Deck 6: Learning

Question 1

What term is used to describe a decrease in a behavioral response after repeated exposure to nonthreatening stimuli?

A) habituation
B) sensitization
C) orienting
D) aplysia

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The best definition of learning is that learning:

A) results entirely from maturation rather than experience.
B) must result in adaptation of behavior,but does not have to be enduring.
C) always results in adaptations in behavior.
D) is relatively enduring and results from experience.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which sentence below best defines the concept of tabula rasa?

A) An infant comes into the world with a genetic blueprint.All the knowledge the infant subsequently acquires is determined by the infant's genetic code.
B) An infant comes into the world with a genetic blueprint,but his or her knowledge can be shaped through sensory experiences in the world.
C) An infant comes into the world knowing nothing.The infant's genetic blueprint largely overrides the knowledge acquired through his or her sensory experiences in the world.
D) An infant comes into the world knowing nothing.The infant then acquires all of his or her knowledge through sensory experiences in the world.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

You know that genetics has given your new baby sister innate traits,such as how to suckle and cry.Yet some people tell you that she is born knowing nothing.These people believe in ________,which says that the environment teaches infants everything.

A) pure minds
B) tabula rasa
C) a clean start
D) white space

Question 5

Learning involves all of the following EXCEPT:

A) changes in behavior.
B) consequences of actions.
C) associations between events.
D) maturation.

Question 6

The school of behaviorism was based on the belief that:

A) anything can be learned by any living organism.
B) animals and humans are born with the potential to learn just about anything.
C) behavior is conditioned,unlike cognitions of the mind.
D) animals learn via behavioral principles,whereas humans learn via cognitive principles.

Question 7

According to Watson's view,which is not necessarily considered accurate today,what is the only valid indicator of psychological activity,and why?

A) overt behavior,because it alone can be studied using the scientific method
B) self-report,because it is the most accurate measurement of subjective states
C) psychoanalysis,because individuals do not know the drives of their own subconscious
D) classical conditioning,because it demonstrates innate learning abilities

Question 8

Which of the following statements accurately describes the difference between associative and nonassociative learning?

A) Associative learning requires a conscious linking of two events together,whereas nonassociative learning does not.
B) Associative learning requires both cognition and behavior,whereas nonassociative learning requires only behavior.
C) Associative learning occurs with multiple stimuli,whereas nonassociative learning occurs with only one stimulus.
D) Associative learning can generalize to other contexts,whereas nonassociative learning cannot.

Question 9

What term is used to describe an increase in a behavioral response after exposure to a threatening stimulus?

A) habituation
B) sensitization
C) orienting
D) aplysia

Question 10

Who founded the school of behaviorism?

A) Skinner
B) Watson
C) Pavlov
D) Bandura

Question 11

One of the earliest and strongest proponents of learning theory was:

A) John Watson.
B) Sigmund Freud.
C) Joseph Wolpe.
D) John Garcia.

Question 12

The process by which an environmental stimulus and a behavior are connected is known as:

A) cognition.
B) episodic memory.
C) conditioning.
D) behavior modification.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT an example of learning?

A) The second time she gets her eyes tested,Sammy blinks when the buzzer rings because she predicts a puff of air is coming after the buzzer.
B) A baby begins to reach and fuss when his mother opens the refrigerator to get the bottle out.
C) A baby can sit up at six months,but rarely can at two months.
D) Your cat runs to the kitchen at the sound of a can opener.

Question 14

A relatively permanent change in behavior that is NOT due to maturation but is due to experience is called:

A) operant shaping.
B) habituation.
C) learning.
D) behaviorism.

Question 15

According to Watson's famous quote regarding the rearing of children,if given a dozen infants and control of their world,he could:

A) guarantee ahead of time their IQs,based on their early infant behaviors.
B) train them to be any type of specialist he wanted.
C) shape their early childhoods but have little impact on later development.
D) ensure that they grew up without discrimination and hatred.

Question 16

You are driving to school when suddenly an ambulance rushes past you with its sirens blaring,shocking you so much that you fear that you might lose control of your car.A minute later,you hear sirens in the distance and increase your vigilance to be prepared for another emergency vehicle on the road.What change has come over your normal reaction to sirens?

