Deck 5: Section 5: Learning

Question 1

Gabe got stuck in an elevator in a high-rise office building one morning. Now he refuses to enter an elevator. If "entering an elevator" is the operant, what type of consequence has altered Gabe's behavior?

A)punishment by application
B)punishment by removal
C)positive reinforcement
D)negative reinforcement

Answer 1

punishment by application

Question 2

Six-year-old Warren watches as his grandmother puts freshly baked cookies into a jar. The jar sits on the first shelf in grandma's cabinet, a height that Warren cannot yet reach. After his grandmother leaves the kitchen, Warren takes a chair, sets it in front of the counter, and climbs up to the cabinet to get a cookie. What is the operant in this example?

A)the cookie
B)grandma's presence
C)carrying the chair to the kitchen
D)Warren's age

Answer 2

carrying the chair to the kitchen

Question 3

"Responses followed by a satisfying effect are strengthened and likely to occur again in a particular situation, but responses followed by a dissatisfying effect are weakened and less likely to occur again in a particular situation." What principle does this statement describe?

A)biological preparedness
B)learned helplessness
C)the law of effect
D)the Premack principle

Answer 3

the law of effect

Question 4

Sarah gets a weekly allowance, but only if all of her chores are completed by 5 P.M. on Friday night. Although Sarah does some work around the house during the week, most of her chores are done in a burst of activity after she comes home from school on Friday afternoon. Sarah's behavior is being maintained on a _____ schedule of reinforcement.

A)variable-ratio (VR)
B)fixed-ratio (FR)
C)variable-interval (VI)
D)fixed-interval (FI)

Question 5

Which psychologists strongly insisted that psychology should only study observable behaviors, not mental processes or consciousness?

A)Martin Seligman and John Garcia
B)Robert Rescorla and Edward L. Thorndike
C)Edward C. Tolman and Albert Bandura
D)John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner

Question 6

The _____ served as the foundation for what Pavlov eventually referred to as classical conditioning.

A)development of learned helplessness in dogs that were given inescapable shock
B)use of food rewards in training dogs
C)training of rats to navigate a maze
D)role of saliva in digestion

Question 7

_____ is a movement that advocates turning daily life into a kind of virtual reality game, in which "points" or other conditioned reinforcers are awarded to reward healthy or productive behaviors.

A)Gamification
B)Operant conditioning
C)Fantasy league
D)Token economy

Question 8

Madison met her first serious boyfriend when she was working a summer job at a café on the beach at an oceanfront resort. Years later, when Madison smells the distinctive smell of saltwater and sand, she still feels a twinge of sadness, remembering the ending of their romance at the end of the summer when they both returned to their separate colleges. In this example, the conditioned stimulus is _____ and the conditioned response is _____.

A)the smell of the ocean; sadness
B)sadness; the smell of the ocean
C)the smell of the ocean; sexual arousal
D)the smell of the ocean; memories of being a waitress at the café

Question 9

Which of the following advertising techniques is based on classical conditioning principles?

A)a $5.00 coupon toward your next purchase of Brand A
B)the maker of Brand A explaining why the product works so well
C)an attractive model using Brand A
D)people shopping for Brand A

Question 10

According to B. F. Skinner, psychology should restrict itself to the study of:

A)mental processes and unconscious motivations.
B)behaviors that were most adaptive to primitive humans.
C)phenomena that can be objectively measured and verified.
D)behaviors that are considered atypical within a culture.

Question 11

Tyrone always starts his day with a cup of black coffee. Last night, Tyrone stayed at his mother's home, and she made him a cup of coffee when he got up. Later, Tyrone was surprised to learn that the coffee was decaffeinated because he had actually felt more alert after drinking it. In this example, what are the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response?

A)The CS is the caffeine, and the CR is alertness.
B)The CS is the smell and taste of coffee, and the CR is the caffeine.
C)The CS is alertness, and the CR is the smell and taste of coffee.
D)The CS is the smell and taste of coffee, and the CR is alertness.

Question 12

Learning is defined as:

A)a process that produces a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge as a result of past experience.
B)a process that produces a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge due to natural or instinctive processes.
C)the ability to solve problems and apply previous experiences to current situations.
D)one's ability to replace old habits with new habits.

Question 13

Research with rats has revealed that taste aversions can be produced when the interval between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus is:

A)about five seconds.
B)between five and 10 seconds.
C)no longer than one hour.
D)as long as 24 hours.

Question 14

Ivan conditioned his pet bloodhound, Watson, to drool every time the doorbell rang. After a few weeks, he got tired of mopping up the puddle of drool by his front door, so he repeatedly rang the doorbell without pairing the sound with food. Eventually, the process of _____ occurred, and Watson stopped drooling every time the doorbell rang.

