Psyc362 Midterm

The rate of conditioning is affected by the degree to which the US is ___________ the occurrence of the CS.

CONTINGENT

In trace conditioning, __________

CS begins & ends before the US is present

In delayed conditioning _________________

CS remains on until after US starts (strong association)

An ________ stimulus is something an organism tries to escape or avoid.

aversive

Natural selection is illustrated by changes in the coloration of the Peppered Moth resulting from _______.

pollution

In the figure below, the data point at the extreme right illustrates _________.

spontaneous recovery

Zing Yang Kuo found that 86% of kittens that saw their mothers kill rats later killed rats themselves. He also found that _____ of kittens that never saw their mothers kill rats later killed rats themselves.

45%

The researcher who might have become known as the American Pavlov was

E. B. Twitmyer

Two students, Edward and Edwina, serve as subjects in a conditioning experiment. The CS is a buzzer; the US is a mild electric shock; the UR is a change in electrical conductivity called the Galvanic Skin Response. Both subjects undergo 50 trials, but the experimenter feels sorry for Edwina so periodically he lets her off without a shock. The results will indicate that _______

Edwina will still respond to the buzzer (trace conditioning)

One person who raised doubts about the incest taboo as a Modal Action Pattern is _______.

Freud

Learning is

a relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience in the environment

________, like natural selection, is a biological mechanism for adapting to change.

adaptation

Aversive stimuli can reliably elicit _________.

aggression

A person who says, "Everyone knows that...." is referring to _______

anecdotal evidence

General behavior traits ___________.

are more adaptable, we can alter them, strongly influenced by genes

Most mutations _______.

are selected out

If the CS occurs after the US, this conditioning is termed ___________.

backward conditioning

In within-subject experiments, each subject's performance is compared with its performance during a ____.

baseline period

In one of Thorndike's puzzle boxes, a door would fall open when a cat stepped on a treadle, thus allowing the cat to reach food outside the box. Eventually the cat would step on the treadle as soon as it was put into the box. Thorndike concluded that ________

behavior is a function of it's consequences (law of effect)

The law of effect says that _______

behavior is systematically strengthen or weaken by its consequences.

The figure below shows the results of an experiment comparing the effects of two teaching methods. Phyllis was taught by method A; Gertrude was taught by method B. This study is an example of _______

between-subjects

An example of our unconscious learning is

bicycle (procedural memory) we know how to do it, but we can't explain it. playing the piano

Inherited characteristics can _____________.

can be dominant or recessive

The chief advantage of learning over natural selection as a means of adapting to change is that learning _______.

can overcome evolution, relatively permanent

Which of the following is true about mutations?

caused by radiation/virus (does not survive for long) genes are passed if they affect reproductive cells. not all mutations are displayed (carrier ex: blue eyes) most mutations are not helpful for survival and are selected out.

Pavlovian conditioning is also called ________ conditioning.

classical

A week later John (see previous question) bumps into Carole on campus, feels his face turn red and recalls with embarrassment their earlier encounter. Carole has become a _______.

conditioned stimulus

The probability of one event being dependent on another event is termed _________.

contingency

Empirical evidence indicates that habituation

decrease in neurotransmitters

In _______ conditioning the CS and US overlap.

delayed

Any variable that is allowed to vary freely is a/an __________ variable.

dependent

The figure below shows the results of an experiment on the effects of heat on aggressive social behavior. There is a sharp increase in the rate of aggressive behavior when the temperature goes above 90. This study is best described as ________

descriptive / CORRELATION / WITHIN-SUBJECTS

Scientific evidence indicate that human skin color is a consequence of

environment

Variation and natural selection are the foundations of _______.

evolution

If, following conditioning, a CS is repeatedly presented without the US, the procedure is called _______

extinction

Oafish Bill (John's twin brother) has heard nothing of John's unfortunate encounter with Carole (see the previous question), and he decides to ask her out. Just as he approaches her she bursts into laughter, apparently in response to a joke someone just told. Bill immediately pops the question and she politely declines, having decided to join a convent at the end of the semester. A week later Bill bumps into Carole on campus but feels no particular embarrassment. The pairing of Bill's request for a date and Carole's laughter is most likely an example of ________.

extinction

Spontaneous recovery is associated with _______

extinction

Is it true that in an experimental design, one cannot infer causation?

false

Is it true that lactose intolerance may be a survival trait if there is a drought

false

A teacher who looks for an increase in the number of correct performances per minute is using _______ as a measure of learning.

fluency

An example of a modal action pattern (MAP) is

graylag goose, cat's response to a dog, birds flying V formation, possum

A researcher found that clients who were randomly assigned to same-sex groups participated more in group therapy sessions than clients who were randomly assigned to coed groups. In this experiment, the dependent variable was __________.