A) Hebbian learning
B) sensitization
C) habituation
D) fight-or-flight response

Question 17

The first time you pick up your pet hamster it recoils in fear,but after a week of handling,your hamster is not bothered anymore.What change came over your hamster through the simple act of repetitive handling?

A) operant conditioning
B) learned helplessness
C) sensitization
D) habituation

Question 18

Adjusting to a phone ringing during a lecture is an example of ________ learning,whereas feeling excited when your own phone gives a text message alert is an example of ________ learning.

A) associative; nonassociative
B) nonassociative; associative
C) observational; associative
D) observational; nonassociative

Question 19

Eric Kandel's study of learning in invertebrate animals provided evidence for neuronal alteration during:

A) habituation and sensitization.
B) the fight-or-flight response.
C) orienting and defensive reactions.
D) receipt of reward or punishment.

Question 20

According to Watson,children are born as a blank slate,or tabula rasa.Which of the following characteristics should a child then possess from birth?

A) the potential for cognition,but not the experiences necessary to use cognitive thought
B) basic reflexes through which he or she can have sensory experiences
C) associations between action and effect
D) the ability to free associate through nonverbal response

Question 21

You are conducting an informal study in which,for a month,you play a particular song for your best friend right before you serve dinner to her.Eventually,you play the song,and then wait to see how your friend responds.She begins to salivate and says she has hunger pains.In this scenario,what is the unconditioned stimulus?

A) the song
B) the food
C) the time of day
D) salivation

Question 22

A startling noise will always cause the human eye to blink.If one has learned to associate a blue light with a startling noise,what is the resulting blue-light-elicited eye blink known as?

A) an unconditioned stimulus
B) a conditioned response
C) an unconditioned response
D) a conditioned stimulus

Question 23

For what area of research did Ivan Pavlov receive the Nobel Prize?

A) operant conditioning
B) animal training
C) salivary reflex and digestion
D) biological boundaries of learning

Question 24

You are conducting an informal study in which,for a month,you play a particular song just before you serve dinner to your best friend.Eventually,you play just the song to see what will happen,and your friend begins to salivate and says that she has hunger pains.In this scenario,what is the unconditioned response?

A) salivation in response to food
B) salivation in response to the song
C) hunger pains in response to the song
D) salivation to either the food or the song

Question 25

What type of learned response occurs when a formerly neutral object begins to elicit a reflexive (or highly similar)response after it has been paired with a stimulus that naturally elicits that response?

A) orienting reflex
B) classical conditioning
C) consequence conditioning
D) operant conditioning

Question 26

What observation by Pavlov led to the development of classical conditioning as a model of learning?

A) Dogs showed reflexes highly similar to people.
B) Dogs had to be conditioned to salivate.
C) Dogs salivated in anticipation of the food.
D) Dogs salivated after receiving the reward of the food.

Question 27

What is a conditioned stimulus?

A) something that naturally elicits a response
B) something that elicits a response only after learning
C) a previously extinct stimulus
D) a second-order pairing of learned relations

Question 28

What psychological principle did Pavlov's experiments teach us?

A) They demonstrated how a neutral stimulus could trigger the same response as a natural reflex.
B) They demonstrated that all biological responses must be elicited by natural reflexes to stimuli.
C) They demonstrated how learning could take place without the presence of punishment.
D) They demonstrated that complex behaviors,such as fear of a stimulus,could be learned observationally.

Question 29

Habituation and sensitization come about because of:

A) a physical connection that forms between two neurons.
B) growth of additional neurons.
C) changes in neurotransmitter release in the presynaptic neuron.
D) changes in neurotransmitter release in the postsynaptic neuron.

Question 30

Pavlovian conditioning is also referred to as:

A) behavior modification.
B) operant conditioning.
C) classical conditioning.
D) reward conditioning.

Question 31

________ won a Nobel Prize for his work on the digestive system,work that made a fundamental contribution to the study of conditioned responses.

A) John Watson
B) Ivan Pavlov
C)B.F.Skinner
D) Daniel Kahneman

Question 32

The key to whether presentations of a stimulus will lead to sensitization or habituation is whether the stimulus is:

A) potentially harmful or rewarding.
B) likely to be repeated.
C) novel.
D) a sound.

