Chapter 6 Study Guide Questions

For many conditioning situations, the optimal interval between a neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus is _____.

1/2 a second

Excessive rewards may undermine ____ _____.

Intrinsic motivation

____ ____ is the desire to perform a behavior for its own sake.

Intrinsic motivation

Operant conditioning ____(is/is not) constrained by an animals's biological predispositions.

Is

Immediate reinforcement ____(is/isn't) more effective than its alternative, _____ reinforcement. This explains in part the difficulty that ____ users have in quitting their habits, as well as the tendency of some teens to engage in risky ____ ____.

Is, Delayed, Drug, Unprotected Sex

Classical conditioning was first explored by the Russian psychologist _____ _____.

Ivan Pavlov

Early in the twentieth century, psychologist _____ _____ urged psychologists to discard references to mental concepts in favor of studying observable behavior. This view, called _____ influenced American psychology during the first half of that century.

John Watson. Behaviorism.

When learning is not apparent until reinforcement has been provided, ____ ____ is said to have occurred.

Latent learning

B.F. Skinner used Thorndike's ____ ____ ____ as a starting point in developing behavioral technology.

Law of Effect

A relatively permanent change in an organisms behavior due to experience is called ____.

Learning

The importance of ____ ___ ____ is in understanding complex phenomena.

Levels of analysis

Children who are able to delay gratification tend to become ____(more/less) socially competent and high achieving as they mature.

More

In boosting productivity in the workplace, positive reinforcement is ____(more/less) effective when applied to specific behaviors than when given to reward general merit and when the desired performance is well defined and ______.

More, achievable

The initial learning of a conditioned response is called ______.

Acquisition

Both types of conditioning involve similar processes of _____,_____,_____-_____,_____ and ______.

Acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization and discrimination

Classical conditioning is one way that virtually all organisms learn to ____ to their environment.

Adapt

Being able to recognize differences among stimuli has ____ value because it lets us limit our learned responses to appropriate stimuli.

Adaptive

Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally _____.

Adaptive

Punishment also often increases ______ and does not guide the individual toward more desirable behavior.

Aggressiveness

The importance of cognitive processes in human conditioning is demonstrated by the failure of classical conditioning as a treatment for ____.

Alcoholism

Shaping involves reinforcing successive ______ of the desired behavior.

Approximations

Even simple animals an learn simple ____ between stimuli. This type of learning is called _____ _____.

Associations. Associative Learning

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are both forms of _____ _____.

Associative learning

Reinforcement principles can also be used to enhance ____ abilities by shaping successive approximations of new skills.

Athletic

The procedure involving reinforcement of each and every response is called ____ ____. Under these conditions, learning is ____(rapid/slow). When this type of reinforcement is discontinued, extinction is ____(rapid/slow).

Continuous reinforcement, Rapid, Rapid

Through classical conditioning, drug users often feel a _____ when they are in the ____ associated with previous highs.

Craving, Cues

Skinner's critics argued that he ______ people by neglecting their personal _____ and by seeking to _____ their actions.

Dehumanized, freedom, control

A situation, event, or signal that a certain response will be reinforced is a ______ ______.

Discriminative Stimulus

In the form of classical conditioning, the organism _____(does/doesn't) control the responses.

Doesn't

When the unconditioned response is presented before a neutral stimulus conditioning ______(does/doesn't) occur.

Doesn't

Skinner's views were controversial because he insisted that ____ influences, rather than _____ _____ and _____, shape behavior.

External, internal thoughts, feelings

If a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, ____ soon occurs. (The conditioned stimulus diminishes)

Extinction

The motivation to seek external rewards and avoid punishment is called ____ ____.

Extrinsic motivation

Punishment can also lead to ____ and a sense of helplessness, as well as to the association of the aversive event with _____ _____ _____ _____ _____.

Fear the one who administered it

Reinforcement of the first response after a set interval of time defines the ____-____ schedule.

Fixed-Interval

When behavior is reinforced after a set number of responses, a _____-_____ schedule is in effect.

Fixed-ratio

Subjects often respond to a similar stimulus as they would to the original conditioned stimulus. This phenomenon is called _____.

Generalization

When animals revert to their biologically predisposed patterns, they are exhibiting what is called ____ ____.

Instinctive drift

If a desirable stimulus is withdrawn, it is called ____ ____.

Negative reinforcement

A stimulus that strengthens a response by reducing or removing an unpleasant stimulus is a ____ ____.

Negative reinforcer

Classical conditioning associates ____ stimuli with stimuli that trigger responses that are ____.

Neutral, Automatic.

Another aspect of Pavlov's legacy is that he showed how a process such as learning could be studied _____.

Objectively

Complex animals often learn behaviors merely by ____ others perform them.

Observing

Behavior that is more spontaneous and that is influence by its consequences is called ____ behavior.

Operant

The tendency of organisms to associate a response and its consequence forms the basis of _____ conditioning.

