Deck 5: Learning

Question 1

As described in the opening vignette, John Garcia found that:

A) if a wolf gets sick just once after eating a sheep, that wolf will avoid eating sheep in the future.
B) sheep can be taught to attack and eat wolves.
C) if a wolf gets sick just once after eating a sheep, that wolf will continue to attack and eat sheep.
D) sheep can be taught to avoid attacks by wolves.

Answer 1

if a wolf gets sick just once after eating a sheep, that wolf will avoid eating sheep in the future.

Question 2

Learning is defined as:

A) an enduring change in the way an organism responds based on experience
B) those experiences, direct or indirect, that shape the behavior of an individual
C) the associations formed between stimulus and response as a result of conditioning
D) changes in behavior that are permanent and functional

Answer 2

an enduring change in the way an organism responds based on experience

Question 3

Behaviors that are elicited automatically by a stimulus in the environment are referred to as:

A) inherited tendencies
B) reflexes
C) innate predispositions
D) motivational behaviors

Answer 3

reflexes

Question 4

A decrease in the strength of a response after repeated presentations of the stimulus is called:

A) adaptation
B) irreverence
C) habituation
D) sensory adaptation

Question 5

You are sitting in a class and a student repeatedly clears her throat. At first you are annoyed by the other student's behavior. However, after a short period of time, you don't even hear her do it anymore. You have undergone:

A) reflexive conditioning
B) sensory adaptation
C) habituation
D) conditioning

Question 6

You are house-sitting for a friend who has a large grandfather clock that chimes every 15 minutes. At first, you startle each time you hear it. However, after a short period of time, you don't even hear it anymore. You have undergone:

A) reflexive conditioning
B) observational learning
C) classical conditioning
D) habituation

Question 7

The migrating of salmon to their ancestral breeding grounds is __________; the traveling that college students do during Spring Break is __________

A) modeling; shaping
B) observational learning; generational learning
C) habitual; classical conditioning
D) a reflecx; learned behavior

Question 8

Theories of learning generally share the assumption that:

A) experience shapes behavior
B) learning is adaptive
C) careful experimentation can uncover laws of learning
D) all of the above

Question 9

Aristotle proposed the law of _____, which proposes that two events will be associated if they are experienced close together in time.

A) contingency
B) contiguity
C) similarity
D) co-existence

Question 10

The most important law of association, according to Aristotle, is the principle of:

A) continuity
B) similarity
C) contrast
D) contiguity

Question 11

I have come to associate my students' voices with their faces. I have made use of:

A) the law of contiguity
B) the law of similarity
C) the law of contingency
D) the law of semblance

Question 12

Aristotle proposed the law of _____, which proposes that two events will be associated if they resemble each other.

A) contingency
B) contiguity
C) similarity
D) semblance

Question 13

Due to your experiences with people of a certain type, you find yourself responding to new people in the same way as people in the past that belonged to that category or type. You are adhering to:

A) the law of contiguity
B) the law of similarity
C) the law of contingency
D) the law of resemblance

Question 14

A fundamental aspect of the behaviorist agenda was to:

A) ensure that the unique nature of humans was recognized
B) make sure that thoughts and motives were adequately studied
C) rid psychology of such terms as thought and motives
D) replace correlational studies with experiments in the study of learning

Question 15

Classical conditioning was originally proposed by:

A) John Watson
B) Edward Thorndike
C) Ivan Pavlov
D) B. F. Skinner

Question 16

What kind of learning can be achieved through classical conditioning?

A) Learning that an event occurred
B) Learning that people have certain patterns of behavior
C) Learning that two events are related
D) Learning that a behavior produces a particular result

Question 17

As you drive down the street, a leaf hits your windshield. You know that the leaf is not going to break the windshield and yet you blink anyway. In classical conditioning, the leaf is a/an:

A) CS
B) CR
C) UCS
D) UCR

Question 18

As you drive down the street, a leaf hits your windshield. You know that it is not going to break the windshield and yet you blink anyway. In classical conditioning, blinking to an object that is about to hit you in the face is a/an:

A) CS
B) CR
C) UCS
D) UCR

Question 19

You recently noticed that eating sour candy causes extra salivation as your body reacts to the sour taste. You love sour candy and eat it often. The other day you purchased a new bag of sour candy and as you were looking at the bag, you noticed that you were salivating. The salivation while looking at the bag is a:

A) CS
B) CR
C) UCS
D) UCR

Question 20

You recently noticed that eating sour candy causes extra salivation as your body reacts to the sour taste. You love sour candy and eat it often. The other day you purchased a new bag of sour candy and as you were looking at the bag, you noticed that you were salivating. The sour candy is a:

A) CS
B) CR
C) UCS
D) UCR

Question 21

In order for classical conditioning to occur, Pavlov suggests that the UCS should be paired with:

