Deck 11: Behaviorism 1892-1956

Question 1

Using the findings from his puzzle box research, Thorndike argued that animals:

A) reason but they also learn by trial and error.
B) do not reason, but they do learn by trial and error.
C) reason using cognitive problem skills similar to young children.
D) none of these.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Mills and later Kohler criticized Thorndike's puzzle box research, by arguing____.

A) his research lacked a large enough sample to be significant or valid.
B) the method did not permit animals to engage in trial and error learning and therefore he only found evidence of conscious reasoning.
C) the method only allowed trial and error learning so that is what was found.
D) that Thorndike may have falsified the data and the question was open for debate.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Thorndike proposed that two laws account for all behavior, no matter how complex. Which one of the following is one of these laws?

A) S=Q3R
B) The law of exercise
C) The law of delayed conditioning
D) The discriminate stimulus law

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Thorndike proposed that two laws account for all behavior, no matter how complex. Which one of the following is one of these laws?

A) S=Q3R
B) The law of effect
C) JND law
D) The discriminate stimulus law

Question 5

In his work Human Learning Thorndike applied his S-R associations to all learning. Which of the following was one of his arguments?

A) forgetting lowers S-R probabilities.
B) human learning is automatic and unconscious
C) learning increases S-R probabilities
D) all of these

Question 6

Thorndike's S-R connectionism was based on animal learning and then extended to human learning. Yet, Thorndike like later behaviorists was haunted by a problem. The problem was?

A) difficulty in operationally defining learning.
B) finding a way to give up the anecdotal method of research for more objective methods.
C) meaning
D) falsifiability

Question 7

The animal psychologists Robert Yerkes struggled with the problem of consciousness and came up with three grades or levels that correspond to behavior. Form lowest to highest these levels were:

A) rational - discriminative - intelligent
B) discriminative - intelligent - rational
C) intelligent - discriminative - rational
D) simple - reflexive - problem solving.

Question 8

When Watson proclaimed his vision for psychology and that vision was behaviorism, it:

A) constituted a totally new idea that was a revolution against all previous trends and ideas in psychology
B) was a logical development of trends in psychology since 1892
C) shocked psychologists even more than Freud had
D) was made into a hit musical, Behavior!, starring Little Albert

Question 9

Box 11.1 "J. B. Watson, Modernism in Person" suggests that Watson's paper "Psychology as the behaviorist views it" was a manifesto. Why was it a manifesto?

A) it aggressively repudiated the past and set out a vision for the future of psychology.
B) it warmly asked for consensus and agreement among psychologists, asking psychologists to see the benefits of the old and the new psychology.
C) it was a very long article, filled with supporting empirical data and graphs that supported his thesis.
D) none of these.

Question 10

According to Watson, the main reason mentalistic psychology had failed to become a natural science was that it:

A) depended on introspection
B) was preoccupied with theory
C) failed to study animals
D) aimed at social application

Question 11

Watson thought that traditional psychology's interest in consciousness reflected:

A) psychologist's desire to be socially useful
B) secret belief in a human soul
C) neurotic preoccupation with the self
D) a need to justify continued use of introspection

Question 12

According to Watson a child's attachment to its mother is:

A) determined by genetically based responses to maternal stimuli
B) a conditioned emotional response
C) a by-product of unconscious responses to anxiety
D) based on sublimation of sexual desire for mother

Question 13

Watson's manifesto for behaviorism shared important themes with contemporary manifestos in the field of:

A) modern art
B) theology
C) politics
D) sociology

Question 14

Watson faulted introspection on three grounds. One of which was:

A) practical
B) empirical
C) philosophical
D) all of these

Question 15

According to Watson, the brain:

A) initiates our behavior without our awareness
B) had to be the central focus of behaviorist re search
C) did nothing but connect stimuli and responses
D) all of the above

Question 16

When Watson argued that psychologists should ignore consciousness because it was private, and science dealt only with public data, he laid the ground for:

A) methodological behaviorism
B) physiologically reductive behaviorism
C) radical behaviorism
D) the ultimate demise of behaviorism

Question 17

Karl Lashley suggested that the choice psychology faced between behaviorism and the older traditional psychology came down to a choice between two incompatible world views, these world views were?

A) realism vs. anti-realism
B) nature vs. nurture
C) Plato's forms vs. Descartes' copy theory
D) scientific vs. humanistic

Question 18

According to the text, the central problem of scientific psychology in the twentieth century is:

A) developing applications of psychology from the scientific base
B) showing how behavior is governed by the nervous system
C) integrating introspection and experimentation
D) whether humans can be consistently conceived as machines

Question 19

In the 1920s and 1930s, the philosophical system of ________ reinforced American psychologists' belief that psychology needed to be defined as the science of behavior.