group they were assigned to

Repeated exposure to a stimulus that evokes a reflex response can lead to ____________

habituation

When a stimulus fades into the background, this phenomenon is known as __________.

habituation

One thing researchers can control better with animal subjects than with human subjects is ___________.

heredity, learning history, & habitat

Scientific evidence indicates that natural selection requires

heritable variation and differential reproductive success

The procedure of pairing a neutral stimulus with a well-established CS is called _________ conditioning.

high-order

The experiment in which a dog learned to salivate at the sight of a black square after it had been paired with a CS for salivating is an example of _________ conditioning.

higher-order

Higher-order conditioning is probably most important to ___________.

human adaptation

Terms that are labels for the theoretical processes that underlie human thought are called:

hypothetical construct

Any variable an experimenter manipulates is a/an ________ variable.

independent

A reflex is ________.

instinctive. no learning involved. simple response to the environment.

Operant learning may also be referred to as _______

instrumental learning

Marjorie drives a school bus. Sometimes the kids get rather noisy. She decides to play music the kids like through speakers on the bus, but whenever the kids get too noisy she turns the music off. When they quiet down, she turns the music back on. In this way, she hopes to get the kids to make less noise. Marjorie is probably going to measure learning as a change in response _________

intensity

The time between conditioning trials is called the _______

intertrial interval

When exposure to a stimulus prior to pairing with a US interferes with conditioning, the phenomenon is called _______.

latent inhibition

The figure below most likely illustrates ________.

learning curve

Habituation is most likely to occur with ________ intensity stimuli.

low

According to the text, behavior is anything an animal or person does that can be _______.

measured

Your text defines behavior as anything an organism does that can be ________.

measured

The rooting of pigs (for worms, larvae, and truffles) is an example of __________.

modal action patter (MAP)

The brown-headed cowbird deposits its eggs in the nests of other birds. This is most likely a _______

modal action pattern (MAP) or genetics/experience / RELEASER

An abrupt change in the characteristics of a species is know as

mutation

The dispute over the relative importance of genetics and learning is often called the _________.

nature vs nurture

Experience refers to ________.

nature, exposure to events capable of affecting behavior

The list of alleged human fixed action patterns ______.

none (maternal behaviors?)

When a behavior is defined by the procedure used to measure it, the definition is said to be _______

operational definition

An experimenter presents a flash of light and a bell simultaneously followed by food. Conditioning proceeds satisfactorily, but when the experimenter presents the light and bell separately, he finds that the bell is an effective CS, but the light is not. The experimenter has demonstrated _______

overshadowing

An example of natural selection is __________.

peppered moth, "walking stick"

With regard to the peppered moth,

pollution darken the lichen and the dark moths prevailed. variation between light and dark colored moths is what made their species survive (adaptability) ex: of Natural Selection

Teenagerus Americanus, a two-legged ape indigenous to North America, breaks out in a cold sweat whenever exposed to elevator music. This reaction is most likely ______.

reflex/general behavior traits

Modal action patterns are induced by events called ______.

releasers

When an infant's face is touched, she will turn her head, and this behavior is known as ___________.

rooting

The phenomenon that is nearly the opposite of habituation is _____.

sensitization

If CS1 is paired with the US in the first step, and CS1 and CS2 are paired in the second step, the likely result is ________.

sensory preconditioning

Research on the sexual orientation of sisters of lesbian women demonstrated that

similarities between sibling was based on the similarity between their genes

Natural selection is often _______

slow

Natural selection helps the _________ to adapt to change, not the __________.

species/living individual

The word "reflex" is a synonym for _______

spontaneous, response

Learning is an evolved _________

survival mechanism

Steven says that he was very nervous when he first attended college classes, but now he feels quite relaxed. Steven's loss of anxiety is most likely an example of _______

systematic desensitization

What fascinated Pavlov most about his salivating dogs was that ________

the dogs did not salivate when they were first brought into the lab.

The most important CS- US pairings are

the earliest trials

Suppose observations show that high alcohol consumption among college students is correlated with low grade point averages. Based on this information, we can conclude that:

there is no correlation. student may consume alcohol because his grades are low

In Pavlov's research into the conditioning of the salivation of dogs, the conditioned stimulus (CS) was

tone/bell/buzzer/metronome

Each pairing of a CS and US is one _______.

trial, conditioned response

Is it true that learning is a change in behavior due to experience?

true

Is it true that reflexes are generally less variable than modal action patterns?

true

John, "Mr. Anxiety," finally musters up the courage to ask the beautiful and popular Carole (CS) to go to the movies. She finds the idea so ridiculous that she laughs (US) out loud the instant after he has gotten the question out. John's face turns the color of a steamed lobster (CR/UR). In classical conditioning terms, John's experience is an example of ______

unconditioned response

A reason for not doing animal research is that ___________.

unethical, humans are not like animals