A)learned helplessness
B)stimulus discrimination
C)instinctive drift
D)extinction

Question 15

Whenever her cell phone vibrates, Akiko immediately retrieves her phone to see who is texting her. The majority of the time, Akiko also answers the text right away. In this scenario, the vibrating cell phone is a(n) _____ for Akiko's response.

A)discriminative stimulus
B)operant
C)conditioned reinforcer
D)primary reinforcer

Question 16

_____ was the researcher who proclaimed, "The animal behaves like a scientist, detecting causal relations among events and using a range of information about those events to make relevant inferences."

A)Abraham Maslow
B)B) F. Skinner
C)Robert Rescorla
D)Albert Bandura

Question 17

In the famous "Little Albert" study, what was the conditioned stimulus?

A)the white rat
B)fear of the loud clang
C)fear at the sight of the rat
D)the loud clang

Question 18

If an action is negatively reinforced, it is _____ likely to be repeated. If an action is positively reinforced, it is _____ likely to be repeated.

A)less; more
B)more; less
C)less; less
D)more; more

Question 19

During a severe thunderstorm, Christopher was talking on the phone with his girlfriend when lightning struck the house and the electrical shock traveled through the telephone wire. Christopher received a strong shock and the fright of his life. Although he wasn't severely injured, he developed an intense fear of lightning and thunderstorms. However, Christopher did NOT develop a fear of telephones or his girlfriend. Which concept helps explain this fact?

A)latent learning
B)the law of effect
C)biological preparedness
D)stimulus discrimination

Question 20

In his original studies of digestion, Pavlov placed food on a dog's tongue to make the dog salivate. In this situation, the food is a(n) _____ stimulus and the dog salivating is a(n) _____ response.

A)conditioned; unconditioned
B)unconditioned; unconditioned
C)conditioned; conditioned
D)unconditioned; conditioned

Question 21

Classical conditioning involves _____, while operant conditioning involves _____.

A)pigeons; dogs
B)behavior emitted by an organism; behavior elicited by a stimulus
C)associating two stimuli; associating a response and a consequence
D)associating a response and a consequence; associating two stimuli

Question 22

While his exhausted mother was taking a nap, four-year-old Dennis decided to help her out by doing the laundry. He dragged a stool over to the washing machine, stuffed clothes into it, turned it on, and dumped a box of detergent on top of the clothes. Which psychologist and which learning theory could BEST explain Dennis's behavior?

A)Ivan Pavlov; classical conditioning
B)Edward Thorndike; the law of effect
C)Albert Bandura; observational learning
D)John Garcia; biological preparedness

Question 23

An organism enhances its odds of survival by being responsive to the consequences of its actions. This reflects the concept of:

A)observational learning.
B)motivational learning.
C)operant conditioning.
D)classical conditioning.

Question 24

In dogs, learned helplessness could be overcome by:

A)repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus.
B)dragging the dogs over the barrier to the side of the cage that was not electrified.
C)removing the food from the end of the maze.
D)disconnecting the food dispenser from the operant chamber in the dogs' cages.

Question 25

According to _____, a rat learning to navigate a maze will eventually acquire _____.

A)Edward C. Tolman; a cognitive map of the maze
B)Martin Seligman; learned helplessness
C)John Garcia; a taste aversion to any food eaten in the maze
D)Ivan Pavlov; a conditioned emotional response to the maze

Question 26

Macaque monkeys are capable of learning a cognitive rule for ordering lists of photographs simply from watching another macaque successfully complete the task. This example illustrates the concept of:

A)operant conditioning.
B)observational learning.
C)modeling.
D)motivational learning.

Question 27

According to Psych for Your Life: Using Learning Principles to Improve Self-Control, as the availability of a reinforcer draws closer, its subjective value:

A)increases.
B)decreases.
C)remains constant.
D)cannot be predicted.

Question 28

Based on a review of more than 30 years of research, the American Psychological Association and other public health organizations stated that viewing entertainment violence:

A)was associated with lower cognitive performance and negative social behavior in African American males but not in white males.
B)can lead to a decrease in aggressive attitudes, values, and behaviors.
C)was associated with lower cognitive performance and negative social behavior in white males and females but not in African American males and females.
D)can lead to an increase in aggressive attitudes, values, and behaviors.

Question 29

According to Bandura, what four cognitive processes are necessary for imitation of observed behavior?

A)attention, reinforcement, motivation, and cognitive maps
B)attention, memory, ability to perform the behavior, and motivation
C)reinforcement, discriminative stimuli, motivation, and ability to perform the behavior
D)reinforcement, discriminative stimuli, cognitive maps, and consequences for the behavior