Deck 5: Section 3: Learning

Question 1

John B. Watson rejected the definition of psychology as the scientific study of the mind in favor of a definition that emphasized the prediction and control of behavior.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Psychologist John Watson strongly advocated the study of mental processes in order to understand how learning occurs in humans and other animals.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The unconditioned response and the conditioned response are the same behavioral response, but they are elicited by different stimuli.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The process of classical conditioning was accidentally discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who was studying the role of saliva in digestion.

Question 5

The conditioned response (CR) in the "Little Albert" study was the fear response to the loud clang.

Question 6

After a dog has gone through the process of extinction and no longer salivates to the sound of a bell, the conditioned response will spontaneously reappear if the dog is given a period of rest and the sound of the bell is again presented.

Question 7

Your dog tends to salivate and get excited when you shake a box of dog biscuits. However, your dog does not drool when you shake a bag of cat food. This is an example of stimulus generalization.

Question 8

Classical conditioning is essentially the process of learning an association between two stimuli.

Question 9

If a classically conditioned dog salivates not just to the original tone, but also to a higher pitched and a lower pitched tone, the process of stimulus discrimination has occurred.

Question 10

Pavlov was the first psychologist to receive the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research on classical conditioning.

Question 11

The startle reflex will occur in response to a sudden or unexpected noise. Using Pavlov's terms, the sudden noise would be termed the conditioned stimulus, and the startle reflex would be termed the conditioned response.

Question 12

If you own a dog that tends to salivate and get excited when you shake a box of dog biscuits, you may have noticed that your dog also drools when you shake a bag of cat food. If so, this would be an example of stimulus generalization.

Question 13

Pavlov found that to produce a strong classically conditioned response the interval between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) should be no more than a few seconds.

Question 14

Psychologists formally define learning as a process that produces a relatively enduring change in behavior as a result of experience.

Question 15

A conditioned stimulus from one learning trial is used in place of an unconditioned stimulus in a new conditioning trial, where it is paired with a second conditioned stimulus. The second conditioned stimulus then comes to elicit the conditioned response, even though it has never been directly paired with the unconditioned stimulus. This is a description of a procedure called higher order conditioning.

Question 16

Classical conditioning was discovered by behaviorist John B. Watson during the experimental research with "Little Albert."

Question 17

When a dog has been classically conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell, the sound of the bell has gone from being a neutral stimulus to a conditioned stimulus.

Question 18

Little Albert developed a strong conditioned fear to the white rat but not to other animals or furry objects.

Question 19

Pavlov classically conditioned a dog to salivate at the sound of a tone. He then repeatedly paired the tone with another stimulus, a bell. Later, when he rang the bell the dog salivated, even though the bell had never been paired with food. This example illustrates higher order conditioning (second-order conditioning).

Question 20

In his experiments with dogs, Pavlov found that after a classically conditioned response had been extinguished, the dog returned to its original unconditioned state and was unable to relearn the response.

Question 21

For a regular-coffee drinker, the sight, smell, and taste of coffee are the original neutral stimulus, which, after being paired with caffeine (the UCS), eventually become conditioned stimuli and produce the conditioned response (CR) of increased arousal and alertness.

Question 22

In Rescorla's experiment described in the text, the strongest fear response was shown by the rats that received 20 tone-shock pairings plus an additional 20 shocks with no tone.

Question 23

According to psychologist Robert Rescorla, classical conditioning involves cognitive processes in which the organism learns that the conditioned stimulus reliably predicts the unconditioned stimulus.

Question 24

John Watson was a pioneer in the use of classical conditioning techniques in advertising.

Question 25

Psychologist Martin Seligman proposed that humans are biologically predisposed to learn to fear certain objects or situations that may have once posed a threat to humans' evolutionary ancestors.

Question 26

John Garcia's research demonstrated that taste aversions could be conditioned, but only after a minimum of five pairings of the CS (taste) and UCS (illness).

