Deck 7: Learning: The Role of Experience

Question 1

Kaori is playing on the floor while her mother cooks. Her mother sets a spoon on the counter and goes to the refrigerator. Kaori grabs the spoon, burns her fingers, jerks her hand away, and begins to cry. The next time her mother sets a spoon down on the counter, Kaori remembers that she got burned the last time and does not try to touch it. We can say that this experience produced a relatively enduring change in Kaori's behavior; in other words, Kaori has __________ something.

A) discriminated
B) spontaneously recovered
C) learned
D) habituated

Answer 1

learned

Question 2

If an infant's cheek is stroked, the infant will turn toward the touch and begin to make sucking motions with its mouth. This unlearned response is triggered by a particular stimulus. In other words, it is a

A) fixed action pattern.
B) tabula rasa.
C) discriminatory action.
D) conditioned stimulus.

Answer 2

fixed action pattern.

Question 3

If an infant is held upright and then quickly moved forward, as if he or she were falling, the child will reflexively put his or her arms out. This behavior appears long before children learn to walk. Because this instinctive behavior would help cushion the child if he or she really fell, we can say that it has

A) the function of a tabula rasa.
B) ethology.
C) adaptive significance.
D) spontaneous recovery.

Answer 3

adaptive significance.

Question 4

Teleri has seen movie characters pinch out candle flames by licking their fingers and then squeezing the wick. She decides to try it and ends up burning the tips of her fingers badly enough that they blister. Now Teleri is careful not to put her fingers anywhere near a burning candle. We call this kind of quick acquisition of knowledge

A) one-trial learning.
B) discrimination.
C) an unconditioned stimulus.
D) spontaneous recovery.

Question 5

Bryn adopted her cat, Minnie, from the local shelter. She feeds Minnie dry food, but the previous owner fed her only canned food. Every time Bryn opens her refrigerator, her new cat comes running. Bryn never gives Minnie food after she opens the refrigerator, however, so eventually the cat stops showing up. Once in a while, though, Minnie will come running when Bryn opens the refrigerator as if food is forthcoming. This reappearance of Minnie's old behavior is called

A) generalization.
B) extinction.
C) habituation.
D) spontaneous recovery.

Question 6

Irinia's dog loves to go for walks, and she always puts a leash on him when they go out. The dog used to wag his tail as soon as they got outside, but now he wags his tail when Irinia picks up the leash. The period of time in which the dog learned to associate the leash with walks is called the __________interval.

A) acquisition
B) generalization
C) habituation
D) persistence

Question 7

Irinia's dog loves to go for walks, and she always puts a leash on him when they go out. The dog used to wag his tail as soon as they got outside, but now he wags his tail when Irinia picks up the leash. One day, Irinia is cleaning out her garage and pulls some old bungee cords out of a box. Her dog begins to jump around and wag his tail the same way he does when he thinks they are going for a walk. The dog has __________ the stimulus of the leash to the bungee cords.

A) discriminated
B) unconditioned
C) extinguished
D) generalized

Question 8

Irinia's dog loves to go for walks, and she always puts a leash on him when they go out. At first, the dog wagged his tail only when they got outside; eventually, he began to wag his tail when she picked up the leash. Irinia recently locked herself out of her place, so she has begun picking up her keys and putting them in her pocket before she takes down the leash. Now the dog begins to wag his tail when she picks up her keys. What kind of learning has happened?

A) operant conditioning
B) discriminatory
C) higher-order conditioning
D) persistence

Question 9

Trent's cat comes running when he shakes a can of treats. Trent wants to teach his cat to come when he says, "Do you want a treat?"To do this, he will ask, "Do you want a treat?"before he shakes the can of treats. Trent is

A) trying to extinguish a behavior.
B) using the parallel distributed processing model.
C) using higher-order conditioning.
D) unaware that instinctive drift will interfere with his cat's learning.