Question 33

What is a conditioned response?

A) an innate response
B) a response that has been learned
C) an automatic response
D) a reflex

Question 34

In order for Pavlovian learning to occur,with what must the conditioned stimulus have been paired?

A) an unconditioned response
B) a conditioned response
C) an unconditioned stimulus
D) a consequence

Question 35

What is the proper order of events that need to take place in order for classical conditioning to occur?

A) unconditioned response presentation à conditioned stimulus presentation,which elicits the unconditioned stimulus à after many trials,the unconditioned response elicits the conditioned stimulus
B) conditioned response presentation à unconditioned response presentation,which elicits the conditioned response à after many trials,the conditioned response elicits the unconditioned stimulus
C) unconditioned stimulus presentation à conditioned stimulus presentation,which elicits the conditioned response à after many trials,the unconditioned stimulus elicits the unconditioned response
D) conditioned stimulus presentation à unconditioned stimulus presentation,which elicits the unconditioned response à after many trials,the conditioned stimulus elicits the conditioned response

Question 36

In ________,learning occurs when two types of events are paired closely in time.

A) classical conditioning
B) operant conditioning
C) observational learning
D) social learning

Question 37

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

A) a learned response
B) a reflexive action to a biologically relevant situation
C) something that elicits a learned response
D) something that elicits an unlearned response

Question 38

If you trained a rat to fear a flashing light by pairing it with a painful electric shock,what would be the conditioned stimulus?

A) flashing light
B) electric shock
C) fear
D) extinction

Question 39

In Pavlov's experiments,what was the conditioned response?

A) salivation to the food
B) salivation to the metronome
C) the food
D) the sound of the metronome

Question 40

What is an unconditioned response?

A) a learned pairing between two stimuli
B) a nervous system reflex
C) an unlearned,automatic behavior following a stimulus
D) an increase in behavior following repeated exposure to a stimulus

Question 41

You are conducting an informal study in which,for a month,you play a particular song for your best friend right before you serve dinner to her.Eventually,you play the song,and then wait to see how your friend responds.She begins to salivate and says she has hunger pains.In this scenario,what is the conditioned stimulus?

A) the song
B) the food
C) the time of day
D) salivation

Question 42

As discussed in the text,in the fear conditioning of Little Albert,Joh B.Watson used the following stimuli: unconditioned stimulus-________; conditioned stimulus-________.n

A) loud sound; rat
B) rat; loud sound
C) fear; rat
D) loud sound; fear

Question 43

Allie is afraid of her neighbor's large dog.She then becomes afraid of any dog she sees on the street,and eventually she fears even pictures of dogs or toy dogs.This change in her fear of dogs represents:

A) second-order conditioning.
B) generalization.
C) discrimination.
D) reconditioning.

Question 44

When,after extensive extinction trials,the presentation of the conditioned stimulus briefly produces a conditioned response,this process is known as:

A) classical conditioning.
B) extinction reversal.
C) second-order conditioning.
D) spontaneous recovery.

Question 45

What does the occurrence of spontaneous recovery tell you about the functional properties of extinction?

A) Extinction is a new form of learning,but it only inhibits rather than deletes the learned association between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.
B) Extinction is an adaptive response to delete spurious information from memory associations.
C) Extinction is a useful tendency to try to readapt old learning strategies to novel problems.
D) Extinction is the basis of cognitive learning,when applied to reappraisal strategies.

Question 46

What is the process whereby the conditioned response is weakened when it is no longer presented with the unconditioned stimulus?

A) extinction
B) reward
C) second-order conditioning
D) acquisition

Question 47

What is believed to have happened to Little Albert?

A) Albert spent the rest of his life fearful of all white objects.
B) Albert was later diagnosed with clinical depression.
C) Albert died of meningitis at age 6.
D) Albert eventually committed suicide as a teenager.

Question 48

Dr.Shaw has a patient with a phobia to spiders.The patient enjoys doing puzzles.Dr.Shaw exposes the patient to spiders briefly while having the patient complete a fun puzzle.What technique is Dr.Shaw using?