Question 27

Although John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) were able to classically condition an emotional reaction in an infant by using extreme measures, such conditioned emotional reactions rarely occur in daily life.

Question 28

John Garcia is the psychologist who is credited with demonstrating the importance of an evolutionary approach to classical conditioning by his research showing that particular associations are more readily conditioned than others.

Question 29

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner made no effort to eliminate the fear they conditioned in the infant called Little Albert.

Question 30

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner's famous study of Little Albert is considered to be a model experiment because it was a carefully controlled study with very precise and objective measures of the variables, including Albert's fear response.

Question 31

Sexual arousal can be classically conditioned.

Question 32

Research on taste aversions demonstrated that classical conditioning can occur with a single pairing of the CS and the UCS.

Question 33

Research on taste aversions clearly shows that in order for classical conditioning to occur, the interval between the CS and the UCS can be no more than a few seconds.

Question 34

Contrary to what Pavlov believed, John Garcia's research on taste aversions showed that animals are able to form associations between some stimuli much more easily than other stimuli.

Question 35

In John Watson and Rosalie Rayner's Little Albert study the unconditioned stimulus was a loud clang, and the conditioned stimulus was a tame white rat.

Question 36

It was Robert Rescorla who made the famous statement, "The animal behaves like a scientist, detecting causal relations among events and using a range of information about those events to make the relevant inferences."

Question 37

John B. Watson was opposed to the application of classical conditioning principles in advertising because he believed that such manipulative marketing was unethical.

Question 38

Robert Rescorla views classical conditioning as a process that involves the active processing of information about stimuli.

Question 39

John Watson designed advertisements for Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder that intentionally tried to create anxiety in young mothers about their ability to care for their infants.

Question 40

Regular-coffee drinkers can develop a classically conditioned response of alertness to the smell and taste of coffee, even if the coffee is decaffeinated.

Question 41

Based on his studies of cats that tried to escape a puzzle box, Edward L. Thorndike became convinced that animals use reasoning abilities and problem-solving thought processes that are very similar to those of humans.

Question 42

While positive reinforcement increases or strengthens a response, negative reinforcement decreases or weakens a response.

Question 43

Using Skinner's words, an operant is any "active behavior that operates on the environment to generate consequences."

Question 44

Conditioned reinforcers acquire their reinforcing value by being associated with primary reinforcers.

Question 45

Whether an aversive stimulus is delivered or a reinforcing stimulus is removed, punishment means that the likelihood of a behavior decreases.

Question 46

The respect of your peers, the approval of your instructors or managers, a smile, a touch, or a nod of recognition can all be possible examples of conditioned reinforcers.

Question 47

Whenever Margaret has personal problems, she confides in two co-workers who listen very attentively and offer her emotional support. The amount of time that Margaret spends discussing her personal problems with co-workers has steadily increased. Positive reinforcement is occurring in this example.

Question 48

The law of effect helps to explain how classically conditioned responses develop from pairing a biologically significant UCS with a neutral stimulus.

Question 49

Positive reinforcement strengthens the occurrence of a behavior by the removal of an aversive stimulus.

Question 50

Awards, frequent flyer points, and college degrees are examples of primary reinforcers.

Question 51

Phobias and other irrational fears are always the result of a prior conditioning experience with the specific feared object or situation.

Question 52

The In Focus box discussing biological preparedness notes that researchers Arne Öhman and Susan Mineka have accumulated experimental evidence supporting the evolutionary explanation for the most common phobias, especially fear of snakes.

Question 53

To avoid being stung by mosquitoes, you spray yourself with insect repellant before you start hiking through the woods. This would be an example of negative reinforcement.

Question 54

While at the airport, seven-year-old Connor discovers a quarter in the coin return of a pay telephone. Ever since, Connor checks the coin return of any pay telephone he sees. Using operant conditioning terms, positive reinforcement has occurred in this situation.

