Module 21

If a child is watching a favorite sibling getting scolded for misbehavior, a type of brain cell called a _____ is likely to be activated in an empathetic response to this observation.

mirror neuron

Which psychologist studied the development of taste aversions and how they could not be explained by the basic principles of classical conditioning?

John Garcia

Ted is an adult with autism spectrum disorder who has difficulty empathizing with the feelings of others and inferring what emotions another person might be experiencing. Some theorists would speculate that this is because Ted has:

an impaired mirror neuron system.

Repeated exposure to graphic violence in movies, television, and violent video games may increase the likelihood of imitation of violent behavior and also tends to:

cause desensitization to observed violence.

Taste aversion is a real-life example of _____ conditioning.

classical

Keller Breland and Marian Breland trained pigs to pick up large wooden dollars and deposit them in a piggy bank. Later the pigs would revert to their natural behavior—dropping the coin, pushing it with their snouts as pigs are prone to do, picking it up again, and then repeating the sequence—delaying their food reinforcer. The Brelands referred to the reason for this behavior as:

instinctive drift

Juan easily taught his cat to jump through a hoop for the reward of food, but could not get his cat to fetch a ball and return the ball to him. The cat would chase the ball but use his paws to roll the ball so he could chase the ball again. The reason the cat had difficulties with fetching the ball was because of:

instinctive drift.

Joey watches his older brother twirl his pasta around his fork using a spoon. Joey then attempts to twirl his pasta in the same way. Joey's older brother served as a _____ for Joey.

model

Lana is in dental school and is learning the correct way to take an X-ray of the mouth. Her instructor first shows the class a video that demonstrates the proper procedures for taking an X-ray and then demonstrates these same procedures using Lana as a patient. Lana and her class are learning how to take an X-ray of patients' teeth through the use of:

observational learning.

Positive, helpful behavior is called _____ behavior.

prosocial

Ever since she foolishly drank too much tequila at a rock concert and vomited all over her best friend, Erin becomes nauseous at the smell or taste of tequila. In this example, the conditioned stimulus is _____ and the conditioned response is _____.

the smell or taste of tequila; nausea

In conditioned taste aversion, spoiled or poisoned food is a powerful:

unconditioned stimulus.

In the classical conditioning experiment by Robert Rescorla that involved two groups of rats, one group of rats heard a tone just before each of 20 shocks. The second group of rats experienced the same 20 tone-shock pairings but also experienced an additional 20 shocks that were not paired with a tone. How did the two groups differ?

The rats in the first group displayed a much stronger conditioned fear response to the tone than did the rats in the second group.

An experimenter visits a preschool with a big box of markers and paper. The children are told that they can draw as many pictures as they want. The children enjoy the task very much. On another visit, the children are told that, for every picture they draw, they would earn a prize. Two weeks later when the experimenter returned, he offered up the markers and paper for play but said that no prizes would be given. The children played very little with the markers because extrinsic rewards can undermine _____ motivation.

intrinsic