A) a stimulus that is similar to the UCS
B) a stimulus that is greater in intensity than the UCS
C) a response that is temporally coincident with the UCS
D) a neutral stimulus

Question 22

In classical conditioning, UCRs are essentially:

A) learned
B) co-determined
C) reflexes
D) contingent, contiguous

Question 23

Conditioned taste aversions:

A) can last for years
B) can be acquired in some cases while unconscious
C) have been demonstrated in animals without a cortex
D) all of the above

Question 24

Conditioned taste aversions generally result from __________ and are considered__________ from an evolutionary perspective

A) strong or bitter tastes; adaptive
B) taste associations with nausea; crucial to survival
C) unpleasant odors; necessary for successful foraging
D) classical conditioning through illness; essential in developing taste preferences

Question 25

Although you used to love cherry candy, the taste of it now makes you slightly nauseous. You realize that you have felt that way ever since you experienced food poisoning shortly after eating a cherry candy. This is an example of

A) unconditioned stimulus
B) conditioned taste aversion
C) operant conditioning
D) observational learning

Question 26

Chemotherapy patients may associate stimuli such as the nurse's voice or the treatment center with the nausea induced by the chemotherapy and thus become nauseated in response to those stimuli. Which of the following would be the most effective technique for counteracting this phenomenon?

A) Reminding the patient that it is the chemical treatment rather than the various other stimuli that is responsible for the nausea
B) Repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimuli without the administration of the chemotherapy or with the use of anti-nausea agents
C) Offering an operant reinforcement for not experiencing nausea
D) Only giving the chemotherapy sporadically in conjunction with the stimuli which have come to elicit nausea

Question 27

Raccoons have been getting into my garbage and making a mess. A person at the hardware store tells me of a chemical that I can spray on my garbage. The chemical makes the raccoons sick soon after eating my garbage and that makes them avoid my garbage cans. This is an example of:

A) conditioned taste aversions
B) conditioned emotional responses
C) conditioned immune responses
D) none of the above

Question 28

The purpose of Watson's experiment involving little Albert was to determine if:

A) infants are innately capable of learning fear
B) phobias do exist
C) babies are just as susceptible as adults to fears
D) emotional responses can be learned

Question 29

Watson and Raynor found that little Albert transferred his fear of rats to:

A) a rabbit
B) a dog
C) cotton wool
D) all of the above

Question 30

Irrational fears of specific objects or situations are known as:

A) delusions
B) delusions of grandeur
C) paranoias
D) phobias

Question 31

In a study described in your textbook, participants saw a picture of either a beige or a blue pen. At the same time, they listened to either familiar American music or unfamiliar non-American music. The results of the study showed that:

A) non-familiar music made people attend more carefully to the preferred pen
B) people prefer vibrant blue over boring beige
C) participants made positive associated to the pen when hearing familiar music
D) people who are positively rewarded will remember the pen better

Question 32

There is a movie that innately causes me to become very enthusiastic. I watch that movie prior to a particular class. After I have watched the movie prior to that class enough times, I come to realize that I really like the class. This shows that:

A) the principles of positive and negative reinforcement are equivalent
B) the power of the law of effect
C) positive emotions can be classically conditioned
D) positive reinforcement works better than punishment

Question 33

The three kinds of conditioned responses discussed in the chapter do NOT include:

A) conditioned taste aversions
B) conditioned cognitive states
C) conditioned emotional responses
D) conditioned immune responses

Question 34

When organisms are classically conditioned to a CS, they may respond to similar stimuli with that same CS. That is an example of:

A) response sequencing
B) response generalization
C) stimulus generalization
D) stimulus degradation

Question 35

In a well-known example of classical conditioning, researchers taught a baby named Little Albert to fear a furry white rat by frightening him with a loud noise each time he reached out to touch the rat. After this experience, Little Albert became afraid of white sheep and other white furry objects. Little Albert's fear of furry sheep is an example of

A) a conditioned stimulus
B) operant conditioning
C) stimulus generalization
D) latent learning

Question 36

Stimulus generalization is a tendency to react to stimuli similar to training stimuli by giving a:

A) different response to similar stimuli
B) different response to different stimuli
C) similar response to different stimuli
D) similar response to similar stimuli

Question 37

Aristotle's principle of similarity is similar to:

A) habituation
B) stimulus discrimination
C) stimulus generalization
D) blocking

Question 38

A class has nothing but essay exams. I study in a particular way and end up with an A in that course. The next semester, there is another course that also has essay exams. I study the same way. This is an example of:

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

Question 39

Despite the fact that my classes have exams, I find that I study for each exam in a very different manner. This is an example of:

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

Question 40

To associate the can opener with food, I run the can opener and then feed my cat. From a classical conditioning perspective, each pairing of the sound of the can opener with food is referred to as a/an:

A) extinction event
B) conditioning trial
C) acquisition event
D) reinforcing event

Question 41

My dog Anka often barks when the doorbell rings. Anka also has an unusual tendency to watch television (she prefers football to baseball, and hates Westerns). When the doorbell rings on a television show, she looks alertly but does not bark. This is an example of

A) stimulus generalization
B) stimulus discrimination
C) habituation
D) positive reinforcement

Question 42

In classical conditioning, _____ refers to the process by which a CR is weakened by presenting the CS without the UCS.