Operant

Through operant conditioning, an organism associates its _____ _____ with their _____.

Operant behaviors, consequences

The reflexive responses of classical conditioning involve ____ behavior.

Respondent

Some psychologists once believed that any natural ____ could be conditioned to any neutral ____.

Response, Stimulus.

The Law of Effect states that ____ behavior is likely to ____.

Rewarded, Recur

The procedure in which a person teaches an animal to perform an intricate behavior by building up to it in small steps is called ____.

Shaping

The use of teaching machines and programmed textbooks was an early application of the operant conditioning procedure of _____ to education.

Shaping

Garcia discovered that rats would associate ___ with taste but not with other stimuli.

Sickness

Skinner designed an apparatus, called the ____ ____, to investigate learning in animals.

Skinner Box.

Humans and animals can also be trained to respond to ____ stimuli. This learned ability is called ____.

Specific. Discrimination.

Following a rest, however, the conditioned response reappears in response to the conditioned stimulus. This phenomenon is called _____ _____.

Spontaneous recovery

In using operant conditioning to change your own behavior you would follow what four steps?

State your own goal, Monitor the behavior where and when it occurs Reinforce the desired behavior Reduce incentives to perform the undesired behavior

Through classical conditioning, an organism associates different ____ that it does not ____ and responds _____.

Stimuli, control, automatically.

Michael Domjan's sexual conditioning studies with quail demonstrate that classical conditioning is highly adaptive because it helps animals ____ and ____.

Survive and reproduce

Online ____ systems, software that is _____, and ____-based learning are newer examples of this application of operant principles.

Testing, interactive, web.

An animal will salivate when food is placed in its mouth. This salivation is called the ____ ____.

Unconditioned response.

Three-year-old Yusef knows that if he cries when he wants a treat, his mother will sometimes give in. When, as in this case, reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable number of responses, a _____-_____, schedule is being used.

Variable-Ratio

When the first response after varying amounts of time is reinforced, a _____-_____ schedule is in effect.

Variable-interval.

Because punished behavior is merely _____, it may reappear.

suppressed.

The principles of learning are constrained by the ____ predispositions of each animal species and that they help each species ____ to its environment.

Biological, Adapt.

More than 200 years ago, philosophers such as John Locke and David Hume argued that an important factor in learning is our tendency to ____ events that occur in sequence.

Connect

Associations that are not consciously noticed ____ (can/can't) influence attitudes.

Can

The type of learning in which the organism learns to associate two stimuli is _____ conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

The early behaviorists believed that to understand behavior in various organisms, any presumption of ____ was necessary.

Cognition

Skinner and other behaviorists resisted the growing belief that expectations, perceptions, and other _____ processes have a valid place in the science of psychology.

Cognitive

When a well-learned route in a maze is blocked, rats sometimes choose an alternative route, acting as if they were consulting a _____ _____.

Cognitive map

Classical and operant conditioning are both subject to the influences of ____ processes and ____ predispositions.

Cognitive, biological

In experiments to determine what an animal can perceive, researches have found that animals are capable of forming ____ and ____ between stimuli.

Concepts, Discrimination

Reinforcers that must be conditioned and therefore derive their power through association are called ____ ____.

Conditioned reinforcers.

Eventually, the dogs in Pavlov's experiment would salivate on hearing the tone. This salivation is called the ____ ____

Conditioned response

In Pavlov's classic experiment, a tone, or _____ ______, is sounded just before food, the ____ ____, is placed in the animal's mouth.

Conditioned stimulus. Unconditioned stimulus.

With animals it is difficult to use food as a _____ to _____ behaviors that are not naturally associated with _____.

Reinforcer, shape, food

Skinner also advocated the use of____ principles to influence people in ways that promote more desirable ____.

Operant, behavior.

The procedure in which responses are reinforced only part of the time is called ____ reinforcement. Under these conditions learning is generally ____(faster/slower) than it is with continuous reinforcement. Behavior reinforced in this manner is ____(very/not very) resistant to extinction.

Partial, Slower, Very

If an averisve stimulus is administered, it is called ____ ____.

Positive punishment

A stimulus that strengthens a response by presenting a typically pleasurable stimulus after a response is a ____ _____.

Positive reinforcer

Experiments by Rescorla and Wagner that a conditioned stimulus must reliably ____ the unconditioned stimulus for an association to develop and, more generally, that ___ processes play a role in conditioning. It is as if the animal learns to ____ that the unconditioned stimulus will occur.

Predict, Cognitive. Expect.

Reinforcers, such as food and shock, that are related to the basic needs and therefore do not rely on learning are called ____ ____.

Primary reinforcers.

An aversive consequence that decreases the likelihood of the behavior that preceded it is called _____.

Punishment.

An event that increases the frequency of a preceding response is a _____.

Reinforcer

Garcia found that taste-aversion conditioning _____(would/wouldn't) occur when the delay between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus was more than an hour.

Would