PSY 260 Quiz 5

Operant conditioning is the process whereby organisms learn to respond _____.

in order to obtain or avoid certain outcomes

The process of successively reinforcing small parts of a complicated voluntary response until all the parts occur together is termed _____.

shaping

Discriminative stimuli are _____.

stimuli that signal whether a particular response will lead to a particular outcome

Which of the following demonstrates operant conditioning (rather than classical conditioning)?

A car salesperson receives a bonus for doing a good job at work. Afterwards, she works even harder at selling cars.

Which of the following demonstrates the free-operant paradigm?

A rat in a Skinner box can press a bar at any time to receive food.

According to the law of effect, which of the following would lead to a weakening of the association between stimulus and response?

Grounding a teenager for staying out too late.

In what way does operant conditioning differ from classical conditioning?

In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (US) arrives after the conditioned stimulus (CS) regardless of the animal's behavior, while in operant conditioning the reinforce or punisher arrives only after the animal has made a particular response.

Thorndike argued that when an animal's response was followed by a satisfying outcome (such as escaping from a puzzle box or obtaining food), the probability of that response occurring again in the future would increase. Alternatively, if the response was followed by an unsatisfying outcome (such as an electric shock), then the probability of that response occurring again would decrease. Thorndike's idea is known as the _____.

Law of Effect

A pigeon can obtain food by pecking at a disc, but only when a green light is illuminated. The green light is a _____.

discriminative stimulus

In classical conditioning, the outcome (i.e., the US) ______; in operant conditioning, the outcome (i.e., reinforcer or punisher) ______.

does not depend on the organism first performing the learned response (CR); depends on the organism first performing the learned operant response

The process of providing consequences for a behavior that decrease the probability of that behavior is called _____.

punishment

If you wanted to use shaping to train your new puppy to come when you call her name, you would call her name and then _____.

reward her first when she looks at you, then for turning towards you, and then for taking a few steps in your direction

In the case of Thorndike's cats learning to escape from a puzzle box, the stimulus context (S) was ______ and the response (R) was ________.

the inside of the "puzzle box"; their movements that opened the door

If the lights are on in a diner, a potential customer can be pretty sure that opening the door to the diner and sitting down will lead to being served a meal. The discriminative stimulus in this example is _____.

the lights being on

Using an umbrella when it rains allows you to escape from getting wet. In this case, the stimulus is _______, the response is ______,_and the outcome is _______.

the rain; using an umbrella; staying dry