A) habituation
B) extinction
C) remission
D) anti-thesis

Question 43

My cat gets food from a can and quickly learns that the sound of the electric can opener is a cue that she is soon to be fed. I soon learn that dry food is better for my cat so I start to feed her only food from a bag. At first she runs when she hears the electric can opener. After awhile, she doesn't do that anymore. She has displayed:

A) positive reinforcement
B) negative reinforcement
C) extinction
D) punishment

Question 44

The reemergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response is called:

A) anti-thesis
B) spontaneous recovery
C) re-learning
D) intermittent acquisition

Question 45

Although my cat no longer considers the can opener a sign that she is about to be fed, every now and then, at seemingly random times, she does come running when I use the can opener. She is exhibiting:

A) the law of effect
B) positive reinforcement
C) negative reinforcement
D) spontaneous recovery

Question 46

The time interval between the presentation of a CS and UCS is called the:

A) interval schedule
B) interstimulus period
C) latency period
D) interstimulus interval

Question 47

With regard to a conditioned eyeblink response, the interstimulus interval that produces the best classical conditioning is thought to be:

A) 0.5 second
B) 1.0 second
C) 0.5 minute
D) 5 minutes

Question 48

Under which of these conditions will conditioned taste aversions occur? The interstimulus interval is:

A) 15 seconds
B) 15 minutes
C) 3 hours
D) all of the above

Question 49

Normally, in classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus (CS) is usually:

A) withheld during acquisition
B) presented before the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
C) simultaneous with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
D) presented after the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Question 50

In _____ conditioning, it is thought that the CS ìpredictsî the UCS.

A) forward
B) traditional classical
C) backward
D) pre-contiguous

Question 51

I want to teach my cat that the sound of the can opener is a signal that she is about to be fed. I run the can opener prior to and up until the point when the food is presented. Which form of conditioning is this?

A) traditional classical conditioning
B) forward
C) pre-contingent
D) pre-contiguous

Question 52

In _____ conditioning, the CS is presented prior to the UCS and is terminated before the UCS is presented.

A) delayed
B) trace
C) pre-contingent
D) pre-contiguous

Question 53

I want to teach my cat that the sound of the can opener is a signal that she is being fed. I run the can opener prior to the point when the food is presented. Which form of conditioning is this?

A) delayed
B) forward or trace
C) contiguous
D) contingent

Question 54

If the CS and UCS are presented at the same time, then it is called _____ conditioning.

A) coincident
B) temporally coherent
C) synchronous
D) simultaneous

Question 55

I want to teach my cat that the sound of the can opener is a signal that she is being fed. I run the can opener at the same time that the food is presented. Which form of conditioning is this?

A) coincident
B) trace
C) simultaneous
D) contingent

Question 56

In _____ conditioning, the UCS is presented and stopped before the CS.

A) inverted
B) backward
C) anti-thesis
D) opponent-process

Question 57

I want to teach my cat that the sound of the can opener is a signal that she is being fed. I run the can opener after food is presented. Which form of conditioning is this?

A) delayed
B) reverse
C) inverted
D) backward

Question 58

The failure of a stimulus to elicit a CR when it is combined with another stimulus that already elicits the response is called:

A) proactive interference
B) blocking
C) impingement
D) intersection

Question 59

I am finding it difficult to teach my cat that the sound of the can opener is a signal that it is time to eat. The difficulty may be linked to the fact that I always feed my cat right after my alarm clock goes off in the morning. This is a demonstration of which of the following concepts associated with classical conditioning?

A) latent inhibition
B) inverted conditioning
C) blocking
D) co-concurrence learning

Question 60

The slow down of learning that is associated with earlier or previous experiences with the neutral stimulus in the absence of the UCS is called:

A) impingement
B) retroactive interference
C) latent inhibition
D) priming

Question 61

For my cat to learn that the sound of the can opener signals that it is time to eat is posing a problem since the can opener has been heard by her hundreds of times without it being followed by food. This exemplifies:

A) latent inhibition
B) inverted conditioning
C) blocking
D) co-concurrence learning

Question 62

It is believed that there are numerous factors that influence the ability of an organism to be classically conditioned. Which of the following factors is thought to affect learning via classical conditioning?