A) fear conditioning
B) modeling
C) systematic desensitization
D) counterconditioning

Question 49

What causes extinction?

A) The conditioned response is no longer rewarding to the organism.
B) The unconditioned stimulus no longer evokes a response from the organism.
C) The organism learns that the conditioned stimulus no longer predicts the unconditioned stimulus.
D) Spontaneous recovery fails to occur.

Question 50

When conditioning occurs due to the pairing of a neutral stimulus with a conditioned stimulus (CS),resulting in a CS-CS learned association,this process is known as:

A) stimulus generalization.
B) second-order conditioning.
C) additive conditioning.
D) an experimental error.

Question 51

What anxiety disorder is seen as an acquired fear that is out of proportion to the real threat?

A) generalized anxiety disorder
B) a phobia
C) obsessive-compulsive disorder
D) panic disorder

Question 52

When slight differences in the form of conditioned stimuli still produce the same conditioned response,the learning phenomenon of ________ is occurring.

A) generalization
B) discrimination
C) second-order conditioning
D) operant conditioning

Question 53

Based on his work,Pavlov believed that ________ was the critical element needed for acquisition to occur during conditioning.

A) contingency
B) contiguity
C) reflexivity
D) symmetry

Question 54

The statement "Once you classically condition an animal it is impossible to completely terminate the association" is:

A) false.
B) true.
C) false only in humans.
D) true only in humans.

Question 55

What is the term used by behaviorists to describe the gradual forming of an association between an unconditioned stimulus and a conditioned stimulus?

A) generalization
B) discrimination
C) deviation
D) acquisition

Question 56

Watson's study of Little Albert was one of the first studies on what clinical phenomenon?

A) overeating
B) phobias
C) OCD
D) ADHD

Question 57

The ability to respond with an appropriate conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus and with no response to a very similar yet substantially different stimulus is known as:

A) valence differentiation.
B) salience response.
C) stimulus generalization.
D) stimulus discrimination.

Question 58

Who believed that conditioning processes were the basis for how animals learned to adapt to their environments?

A) John Locke
B) Charles Darwin
C) Ivan Pavlov
D) Edward Thorndike

Question 59

The fact that Little Albert learned fear toward not only a white rat but also a ball of wool and a rabbit represents:

A) second-order conditioning.
B) generalization.
C) discrimination.
D) reconditioning.

Question 60

Pavlov was interested in how long salivation would occur once food no longer followed the metronome.What is the name of this behavioral process he studied?

A) salivary reflexes
B) generalization
C) discrimination
D) extinction

Question 61

The process by which an individual needs increasing amounts of a drug to achieve the same psychological or physical effects is known as:

A) addiction.
B) tolerance.
C) sensitization.
D) withdrawal.

Question 62

The psychologist Shepard Siegel recommends that treatment for drug addiction involves exposing addicts to certain drug cues,such that subsequent exposures no longer produce drug cravings.What behavioral process is implicated in this recommendation?

A) craving
B) withdrawal
C) extinction
D) phobias

Question 63

According to classical-conditioning theory,phobias develop as the result of:

A) cultural learning.
B) biological preparedness.
C) specification of a fear experience.
D) generalization of a fear experience.

Question 64

When humans feel threatened,they tend to freeze first and then run.This reaction is an example of:

A) conditioned aversion.
B) the equipotentiality principle.
C) biological preparedness.
D) the law of effect.

Question 65

To which food would you be more likely to show conditioned taste aversion?

A) a highly familiar food,because it was unusual for this food to make you ill
B) a highly familiar food,because you have learned that this food is safe
C) a novel food,because its characteristics are new to you and easily become paired with your becoming ill
D) a novel food,because its characteristics are new to you and easily become paired with the food's safety

Question 66

The ________ model emphasizes that the surprising or unexpected nature of the predictor stimulus is what is responsible for the strength of the US-CS connection.

A) classical-conditioning
B) operant-conditioning
C) observational learning
D) Rescorla-Wagner

Question 67

According to the work of Shepard Siegel,an addict's usual large dose is most likely to produce an overdose in which setting?