Question 55

Trophies, ribbons, certificates of achievement, and money are often used to reinforce behavior. Using operant conditioning terms, these would all be examples of primary reinforcers.

Question 56

Olivia decided to try a new recipe. For dinner that night, she served up the new "Chef's Surprise," which she spent most of the day preparing. After one taste, the rest of the family voted to go out for pizza. Because she has experienced negative reinforcement, Olivia no longer tries new recipes.

Question 57

Julie always pays her electric bill on time each month to avoid incurring a late charge. Using operant conditioning terms, Julie's behavior is being maintained by positive reinforcement.

Question 58

B. F. Skinner shared the view of John Watson that psychology should restrict itself to studying objectively observable behaviors, not mental processes.

Question 59

Marlene intentionally parks her new sports car away from other cars in parking lots in order to keep her new car from getting dinged and chipped. Negative reinforcement is occurring in this example.

Question 60

You take two aspirin to remove a headache. Thirty minutes later, the headache is gone. You are now more likely to take aspirin to deal with bodily aches and pain in the future. In other words, negative reinforcement by escape has occurred.

Question 61

Although people often blame their environment for their problems, B. F. Skinner argued that the real problem is that people fail to take responsibility for their actions.

Question 62

B. F. Skinner advocated that totalitarian governments should shape all human behavior through the use of punishment, believing that this approach would solve human problems in a humane and rational way.

Question 63

A good method to reduce a problem behavior is to reinforce an alternative behavior that is both constructive and incompatible with the problem behavior.

Question 64

It is frequently effective to over-reinforce a problem behavior until the reinforcer loses its reinforcing value and the behavior decreases.

Question 65

Two Skinner boxes are side by side. The rat in the first Skinner box gets a food pellet every time it presses the bar. The rat in the second Skinner box gets a food pellet every ten times it presses the bar. If the food-dispensing mechanism is shut off, the rat in the first Skinner box will quit pressing the bar sooner than the rat in the second Skinner box does.

Question 66

After Fernanda buys stock in a "hot" new start-up company, the company fails and she loses all of her money. Fernanda no longer invests in start-up companies. This is an example of negative punishment.

Question 67

According to B. F. Skinner, "A person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him."

Question 68

Punishment is one of the most effective operant conditioning techniques used to teach or promote new behaviors.

Question 69

An employee wears jeans to work and is reprimanded by his supervisor for dressing inappropriately. From then on, the employee wears a formal suit to work. This is an example of negative punishment.

Question 70

To enhance the effectiveness of positive reinforcers, you should make sure the reinforcer is reinforcing to the individual whose behavior you want to modify.

Question 71

Once a behavior has been suppressed by punishment, the behavior is unlikely to reappear.

Question 72

B. F. Skinner strongly advocated the use of punishment to modify behavior.

Question 73

While at the airport, 7-year-old Ethan discovers a quarter in the coin return of a pay telephone. Ever since, Ethan checks the coin return of any pay telephone he sees. Using operant conditioning terms, the sight of a pay telephone is a discriminative stimulus.

Question 74

B. F. Skinner stressed the fact that behavior ultimately arises from causes that are within the individual.

Question 75

Because he was flirting with another woman, a guy gets dumped by his girlfriend. The guy no longer flirts with other women in front of his girlfriends. This is an example of negative reinforcement.

Question 76

You make a comment in your workgroup meetings, and a coworker responds with a sarcastic remark. You no longer speak during your workgroup meetings. This is an example of negative reinforcement.

Question 77

A Skinner box, or operant chamber, is a complex maze that a rat must successfully negotiate to get to a food reward in the goal box at the end.

Question 78

A movement called gamification 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.

Question 79

Your dog jumps up on a visitor, and you smack him with a rolled up newspaper. The next time you have a visitor, your dog doesn't jump on them. This is an example of positive punishment.

Question 80

Partial reinforcement is one of the most effective ways to maintain a high level of responding.