Deck 7: Learning and Adaptation: the Role of Experience

Question 1

The most important ingredient in extinguishing a classically conditioned behaviour is the repeated presentation of the CS without the CR.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are both types of association learning.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which behaviour is influenced by its consequences.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Habituation is another term for sensory adaptation.

Question 5

Extinction will usually occur if the CS is presented several times without the UCS.

Question 6

Negative and positive reinforcement are different in that while positive reinforcement strengthens a response, negative reinforcement weakens a response.

Question 7

When an operantly conditioned behaviour occurs in response to a new antecedent stimulus that is similar to the original antecedent stimulus, that behaviour is said to be under stimulus control.

Question 8

Psychologists sometimes use aversion therapy in order to condition repulsion to a stimulus that triggers an unwanted behaviour by pairing that stimulus with an aversive or noxious UCS.

Question 9

The UCR and CR differ in that the CR is learned and the UCR is unlearned.

Question 10

In operant conditioning, a discriminative stimulus is one that signals when a particular response will generate specific consequences.

Question 11

Though the techniques are powerful, research has failed to demonstrate how the principles of classical conditioning can impact the functioning of the immune system.

Question 12

In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus eventually becomes an unconditioned stimulus.

Question 13

Discriminative conditioning is said to occur when a neutral stimulus is paired repeatedly with an already established CS.

Question 14

A child who has her TV-watching privileges taken away because she lied to her parents is receiving a response cost punishment.

Question 15

Using positive punishment to suppress behaviour can be disadvantageous because it can result in the person being punished avoiding the punisher.

Question 16

Secondary reinforcers become reinforcers by being associated with discriminative stimuli.

Question 17

Variable schedules of reinforcement have been shown to produce greater resistance to extinction compared to fixed schedules of reinforcement.

Question 18

Escape and avoidance learning are thought to achieve their impacts on learning primarily through the process of negative reinforcement.

Question 19

Punishment and negative reinforcement are similar in that they both serve to weaken behaviour or make it less likely to occur in the future.

Question 20

The behavioural approach explains learning in terms of both directly observable events and mental events.

Question 21

The term "personal adaptation" is concerned with how

A)the laws of learning and the environment shape the behaviour of organisms
B)learning directly modifies the genes of a species
C)adaptive significance affects species adaptation
D)evolutionary factors operate through the environment to shape the biology of a species

Question 22

Psychologists who focus on how organisms learn and assume that there are general laws of learning that apply to virtually all organisms are called __________________.

A)ethologists
B)behaviourists
C)neurobiologists
D)cognitivists

Question 23

While writing your exam, the person next to you keeps tapping their pencil. At first you find it quite distracting but after a while you stop noticing it. This is an example of ______.

A)habituation
B)extinction
C)sensitization
D)latent learning

Question 24

You have just settled down to begin studying for your exam in this course when your roommate decides to turn on some music. At first, the music distracts you from your studying, but after a short time, the music no longer bothers you even though it continues to play. This example most clearly demonstrates the process of

A)extinction
B)negative reinforcement
C)classical conditioning
D)habituation

Question 25

According to the cognitive expectancy model, the effectiveness of classical conditioning depends upon how well the CS predicts the UCS.

Question 26

The phenomenon of instinctual drift was introduced to illustrate a limitation of operant conditioning.

Question 27

A picture fell off the wall startling James quite a bit, making him jump. His roommate comes home a couple minutes later and his shutting the door makes James jump again though it doesn't typically. The reason he jumps the second time is that the falling picture ______ to loud noises.

A)made him vulnerable
B)habituated him
C)sensitized him
D)made him more aware

Question 28

A decreasing response to a repeated stimulus is called ____________.

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

Question 29

Five-year-old Anais has foolishly covered her arms in masking tape. As her mother starts to remove the tape, little Anais cries harder and harder as the removal of tape becomes more and more painful over time. This would be an example of _______.