A) in a novel setting
B) in a familiar setting
C) in an isolated setting
D) The setting is not important.

Question 68

Why was Little Albert not counterconditioned,or systematically desensitized,for his acquired fear of rats?

A) Once learned,a phobia is permanent.
B) Systematic desensitization has been shown to be ineffective for treating fear.
C) His mother removed him from the study.
D) The scientific community considered the experiment unethical and ended it abruptly.

Question 69

Conditioned food aversions are especially likely to occur when the stimulus is a(n):

A) familiar food.
B) unfamiliar food.
C) light.
D) sound.

Question 70

The theory that animals are genetically programmed to fear particular things that threaten their survival is known as:

A) tolerance conditioning.
B) biological preparedness.
C) evolutionary significance.
D) second-order conditioning.

Question 71

The Rescorla-Wagner cognitive model of conditioning does NOT explain why:

A) a conditioned stimulus that occurs before the unconditioned stimulus is optimal for learning.
B) a delay between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus is optimal for learning.
C) evolutionarily significant conditioned stimuli are easier to condition.
D) the conditioned stimulus needs to be a good predictor of the unconditioned stimulus.

Question 72

Dante was sitting on a rock to rest during a hike.Suddenly he felt immense pain and looked down to see a snake had bitten him in the leg.He is now terrified of anything that even resembles a snake.Dante has developed a(n):

A) identification ability with regard to snakes.
B) phobia of snakes.
C) distrust of snakes.
D) disinterest for snakes.

Question 73

Behaviorism has helped psychologists gain an understanding of drug tolerance by showing that:

A) cues in the environment predictive of the drug can produce physiological reactions similar to actions of the drug.
B) increased levels of reward produced by the drug itself become needed for responding to any reinforcement over time.
C) punishment is an effective but controversial treatment for overcoming drug withdrawal.
D) drug therapies such as methadone need to be conditioned to be effective.

Question 74

Which of the following does NOT reflect the role of classical conditioning in drug addiction?

A) the feel of a needle in the skin eliciting the effects of heroin
B) contextual cues increasing drug cravings
C) the effectiveness of treatment centers in getting addicts to quit
D) the smell of coffee eliciting arousal

Question 75

Research by Shepard Siegel and colleagues has shown that tolerance to a drug's effects is most likely to be greatest in which setting?

A) where the drug is most frequently used
B) where the drug has not been used before
C) where there are the most other people using the drug
D) Tolerance is generally the same under all locations.

Question 76

According to Siegel's research,drug tolerance is greatest when the drug is taken in the same location as a prior use because:

A) contextual cues make the drug's effects begin before the drug is even taken.
B) the body alters neurochemistry or physiology to metabolize the drug before the drug is even taken.
C) the reward system preactivates the dopamine response.
D) drug addicts are fearful of new contexts.

Question 77

In conditioning birds and rats,you find that it is easier to condition birds with vision-relevant stimuli than with taste-relevant stimuli,and it is easier to condition rats with taste-relevant stimuli than with vision-relevant stimuli.These results are true because:

A) unlike rats,birds rely on vision more than taste for food selection.
B) birds are the only species that lack the ability for learned food aversions.
C) unlike rats,birds have no taste buds.
D) birds and rats evolved separately.

Question 78

The Rescorla-Wagner model of the cognitive components of conditioning states that the strength of the conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus association depends on how ________ the unconditioned stimulus is.

A) rewarding
B) evolutionarily significant
C) fearful
D) unexpected

Question 79

How might behavioral techniques help treat phobias?

A) by removing the central nucleus of the amygdala
B) by conditioning a new unconditioned stimulus to the conditioned response,thus removing the initial conditioning
C) by systematically desensitizing the threat through the introduction of new conditioned responses
D) by punishing unwanted conditioned responses to the phobic unconditioned stimulus

Question 80

Sunil wishes to classically condition his dog to fear skunks so he does not get sprayed again.This task should be much easier than teaching him to fear a houseplant because:

A) the dog is biologically prepared to fear certain types of objects.
B) the dog has high intelligence.
C) the dog is biologically conditioned to fear skunks.
D) the dog's mind cannot physically be trained to fear plants.