Question 10

Sonia's mother is often busy and doesn't pay very much attention to her. When Sonia cries or screams, her mother scolds her. Though she doesn't like being scolded, Sonia prefers getting some attention to having no attention at all. Sonia learns that when she wants her mother's attention, she should scream or cry. Eventually, however, Sonia's mother realizes that Sonia only wants attention, so she stops coming over when Sonia cries and screams. What should happen as a result?

A) The mother will learn to discriminate against Sonia.
B) higher-order conditioning.
C) Sonia's screaming behavior will be extinguished.
D) Sonia's screaming behavior will be reinforced.

Question 11

Sonia's mother is often busy and doesn't pay very much attention to her. When Sonia cries or screams, her mother comes over and scolds her. Though she doesn't like being scolded, Sonia prefers getting some attention to having no attention at all. Sonia learns that when she wants her mother's attention, she should scream or cry. What kind of learning is this?

A) operant conditioning
B) discriminatory
C) higher-order conditioning
D) classical conditioning

Question 12

About 65 percent of adults over the age of 20 are overweight. Based on what we know about operant conditioning, which of the following may contribute to the problem?

A) Eating is pleasurable for most people. (Positive reinforcement for eating happens immediately.)
B) Punishment (gaining weight) happens over the long term rather than right away.
C) Television and movie stars often seem to eat whatever they want, apparently without gaining weight. (Observational learning.)
D) all of these

Question 13

Troy would like to teach his dog to play a toy piano. Since the dog is unlikely to spontaneously begin playing the piano, Troy first rewards his dog for going near the piano, then for touching the piano, then for pressing on one of the keys of the piano, and so on until the dog is able to play a simple tune. This process is called

A) habituation.
B) adaptation.
C) generalization.
D) shaping.

Question 14

Dharma has agreed to take a survey to help her roommate with a sociology project. Her roommatepromises that the survey is short and won't take much of Dharma's time. Looking through the survey,Dharma sees that if she answers "yes" to one particular question, she can move on to the nextquestion. If she answers "no," she will be asked to write an explanation. Though Dharma disagreeswith many of the statements on the survey, she resents the amount of time explaining her "no"answers will take, so she answers "yes" to every question. Dharma is displaying

A) escape conditioning.
B) the Skinner effect.
C) systematic desensitization.
D) habituation.

Question 15

Ellie has migraine headaches on a regular basis. If, when she feels a headache developing, she lies down, she can prevent a migraine from developing. Her doctor prescribes a new medication that is 95 percent effective in preventing migraines. Three months after he writes the prescription, the doctor asks her whether it has helped her. According to the two-factor theory of avoidance learning, Ellie

A) wouldn't know, since she lies down when she feels a headache developing.
B) would probably say the medication works, and she has not had a headache in three months.
C) would probably tell the doctor she took the medication when she didn't.
D) would admit she never tried the medication.

Question 16

Sometimes behavior can't be controlled by conditioning alone, because instinctive behaviors get in the way. For example, researchers have taught raccoons to put coins in a piggybank, but eventually the raccoons don't want to give up the coins after they get them. This biological constraint on learning is called

A) instinctive drift.
B) conditioned aversion.
C) the Garcia Effect.
D) signal relations.

Question 17

Ashanti enjoys a style of dress her classmates call quirky when they're being kind and weird when they're not. Operant conditioning suggests that Ashanti should stop dressing in this way, because the environment is punishing her. Ahanti doesn't stop wearing the style and says that her dress style mirrors her inner uniqueness. In other words, she has strong internal reinforcement from her

A) genetic antecedents.
B) latent learning.
C) Skinner box.
D) cognitive self-evaluations.

Question 18

Tracy suffered from nausea for the first three months of her pregnancy. Because it was easy, her husband ordered Chinese take-out food three or four evenings each week. In spite of her nausea, Tracy forced herself to eat the take-out food. A year later, she and a friend walk past a Chinese restaurant and the smell of the food makes her nauseated. Which of the following explains why Tracy developed an aversion to the food but her husband did not?

A) biological preparedness
B) instinctive drift
C) spontaneous recovery
D) observational learning