Chapter 5, PSY, what is learning?

Which statement about the process of conditioning is accurate?

Conditioning is reflected in most of a person's everyday behavior.

The basis of learning in operant conditioning involves the association of a(n) _____ and the _____ that follows it.

response; consequence

Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning with regard to the source of behavior being _____ by the _____ in operant conditioning

emitted; organism

Rescorla's research showed that classical conditioning actually involved a cognitive aspect based on the organism's:

expectations.

Critics of B.F. Skinner were concerned that:

he dehumanized people because he ignored the existence of personal freedom and dignity.

Compared with other schedules of reinforcement, ratio schedules of reinforcement typically produce the:

highest and most consistent rates of response.

Keller and Marian Breland were unsuccessful in their efforts to teach a chicken to play baseball. Why?

An animal's natural behavior patterns, even though not reinforced, can sometimes interfere with learning arbitrary responses.

_____ can be defined as an effective application of learning principles to help people develop new, more effective or adaptive behaviors.

Behavior modification

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

John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner

Classical conditioning focuses on _____ behavior, whereas operant conditioning focuses on _____ behavior.

automatic; voluntary

Professor Aviv believes that the general principles of learning apply to mostly all learning situations and across all species. Professor Aviv likely supports the traditional _____ perspective.

behavioral

The classic experiment involving children, aggression, and imitation is named for the doll that was used, which was:

bobo

Certain factors increase the likelihood of imitation. George is more likely to imitate people:

who are warm and nurturing.

A group of rats was run through a maze for 12 days. On days 1 through 10, there was no food reward at the end of the maze, and the rats made many errors as they slowly moved through the maze. On day 11, a food reward was placed at the end of the maze. After the food reward was introduced, the rats ran the maze very quickly and with few errors. According to psychologist _____, this experiment demonstrated a phenomenon called "_____."

Edward C. Tolman; latent learning

In the course of his research on digestion, Pavlov encountered what problem?

He noticed the dogs would begin salivating even before they received the food.

What did the study conducted with Little Albert reveal about classical conditioning?

It can be used to deliberately establish a conditioned emotional response.

The American psychologist _____ experimentally demonstrated the ways in which cognitive processes are involved in classical conditioning.

Robert Rescorla

The psychologist _____ proposed the law of effect, which holds that rewarded behavior is likely to recur.

Thorndike

Tina's goal is to raise children who enjoy playing musical instruments. Given what you know about observational learning, which would you recommend to her?

Tina should play her own musical instrument.

In psychology, the formal definition of learning is:

a relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge as a result of past experience.

The last time Leon went camping, he found a snake in his tent, and he is deathly afraid of snakes. Now he becomes nervous every time he thinks about camping or watches a movie or television show that involves camping. The conditioned stimulus in this case is:

camping

The behaviorist approach to psychology ignored the influence of:

cognition

A psychologist with a _____ perspective would view mental processes as inherent to the learning of new behaviors.

cognitive

In classical conditioning, a conditioned stimulus elicits a(n) _____ because of its association with a(n) _____.

conditioned response; unconditioned stimulus

Dr. Ritz classically conditioned a dog to flex his hind leg at the sound of a bell by pairing the ringing of a bell with a mild electric shock to the dog's leg. In this example, the ringing bell is the:

conditioned stimulus (CS)

Edward Thorndike's law of _____ states that behaviors leading to pleasant situations will be repeated, while behaviors that result in unpleasant situations will be avoided.

effect

Marcie wants her dog to stop barking when she opens the refrigerator, so Marcie quits feeding her dog when she gets food out of the refrigerator. After several days her dog quits barking when she opens the refrigerator. She was able to do this through the process of:

extinction

Checking one's postal mailbox is generally reinforced on a _____ schedule because the mail comes only once per day at about the same time.

fixed-interval

In Tonya's experiment, a monkey must push a lever to get a reward. If the monkey is successful, it gets a piece of banana every two minutes. What type of reinforcement schedule is this?

fixed-interval

Lauren spent the first week of the semester exploring the campus. Later, she had no trouble locating the library, although she had never been there before. According to Tolman, Lauren:

formed a cognitive map.

Jody has begun to see a counselor for anger problems that are interrupting his ability to have healthy relationships. He believes that his anger problems are inherited because both his father and grandfather had the same type of anger problems. If John B. Watson were Jody's counselor, he would likely tell him that:

his anger is the result of conditioning and learning.