A) Kantian idealism
B) logical positivism
C) Cartesian rationalism
D) French naturalism

Question 20

In an operational definition, a theoretical term is defined by:

A) linking it to observation terms
B) reference to the unseen entity it names
C) relating it to other theoretical terms with one or more axioms
D) explicating its conscious content

Question 21

Which of the following sentence completions is NOT an example of an operational definition of "anxiety?" Anxiety may be operationally defined as:

A) sweaty palms and rapid breathing
B) an unpleasant feeling of unfocused fear
C) the statement `I feel anxious'
D) a score in the 95th percentile on the Anxiety Inventory

Question 22

According to logical positivism, when we link a theoretical term to observations, we are:

A) giving it surplus meaning
B) reducing it to physiology
C) axiomatizing it
D) operationally defining it

Question 23

Clark Hull wanted to explain behavior in terms of:

A) mechanistic S - R processes
B) purposes and cognitions
C) unconscious motives
D) conscious beliefs

Question 24

In contrast to Hull's associative theory of learning, Tolman asserted his concept of the:

A) intervening variable
B) dependent variable
C) associative network
D) information network

Question 25

When a rat learns a maze, E. C. Tolman said it acquires:

A) a set of stimulus-response connections
B) a habit-family hierarchy
C) a cognitive map
D) neuro-chemical stimulation to the limbic system of the brain

Question 26

When a rat learns a maze Clark Hull said it acquires:

A) a set of stimulus-response connections
B) a habit-family hierarchy
C) a cognitive map
D) neuro-chemical stimulation to the limbic system of the brain

Question 27

Which of the following "Golden Age" theorists regarded animals as stimulus-response machines?

A) C. L. Hull
B) E. C. Tolman
C) B. F Skinner
D) L. Positivism

Question 28

According to Tolman's earliest formulation of the problem of mind, mental entities such as purposes and cognitions:

A) have no place in psychology at all
B) may be legitimately inferred from behavior
C) are observable aspects of behavior itself
D) are mental representations of the world

Question 29

Imagine an experiment by Tolman in which he measures how fast Norwegian rats run down a runway for different sizes of food pellets. Using Tolman's ideas, match the description of the independent variable to one of the terms listed below from the experiment:

A) running speed of rat
B) size of food pellet
C) species of rat
D) drive state of rat

Question 30

Imagine an experiment by Tolman in which he measures how fast Norwegian rats run down a runway for different sizes of food pellets. Using Tolman's ideas, match the description of the intervening variable to one of the terms listed below from the experiment:

A) running speed of rat
B) size of food pellet
C) species of rat
D) drive state of rat

Question 31

Imagine an experiment by Tolman in which he measures how fast Norwegian rats run down a runway for different sizes of food pellets. Using Tolman's ideas, match the description of the dependent variable to one of the terms listed below from the experiment:

A) running speed of rat
B) size of food pellet
C) species of rat
D) drive state of rat

Question 32

Imagine a subject who has learned to withdraw her finger by moving it up and away from a shock pad when a warning signal precedes the shock. Now turn the subject's hand over so the same reflex might drive her finger into the shock pad. Watson predicts __________ while Tolman predicts __________.

A) a cognitive map that will help her avoid the shock, an S-R connection that will cause her to move into the shock.
B) a molar response in which she avoids the shock, a molecular reflex the needs to be unlearned.
C) a new molecular reflex will need to be learned for avoidance, a molar response resulting in shock avoidance.
D) none of these.

Question 33

Which aspect of Hull's theorizing had the greatest influence?

A) building machines capable of learning
B) rejecting operational definition of psychological concepts
C) proposing axiomatic mathematical theories
D) his aggressive personality

Question 34

In 1951, Karl Lashley criticized the S-R chaining theory of complex behavior because it:

A) had not been supported by research findings
B) was physiologically impossible
C) was philosophically incoherent
D) ignored conscious awareness of behavior

Question 35

Skinner argued that Freud's great discovery was that human behavior has unconscious causes but Freud's great mistake was _______.

A) using case studies to as the basis of his theory
B) using hypnosis to cure his patients when talking to them was effective.
C) inventing the mental apparatus (id, ego, superego) to explain human behavior.
D) attempting to be a conquistador and change the field of psychology

Question 36

Skinner said that Freud had one great insight into human behavior and that was:

A) thinking that much of the cause of behavior were unconscious
B) overemphasizing the sex instinct
C) believing that cause of neurosis was childhood trauma
D) postulating inner mental causes of behavior such as the superego and id

Question 37

Radical behaviorism is based on the older philosophical system of:

A) neorealism
B) Cartesian rationalism
C) Kantian idealism
D) Humean empiricism

Question 38

Skinner regarded organisms as:

A) autonomous agents who choose their behaviors
B) stimulus-response connection machines
C) places where independent variables interact to cause behavior
D) genetically programmed to behave in species-specific ways

Question 39

Skinner criticized earlier experimental methods in animal psychology for:

A) chopping behavior up into arbitrary trials
B) not being enough like the natural world
C) involving subjective and arbitrary judgments by psychologists
D) all of the above

Question 40

According to Skinner, when I say "I am leaving the party" I am:

A) expressing an intention
B) tacting my own behavior
C) vocalizing cognitive mediators
D) reporting a brain state

Question 41

Skinner's operant methodology included placing an organism in a space and reinforcing a behavior that it may make at any time. Yet, for Skinner the basic datum of analysis was:

A) rate of responding
B) trial and error learning
C) time, in the sense of how long it took the organism to forget the response when punishment was administered.
D) all of these.