A) the interstimulus interval
B) the temporal order of CS and UCS
C) the individual's learning history
D) all of the above are influential

Question 63

The experiment by Garcia and Koelling that exposed rats to three different conditioned stimuli (light, sound, and taste), demonstrated that:

A) organisms are prepared to learn certain associations.
B) food aversions are easier to condition in rats than in most other animals.
C) chaining of behavior is possible.
D) negative reinforcement is more powerful than positive reinforcement.

Question 64

In Garcia's experiment with rats being exposed to radiation, what was the result of that study?

A) they avoided any food presented whenever the light was presented
B) they developed an aversion to flavored water
C) the playing of sound resulted in bar pressing which resulted in the termination of the sound
D) all of the above

Question 65

Research more recent than Pavlov's suggests that:

A) the conditioned response and unconditioned response are usually similar, but rarely identical.
B) the conditioned response and unconditioned response are absolutely identical.
C) humans are less susceptible to classical conditioning than are other organisms.
D) humans are more susceptible to classical conditioning than are other organisms.

Question 66

Not every factor or variable affects an individual's ability to learn. Which one of the following is NOT influential with regard to classical conditioning?

A) temporal order of CS and UCS
B) the individual's learning history
C) the primary modality of the organism
D) the organism's readiness to learn certain associations

Question 67

Regarding conditioning, prepared learning refers to:

A) an organism's ability to be conditioned to endure changes in the way it responds regardless of experience
B) the ability of an organism to learn to operate on the environment to produce a desired consequence
C) the biologically wired preparedness of an organism to learn some associations more easily than others
D) the expectancy that one cannot escape aversive events and must therefore be prepared for emotional disturbances

Question 68

Humans are more likely to develop phobias of spiders or snakes, rather than flowers or sheep. This is likely due to

A) operant conditioning
B) classical conditioning
C) prepared learning
D) learned helplessness

Question 69

Which of the following is true of preparedness?

A) most humans connect visual stimuli with nausea
B) preparedness depends on chaining together events
C) preparedness depends on sensory capabilities
D) preparedness only influences operant conditioning

Question 70

The evolved tendency of some associations to be learned more readily than others is known as

A) classical conditioning
B) evolutionary associations
C) preparedness learning
D) modeling

Question 71

Behaviorists believe that the association learned in classical conditioning is between the:

A) CS and CR
B) CS and UCR
C) CR and UCR
D) UCS and UCR

Question 72

What do organisms learn in classical conditioning, according to Pavlov?

A) response-stimulus-response associations
B) stimulus-response associations
C) stimulus-stimulus associations
D) stimulus-stimulus-response associations

Question 73

Pavlov's explanation of classical conditioning included the belief that:

A) paradoxical conditioning reflects an adaptive feature of conditioning
B) the CS becomes a signal to the organism that the UCS is about to occur
C) operant conditioning was a specific sub-type of respondent learning
D) a desired CR could be achieved through presentation of the CS without the UCS

Question 74

In response to the question, ìWhat do organisms learn in classical conditioning?,î the weight of evidence tends to:

A) support the belief that stimulus-stimulus associations are learned
B) support the belief that stimulus-response associations are learned
C) support the belief that response-response associations are learned
D) be completely inconclusive

Question 75

The fact that conditioning is affected by the temporal order of CS and UCS and that blocking occurs suggests that:

A) the law of contiguity is insufficient in explaining learning
B) animals cannot predict the relationship between CS and UCS
C) organisms do not respond to the CS as if it were the UCS
D) paradoxical conditioning is the true form of learning

Question 76

In place of the law of contiguity, Rescorla and Wagner (1972) proposed the law of:

A) contingency
B) prediction
C) association
D) preparedness

Question 77

What effect has the Law of Prediction had on the field of classical conditioning?

A) It has moved it in a biophysiological direction.
B) It has demonstrated it has greater usefulness than operant conditioning
C) It has moved it in a cognitive direction.
D) All of the above.

Question 78

In _____ conditioning, the CR is sometimes the opposite of the UCR.

A) paradoxical
B) anti-thesis
C) reactive
D) inverse

Question 79

A decrease in sensitivity that occurs with paradoxical conditioning is called:

A) habituation
B) sensory adaptation
C) conditioned tolerance
D) extinction

Question 80

Assuming that smoking reduces stress, what is likely to occur if paradoxical conditioning is the case?

A) simply seeing a cigarette would increase stress, which would then be reduced by smoking
B) stress levels would increase when the individual smoked a cigarette
C) stress levels would be unaffected by seeing a cigarette
D) the stress reducing effects of smoking would depend on the individual's state of mind