Deck 7: Section 3: Learning

Question 1

Scenario II
A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behavior such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework. Curiously, he engages in this behavior when his father is around but usually not when his mother is around. An applied behavior analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behavior is occurring. She notes that on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behavior in the presence of his mother, the mother simply ignores this behavior. However, after the problem behavior occurs a number of times in the presence of the father, the father often intervenes. While he does not provide attention to his son, he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes, essentially giving the boy a break. This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behavior. The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behavior before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable; sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on-task with his homework as long as possible.
(Scenario II) The boy's self-stimulatory behavior produces consequences according to a _____ schedule.

A)fixed-ratio
B)variable-ratio
C)fixed-interval
D)variable-interval

Answer 1

variable-ratio

Question 2

Scenario II
A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behavior such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework. Curiously, he engages in this behavior when his father is around but usually not when his mother is around. An applied behavior analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behavior is occurring. She notes that on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behavior in the presence of his mother, the mother simply ignores this behavior. However, after the problem behavior occurs a number of times in the presence of the father, the father often intervenes. While he does not provide attention to his son, he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes, essentially giving the boy a break. This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behavior. The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behavior before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable; sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on-task with his homework as long as possible.
(Scenario II) The applied behavior analyst would conclude that the father's behavior of allowing his son to take breaks from his homework is probably being maintained by:

A)extinction.
B)negative reinforcement.
C)positive reinforcement.
D)observational learning.

Answer 2

negative reinforcement.

Question 3

Scenario I
Tyler is physically dependent on heroin and uses it intravenously multiple times per day. Most often he uses with his dealer in a drug house on his street. One day when his dealer was out of town, Tyler met a group of fellow users going to a drug party about two hours away. Tyler tagged along, and noted that he felt odd injecting the drug in this setting, because the new people and environment was a marked departure from his usual routine. Minutes later, although the drug was of the same quality and he took no more or less than he usually did, Tyler overdosed and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
(Scenario I) According to a classical conditioning account of heroin overdose, one unconditioned response is a(n) _____ in the rate of respiration and one conditioned response is a(n) _____.

A)increase; subsequent cardiovascular collapse
B)increase; similar increase in heart rate
C)decrease; subsequent cardiovascular collapse
D)decrease; increase in the rate of respiration

Answer 3

decrease; increase in the rate of respiration

Question 4

Scenario I
Tyler is physically dependent on heroin and uses it intravenously multiple times per day. Most often he uses with his dealer in a drug house on his street. One day when his dealer was out of town, Tyler met a group of fellow users going to a drug party about two hours away. Tyler tagged along, and noted that he felt odd injecting the drug in this setting, because the new people and environment was a marked departure from his usual routine. Minutes later, although the drug was of the same quality and he took no more or less than he usually did, Tyler overdosed and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
(Scenario I) According to a classical conditioning account of drug overdose, because Tyler always used in the same location with the same person, the presence of those cues resulted in a(n):

A)increased tolerance to heroin.
B)increase in the reinforcing properties of heroin.
C)increased sensitivity to the depressant effects of heroin.
D)decreased expectancy of heroin.

Question 5

Scenario I
Tyler is physically dependent on heroin and uses it intravenously multiple times per day. Most often he uses with his dealer in a drug house on his street. One day when his dealer was out of town, Tyler met a group of fellow users going to a drug party about two hours away. Tyler tagged along, and noted that he felt odd injecting the drug in this setting, because the new people and environment was a marked departure from his usual routine. Minutes later, although the drug was of the same quality and he took no more or less than he usually did, Tyler overdosed and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
(Scenario I) An account of drug overdose based on classical conditioning differs from typical preparations such as the one first used by Pavlov in that:

A)the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are of different stimulus modalities.
B)only one trial is necessary for learning to occur.
C)the conditioned response takes the form opposite the unconditioned response.
D)the conditioned response precedes the unconditioned stimulus.

Question 6

Scenario II
A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behavior such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework. Curiously, he engages in this behavior when his father is around but usually not when his mother is around. An applied behavior analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behavior is occurring. She notes that on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behavior in the presence of his mother, the mother simply ignores this behavior. However, after the problem behavior occurs a number of times in the presence of the father, the father often intervenes. While he does not provide attention to his son, he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes, essentially giving the boy a break. This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behavior. The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behavior before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable; sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on-task with his homework as long as possible.
(Scenario II) The fact that the boy engages in problem behavior in the presence of his father but not his mother illustrates:

A)shaping by approximations.
B)an expectancy between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.
C)generalization.
D)stimulus control.

Question 7

Scenario II
A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behavior such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework. Curiously, he engages in this behavior when his father is around but usually not when his mother is around. An applied behavior analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behavior is occurring. She notes that on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behavior in the presence of his mother, the mother simply ignores this behavior. However, after the problem behavior occurs a number of times in the presence of the father, the father often intervenes. While he does not provide attention to his son, he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes, essentially giving the boy a break. This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behavior. The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behavior before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable; sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on-task with his homework as long as possible.
(Scenario II) The boy's self-stimulatory behavior is an example of:

A)observational learning.
B)behavior maintained by positive reinforcement.
C)behavior maintained by negative reinforcement.
D)a classically conditioned response triggered by the father.

