Learning questions

Mary is often tired when she wakes up, so she starts drinking coffee every day at 8:00 am, which makes her feel energized. One morning she is coming home from the grocery store she notices the time - it is 8:00 am. She had not wanted coffee before she checked the time, but she suddenly feels tired and craves the drink. Mary's sudden craving for coffee after noticing the time is an example of which of the following?

Conditioned response

Lauren is studying for her final exam in her psychology class. For every 45 minutes that she studies, she gives herself a mini doughnut, then goes back to studying. What schedule of reinforcement is Lauren using?

Fixed interval

Tim is a snowboard salesman. For every 15 snowboards he sells, his company gives him a monetary bonus. What schedule of reinforcement describes Tim's bonus arrangement?

Fixed ratio

Fixed action patterns are responses to a particular type of stimuli that result from which of the following?

Innate learning

Kelly and Jeff live together, and Kelly constantly yells at Jeff to clean his dishes in the kitchen. She tells him that she will stop nagging if he does the chore. He finally cleans the dishes and Kelly, in turn, stops nagging him. As a result, Jeff is more likely to clean his dishes in the future. What is this scenario an example of?

Negative reinforcement

Dr. Soreth is teaching a pigeon to peck a green button. First she reinforces the pigeon for turning toward the green button, then for approaching the button, and so on in very small steps. She does this until the pigeon is successfully and consistently pecking the button. What principle of learning is Dr. Soreth using?

Shaping

Stuart acquires a classically conditioned phobia of ducks. Now he shows a phobic response not just to ducks, but to other birds as well, especially ones that can swim. What are the changes in his phobia an example of?

Stimulus generalization

Dr. Walsh is interested in seeing whether symptoms of depression can be manipulated using principles of classical conditioning. For several weeks of an experiment, he gives a group of patients a sweetened soda that has a mood-enhancing drug in it and notices that symptoms of depression improve significantly. Then, he removes the drug from the beverage and notices that the symptoms are still improved when the patients consume the soda. Which of the following is the conditioned stimulus in Dr. Walsh's experiment?

The sweetened soda

Dr. Soreth is a behavioral researcher who uses pigeons in her research; she teaches the birds to peck a green button and receive a treat. She wants to try out a new schedule of reinforcement for the pigeons. She wants the birds to peck as much as possible, and to have their pecking behavior occur at a steady rate with very little pausing between responses. Which schedule of reinforcement would be best for her to choose?

Variable ratio

Which of the following strategies describes how a person would extinguish a response using principles of operant conditioning?

Withhold all reinforcement after responses to the stimulus