A)habituation
B)latent learning
C)operant conditioning
D)sensitization

Question 30

Ahmen adopts a dog from the local animal shelter. When Ahmen's mother comes home that day, she runs to the dog to pet her, but the dog cowers and puts her tail between her legs. The dog continues to exhibit this response whenever Ahmen's mother approaches her. Eventually, after several weeks, the dog cowers less until finally, Ahmen's mother is able to pet the dog. What the dog has learned is that Ahmen's mother will not harm her; therefore, her response decreases with time. This is an example of

A)latent learning
B)extinction
C)tabula rasa
D)habituation

Question 31

The results from Albert Bandura's classic "Bobo doll" experiment demonstrated the importance of the distinction between primary and secondary reinforcers.

Question 32

Which perspective in psychology assumes that the laws of learning apply to virtually all organisms, and therefore studies learning in animals such as rats and pigeons to learn more about humans?

A)Psychoanalytic
B)Cognitive
C)Humanist
D)Behaviourist

Question 33

Learned taste aversions were discussed to demonstrate the concept of higher-order conditioning.

Question 34

This form of learning has strong adaptive significance because if we responded continuously to every stimulus in the environment, we would quickly become fatigued and overwhelmed. This form of learning is called

A)habituation
B)one-trial learning
C)extinction
D)negative reinforcement

Question 35

Which of the following provides the best definition of habituation?

A)Habituation is a continuous response to a discriminative stimulus.
B)Habituation is a decrease in the strength of response to a repeated stimulus.
C)Habituation is an increase in the strength of response to a changing stimulus.
D)Habituation is an extinction of response to an increasing stimulus.

Question 36

Research studies suggesting that animals use "insight" and have "cognitive maps" provide a strong challenge to psychologists who take a cognitive perspective on learning.

Question 37

Habituation has strong adaptive significance because it allows organisms to learn not to respond to _____________ stimuli.

A)changing
B)uneventful and familiar
C)novel
D)discriminative

Question 38

The notion of tabula rasa, or blank tablet upon which learning experiences were ascribed, is most closely associated with which of the following schools of psychology?

A)Ethology
B)Cognitive perspective
C)Behaviourism
D)Constructivism

Question 39

In a fourth-grade classroom, a teacher rewards his students for keeping their desks clean by awarding them stars for every day they do this. At the end of the school year, the stars can be redeemed for prizes such as colouring books or pencil sets. This teacher is using what is called a token economy.

Question 40

While our biology affects our learning, our experiences and learning environments do not affect our biological functioning.

Question 41

When Pavlov was conditioning his dogs 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

Question 42

Pavlov is known as the one who discovered ____________, which has been described as one of the most important discoveries in the history of psychology.

A)sensitization
B)classical conditioning
C)operant conditioning
D)latent learning

Question 43

A child probably only needs to burn her hand on a hot stove once to learn to avoid doing this in the future. Psychologists have found that when the ______________ is particularly aversive, only one pairing is needed.

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

Question 44

Under which of the following conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus pairing conditions does learning usually occur most quickly?

A)Forward trace pairing
B)Forward short-delay pairing
C)Simultaneous pairing
D)Backward pairing

Question 45

Shannon is used to eating dinner every night about 7:00 pm, but now that she is away at college she eats earlier because the dining hall is open from 4-6pm every night for dinner. Shannon eats dinner without feeling hungry for several weeks. Then one day while walking to the dining hall, Shannon starts feeling very hungry. Those first several weeks of eating early are considered the _________________ phase of her conditioned response.

A)persistence
B)acquisition
C)shaping
D)extinction

Question 46

Karen's boyfriend gets very excited whenever he smells pizza as he walks by the pizza place where she works because whether Karen is working then or not, he still associates the place with Karen. Which of the following correctly identify the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus?

A)Unconditioned stimulus = Karen; conditioned stimulus = pizza place
B)Unconditioned stimulus = pizza place; conditioned stimulus = Karen
C)Unconditioned stimulus = the pizza smell; conditioned stimulus = Karen
D)Unconditioned stimulus = Karen; conditioned stimulus = excitement

Question 47

Advertisers often develop commercials for alcohol that include young, attractive individuals having a good time so that consumers will learn to associate their product with having a pleasant experience. This would be an example of

A)sensitization
B)classical conditioning
C)operant conditioning
D)latent learning

Question 48

You are conducting an experiment in which you are trying to manipulate the immune response of rats by using the principles of classical conditioning. First for several days of an experiment, you give rats artificially sweetened water with an immune system-enhancing drug in it. You later remove the drug and notice that the immune systems of rats are boosted when they consume the sweetened water. In your experiment, what is the conditioned stimulus (CS)?