One main difference between punishment and reinforcement is that the goal of reinforcement is to _____ a behavior, while the goal of punishment is to _____ a behavior.

increase; decrease

An animal's tendency to revert to instinctive behaviors that can interfere with the performance of an operantly conditioned response is called "_____."

instinctive drift

Observational learning challenges the operant conditioning explanation of learning because:

it involves no direct reinforcement.

If a person learns a statistical technique but does not use it for two semesters, and then successfully uses it, that person may have demonstrated:

latent learning

Watson and Pavlov agreed that:

laws of learning are the same for all animals.

David routinely forgets the password to his computer. He posts a sticky note on his computer with a password clue so he can remember it. Eventually, David remembers his password by simply thinking of his clue and no longer needs his sticky note. This is an example of _____ behavior.

learned

A wellness program is being instituted at the local community center, and this week it is focusing on people who struggle with depression. According to Seligman's work on _____, depression is often connected to the idea that adverse events are inescapable and uncontrollable.

learned helplessness

Henrietta is a sophomore who has barely maintained a C average in college. Henrietta finds herself panicking when she sits down to take an exam, because after so many defeats on exams, she is always convinced she is going to fail one more time. Fearing failure, she tends to take a passive attitude toward the exam rather than avail herself of the knowledge and resources she has acquired. Henrietta is exhibiting a type of:

learned helplessness.

Every time 13-year-old Joseph disobeys his mother, she withholds a portion of his allowance. Joseph's mother is utilizing the operant conditioning technique known as:

negative punishment.

Deshawn hears that there is a threat of rain and brings an umbrella to work. It does rain, and Deshawn is able to avoid getting wet, unlike several of his co-workers who had ignored the weather forecast. The next time Deshawn hears that there is a threat of rain, he is likely to bring an umbrella to work because his behavior has been influenced by:

negative reinforcement.

Pavlov taught a dog to salivate at the sound of a ticking metronome by repeatedly pairing the sound with food. In this example, the metronome is the _____ before conditioning and the _____ after conditioning.

neutral stimulus; conditioned stimulus

Pavlov's groundbreaking work on the learning process, known as classical conditioning, involved the repeated pairing of two stimuli, first presenting a(n) _____ stimulus and then a(n) _____ stimulus.

neutral; response-producing

Two times a week Don's mother lets him watch a video on trucks. Don develops an ability to name every type of truck with ease. Don's ability is the result of:

observational learning.

Nate has come to learn that every time he does what his mother asks him to do, he will NOT have certain privileges taken from him. Nate's behavior is influenced by the expectation that he will not be punished if he listens to his mother. This means that Nate's mother has successfully instituted a form of _____ conditioning.

operant

Voluntary behavior whose repeated performance is dependent on whether it works to avoid or obtain certain consequences is part of:

operant conditioning.

The two primary types of conditioning discussed in the text are _____ and _____.

operant; classical

James receives a grade of "A," and his teacher verbally praises him for his performance on this assignment. James begins to increase the time he studies math. This example illustrates:

positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement involves the _____ of a stimulus when a behavior occurs, and positive punishment involves the _____ of a stimulus when a behavior occurs.

presentation; presentation

Positive _____weaken behavior, and negative _____ weaken behavior.

punishers; punishers

Four-year-old Cameron notices that every time his baby brother cries, his mother picks the baby up and holds him. Cameron quickly learns that if he also cries he will get his mother to pay attention to him. Cameron's behavior resembles the choices made in the Bobo doll experiments, in that his brother's behavior is _____, and therefore Cameron is more likely to _____ it.

reinforced; imitate

In Bandura's classic experiment, children were more likely to imitate aggression if they saw the adult who modeled the aggression being:

rewarded

Also referred to as "_____," this operant conditioning procedure involves teaching a new behavior through prompting and reinforcing behaviors that come closer and closer to the goal behavior.

shaping

As a child, Debbie ate Cap'n Crunch cereal once, became very ill, and developed a dislike for this cereal. She becomes nauseated when she sees the cereal. This is a classically conditioned response known as:

taste aversion.

"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 law of learning does this statement describe?

the law of effect

Delvin does things that make him feel good and avoids things that make him feel bad. His behaviors are consistent with:

the law of effect.

The primary difference between operant conditioning and classical conditioning has to do with the focus on _____ behavior in operant conditioning.

voluntary