcer;habituation
E) stop;positive reinforcement

Question 27

According to Bandura,if you believe that you have the capability to perform behaviours that produce desired outcomes,you have a high degree of

A) self-belief.
B) imitation.
C) self-evaluation.
D) self-efficacy.
E) latent learning.

Question 28

In classical conditioning,the best sequencing of CS and UCS is

A) forward short-delay pairing.
B) simultaneous pairing.
C) backward pairing.
D) backward trace pairing.
E) spontaneous pairing.

Question 29

According to the two-factor theory of avoidance learning,the jump response is maintained by

A) positive reinforcement.
B) classical conditioning.
C) punishment.
D) cognitive mapping.
E) negative reinforcement.

Question 30

A dog has completely acquired a classically conditioned salivation response.When a bell is rung,the dog salivates.Next the dog is put into extinction and returned to his home cage for two weeks.The next time he enters the experimental region,a bell rings and the dog salivates.What has happened?

A) discrimination
B) higher-order conditioning
C) acquisition
D) partial reinforcement
E) spontaneous recovery