A)The sweetened water
B)The drug
C)The enhanced immune system functioning in response to the drug
D)The enhanced immune system functioning in response to the sweetened water

Question 49

You are conducting an experiment in which you are trying to manipulate the immune response of rats by using the principles of classical conditioning. First, for several days of an experiment, you give rats artificially sweetened water with an immune system-enhancing drug in it. You later remove the drug and notice that the immune systems of rats are boosted when they consume the sweetened water. In your experiment, what is the unconditioned response (UCR)?

A)The sweetened water
B)The drug
C)The enhanced immune system functioning in response to the drug
D)The enhanced immune system functioning in response to the sweetened water

Question 50

Pavlov determined that a tone triggered salivation more quickly when the size of the _________ was more intense or greater.

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

Question 51

Imagine that you wish to condition a dog to salivate in response to a particular song that you play on your CD player. Prior to beginning the learning trials, the song would be considered a(n) _________stimulus.

A)neutral
B)unconditioned
C)conditioned
D)discriminative

Question 52

Usually, learning through classical conditioning occurs more quickly with

A)forward trace pairing of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus
B)simultaneous pairing of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus
C)forward trace pairing of the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response
D)simultaneous pairing of the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response

Question 53

A learning process in which the organism learns to associate two stimuli such that a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response is called

A)operant conditioning
B)modeling
C)classical conditioning
D)shaping

Question 54

Shannon is absorbed in the latest novel and is surprised when she looks at the clock and sees that it is dinnertime. Normally, Shannon starts feeling hungry about 5:30 pm every night but now it is 6:00 pm and her stomach just started to rumble. On her way to the dining hall, Shannon starts feeling very hungry. In Shannon's case, the unconditioned stimulus is

A)the walk to the dining hall
B)the time on her clock
C)the novel she was reading
D)the food at the dining hall

Question 55

In a research study, a dog learned to salivate in response to a tone presented alone. In this case, the salivation would technically be considered a(n)

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

Question 56

Which type of learning alerts organisms to stimuli that signal the impending arrival of an important event?

A)Sensitization
B)Classical conditioning
C)Operant conditioning
D)Latent learning

Question 57

All of the following are circumstances under which conditioned responses are typically acquired more rapidly EXCEPT

A)when the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus are paired multiple times
B)when the UCS is more intense
C)when the conditioned stimulus is presented after the unconditioned stimulus
D)when the UCS is aversive

Question 58

The role of ________________ is to conserve energy so that an organism can attend to other more important stimuli, whereas _________________ helps increase the responsiveness of an organism to potentially dangerous stimuli.

A)habituation; sensitization
B)sensitization; habituation
C)extinction; latent learning
D)latent learning; extinction

Question 59

An increase in the strength of a response to a repeated stimulus is known as

A)habituation
B)reinforcement
C)sensitization
D)classical conditioning

Question 60

With repeated presentation of a loud tone, the startle response increases in intensity. This is an example of

A)habitation
B)reinforcement
C)sensitization
D)classical conditioning

Question 61

Susan is staying with some friends who have a dog. Each night, when she has turned off the TV and is heading for bed, she gives the dog a treat. Soon the dog gets very excited whenever Susan turns off the TV at night because he has learned what this signal means. When Susan eventually leaves her friends' house, the dog continues to get excited when the owners turn off the TV, but since the owners don't give the dog a treat at this time, the dog's behaviour soon returns to normal. The change in the dog's behaviour after Susan's departure best illustrates the concept of

A)habituation
B)response cost
C)extinction
D)punishment

Question 62

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

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

Question 63

A researcher in a classical conditioning experiment first conditions a dog to salivate in response to the presentation of a red circle. After this response has been established, she presents a light immediately before she displays the red circle and after several trials, the light comes to trigger the salivation response. This example best demonstrates the process of

A)discrimination
B)stimulus generalization.
C)backward pairing of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus
D)higher-order conditioning

Question 64

The key factor in determining whether extinction will occur or not is

A)the passage of time after a conditioned stimulus has been reinforced
B)whether punishment has been used during the learning trials or not
C)the use of a conditioned stimulus that lends itself readily to habituation
D)repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus

Question 65

A smart political candidate becomes friends with a very popular professional baseball player because she hopes that this will improve her popularity with the voters. This example demonstrates the process of

A)discrimination
B)stimulus generalization
C)backward pairing of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus
D)higher-order conditioning

Question 66

A researcher in a classical conditioning experiment is attempting to condition a startle response to a green light. To do this, she illuminates the light at the same time that she plays a very loud noise. This experiment is utilizing what is called simultaneous pairing of the

A)unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus
B)unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response
C)unconditioned response and conditioned stimulus
D)unconditioned response and conditioned response

Question 67

One difficulty that a therapist might encounter when trying to treat a client with a phobia is _____________, where the fear response to a stimulus that has been extinguished might suddenly reappear if the client encounters the location where the phobia was acquired after a break.

A)secondary recovery
B)spontaneous recovery
C)automatic recovery
D)natural recovery

Question 68

Pavlov observed that when he conditioned dogs to salivate to a particular tone, not only would they salivate to this tone but also to other similar tones. This phenomenon is known as

A)negative reinforcement
B)stimulus discrimination
C)shaping
D)stimulus generalization

Question 69

In classical conditioning experiments, learning is typically fastest when the unconditioned stimulus is intense and the time interval between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus is ______.

A)very delayed
B)long
C)short
D)no amount of time

Question 70

During the process of extinction, it is not uncommon for a conditioned response to recur if, after a period of time has passed, the conditioned stimulus is presented again. This is known as

A)secondary recovery
B)spontaneous recovery
C)automatic recovery
D)natural recovery

Question 71

Stuart is afraid of public speaking, but only when he has to make speeches on the weekend. He is a professor and has no trouble speaking in front of large groups of students, and he has made effective presentations at conferences, as long as he presents on a weekday. The specificity of Stuart's fear mostly clearly demonstrates the process of

A)negative reinforcement
B)avoidance conditioning
C)stimulus generalization
D)discrimination

Question 72

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

A)negative reinforcement
B)habituation
C)discrimination
D)extinction

Question 73

In classical conditioning, discrimination refers to how

A)a conditioned response can be triggered by many different stimuli
B)a conditioned response is triggered by one stimulus but not by others
C)a conditioned response can fade when a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus
D)an unconditioned stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus

Question 74

A child is bitten by a German Shepherd when he is young. When he grows up, the child develops a fear of not just German Shepherds, but of all dogs and he refuses to go near them. The fact that this person now avoids all dogs illustrates the process of

A)punishment
B)avoidance learning
C)stimulus generalization
D)negative reinforcement

Question 75

Higher-order conditioning occurs when

A)a conditioned stimulus becomes a neutral stimulus after being paired with an established conditioned stimulus
B)a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus after being paired with an established conditioned stimulus
C)a conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus
D)a neutral response becomes a conditioned response after being paired with an established conditioned response

Question 76

If a conditioned stimulus has high stimulus generalization, then it will be triggered by several different stimuli, while if it has high discrimination, it will occur in response to _________.

A)a single stimulus
B)a neutral stimulus
C)several different stimuli
D)a discriminative stimulus

Question 77

A researcher in a classical conditioning experiment is attempting to condition a startle response to a green light. To do this, she illuminates the light, then it goes off and then she plays a very loud noise. This experiment is utilizing what type of sequence and timing of the CS-UCS pairing?

A)Forward short-delay pairing
B)Simultaneous pairing
C)Forward trace pairing
D)Backward pairing

Question 78

The process in which a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus after being paired with an already established conditioned stimulus is called

A)latent learning
B)extinction
C)higher-order conditioning
D)shaping

Question 79

Stimulus generalization refers to the process where stimuli that are similar to the initial ______________ also elicit a conditioned response.

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

Question 80

Clarence is a cat that is always fed in the same place, at the same time, every day. His food is taken out of the same cupboard before each meal, which has a particular sound when it opens that is loud enough to be noticeable. Although that cupboard is rarely opened for anything other than his cat food, when it is, Clarence seems to expect that he's about to be fed. What could explain his behaviour?

A)sensitization
B)higher order conditioning
C)lower order conditioning
D)habituation
E)operant conditioning