Question 42

Skinner rejected the existence of inner causes of behavior, a widespread belief he called the concept of:

A) free will
B) neorealism
C) autonomous man
D) junkshop psychology

Question 43

In contrast to the wide spread belief in the inner cause of behavior, Skinner emphasized external variables, characterizing a person, or any behaving organism as a(n):

A) machine
B) homunculus
C) experimental space
D) locus of variables

Question 44

Which of the following is NOT one of Skinner's contingencies of reinforcement?

A) response
B) stimulus
C) reinforcer
D) intervening variable

Question 45

Hull gave as his main reason for excluding consciousness from psychology the argument that it:

A) could not obviously be connected to brain function
B) could not be publicly observed
C) did not exist
D) was not necessary to his postulate system

Question 46

The concept of mediation was introduced to S-R theory in order to:

A) explain animal species-differences in learning
B) explain biofeedback
C) account for human symbolic processes
D) meet the challenge of artificial intelligence

Question 47

The neo-Hullian informal behaviorists tried to explain thought processes in terms of:

A) stimuli and responses inside an organism that "mediate" between stimulus and response
B) hard to observe brain processes at the sub-cortical level
C) commonsense beliefs and desires
D) how subliminal stimuli can subtly affect overt behavior

Question 48

According to Gilbert Ryle, the mistake of Cartesian dualism is to think that:

A) mental processes cannot be explained in terms of neuropsychology
B) behavior is not lawfully connected to environmental stimuli
C) behaviors are controlled by an inner soul, or ghost
D) the soul is not immortal

Question 49

According to philosophical or logical behaviorism, the meaning of everyday mental terms comes from:

A) reference to states of the brain
B) reference to behavioral dispositions to behave a certain way
C) being shaped by society to respond in certain ways to internal stimuli
D) reference to computational functions in the mind

Question 50

According to the philosophical analyses of Ludwig Wittgenstein:

A) moaning expresses pain it does not describe it.
B) there is no such thing as a uniform cognitive process as memory
C) psychology probably cannot be a science
D) all of the above

Question 51

One reason given by Wittgenstein for concluding that sensations such as pains are not mental objects is that:

A) sensations are not things
B) we can be fooled by our experiences
C) they do not follow conventional rules of localization
D) sensations are really physiological states

Question 52

In general, Wittgenstein argues that psychology should:

A) not look for processes lying behind our behavior
B) become more physiological
C) become more introspective
D) try to emulate Newton as much as possible

Question 53

One reason given by Wittgenstein for concluding that sensations such as pains are not mental objects is that:

A) sensations are not things
B) we can be fooled by our experiences
C) they do not follow conventional rules of localization
D) sensations are really physiological states

Question 54

According to Wittgenstein, a mental concept such as memory is best thought of as a(n):

A) family resemblance concept with no single feature shared by all members
B) physiological process that is shared by all members.
C) operationally defined concept
D) useful, but not true, scientific concept

Question 55

A follower of Wittgenstein might say that a person who finds modern art incomprehensible:

A) doesn't know much about art but knows what he likes
B) is right: it is incomprehensible
C) doesn't participate in the form of life of modernism

Question 56

Why did Thorndike scorn the anecdotal method uses by comparative psychology and how did his use of "puzzle boxes" support his argument that animals do not reason? What criticism did Mills and later Kohler make against Thorndike's puzzle box and the findings it produced?

Question 57

Explain how Watson criticized introspective psychology on empirical, philosophical and practical grounds?

Question 58

Summarize the basic ideas of logical positivism and discuss why psychology in the 1930's embraced Operationism.

Question 59

Sketch out a Tolman-Honzlk rat maze. Explain how this maze tests the difference predictions between the battling theories of Tolman vs. Hull. The results tended to support which theory? Who had more influence on psychology and why?

Question 60

Skinner is different from almost every psychological thinker with the exception of Watson in that Skinner argues that people deserve neither praise nor blame for anything they do. Explain Skinner's reasoning and summarize his radical behaviorism. Why is it wrong to call Skinner an S-R psychologist?

Question 61

Explain Skinner's views of human language and demonstrate how his view represents his treatment of consciousness?

Question 62

How did the Neo-Hullians admit cognitive processes into behavior theory without giving up the rigor of S-R formulations? In other words, explain the concept of mediation.

Question 63

What did the philosopher Gilbert Ryle mean when he attacked the dogma of the "Ghost in the Machine" begun by Descartes. Briefly describe Wittgenstein's criticisms of psychology, and sketch what he would have psychologists do instead.

Question 64

You go to an art museum and you discover what you find to be a beautiful impressionistic painting of water lilies made of little tabs of paint. Contrast how a behaviorist would understand the beauty in the painting with that of the philosopher Wittgenstein. Explain what Wittgenstein means by his statement that human action is meaningful only within the setting of a form of life?