Question 8

Scenario I
Tyler is physically dependent on heroin and uses it intravenously multiple times per day. Most often he uses with his dealer in a drug house on his street. One day when his dealer was out of town, Tyler met a group of fellow users going to a drug party about two hours away. Tyler tagged along, and noted that he felt odd injecting the drug in this setting, because the new people and environment was a marked departure from his usual routine. Minutes later, although the drug was of the same quality and he took no more or less than he usually did, Tyler overdosed and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
(Scenario I) Several decades ago, the psychologist Sheppard Siegel first noted the role that classical conditioning plays in drug overdose. In this model, the unconditioned stimulus in the scenario is _____ and the conditioned stimulus is _____.

A)heroin; the new environment
B)heroin; the usual drug-taking environment
C)the new environment; heroin
D)the usual drug-taking environment; heroin

Question 9

Scenario II
A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behavior such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework. Curiously, he engages in this behavior when his father is around but usually not when his mother is around. An applied behavior analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behavior is occurring. She notes that on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behavior in the presence of his mother, the mother simply ignores this behavior. However, after the problem behavior occurs a number of times in the presence of the father, the father often intervenes. While he does not provide attention to his son, he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes, essentially giving the boy a break. This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behavior. The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behavior before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable; sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on-task with his homework as long as possible.
(Scenario II) The father appears to be functioning as a(n): _____ stimulus.

A)unconditioned
B)conditioned
C)reinforcing
D)discriminative

Question 10

Scenario II
A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behavior such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework. Curiously, he engages in this behavior when his father is around but usually not when his mother is around. An applied behavior analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behavior is occurring. She notes that on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behavior in the presence of his mother, the mother simply ignores this behavior. However, after the problem behavior occurs a number of times in the presence of the father, the father often intervenes. While he does not provide attention to his son, he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes, essentially giving the boy a break. This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behavior. The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behavior before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable; sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on-task with his homework as long as possible.
(Scenario II) The mother is utilizing _____ to keep the boy's level of self-stimulatory behavior low.

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

Question 11

Scenario I
Tyler is physically dependent on heroin and uses it intravenously multiple times per day. Most often he uses with his dealer in a drug house on his street. One day when his dealer was out of town, Tyler met a group of fellow users going to a drug party about two hours away. Tyler tagged along, and noted that he felt odd injecting the drug in this setting, because the new people and environment was a marked departure from his usual routine. Minutes later, although the drug was of the same quality and he took no more or less than he usually did, Tyler overdosed and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
(Scenario I) According to a classical conditioning account of drug overdose, after numerous environment-drug pairings, the environment can:

A)trigger effects similar to the drug even in the absence of the drug.
B)markedly increase the likelihood that overdose will occur.
C)help prepare the body for the drug.
D)sensitize a user to the drug such that less now is required to obtain the same effect.

Question 12

Scenario I
Tyler is physically dependent on heroin and uses it intravenously multiple times per day. Most often he uses with his dealer in a drug house on his street. One day when his dealer was out of town, Tyler met a group of fellow users going to a drug party about two hours away. Tyler tagged along, and noted that he felt odd injecting the drug in this setting, because the new people and environment was a marked departure from his usual routine. Minutes later, although the drug was of the same quality and he took no more or less than he usually did, Tyler overdosed and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
(Scenario I) The contextual cues associated with Tyler's usual drug-taking environment might be expected to elicit all of these EXCEPT:

A)withdrawal symptoms.
B)feelings of intoxication.
C)cravings.
D)sympathetic nervous system arousal.

Question 13

Scenario II
A boy with autism sometimes engages in self-stimulatory behavior such as waving his hands in front of his eyes while doing his homework. Curiously, he engages in this behavior when his father is around but usually not when his mother is around. An applied behavior analyst working with the boy closely observes the interactions between the boy and his parents in an effort to determine why the self-stimulatory behavior is occurring. She notes that on the rare occasions when the boy engages in the problem behavior in the presence of his mother, the mother simply ignores this behavior. However, after the problem behavior occurs a number of times in the presence of the father, the father often intervenes. While he does not provide attention to his son, he does remove the homework materials for a number of minutes, essentially giving the boy a break. This usually calms the boy and results in the cessation of the problem behavior. The therapist notes that the amount of self-stimulatory behavior before the father intervenes is quite unpredictable; sometimes the father intervenes after only one or two instances and sometimes he waits until many instances occur in an effort to keep the boy on-task with his homework as long as possible.
(Scenario II) The applied behavior analyst would conclude that the self-stimulatory behavior is probably being maintained by:

A)conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus pairings between the father and the homework.
B)access to enjoyable activities.
C)escape.
D)automatic reinforcers associated with sensory stimulation.