exp unit 1

Reflex

A relationship between a specific event and a simple response to that event. It may be worth emphasizing that the term reflex refers to the relationship, not to the response, per se. The patellar reflex is not the knee jerk itself, but the relation between the blow to the patellar tendon and the movement of the foot.

Evolution is widely accepted except in

America

Stimulus

Any environmental event that affects, or is capable of affecting, behavior. One could argue that an event is not truly a stimulus until it affects behavior.

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

CS for blushing

In group-design experiments, researchers often use ________ to reduce differences among participants.

matched sampling

Each pairing of a CS and US is one _______.

trial

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

45% 

Learning

A change in behavior due to experience. Some suggest it is a "relatively enduring change" in behavior, though there is continued debate on this issue Others suggest learning is due to "certain kinds of experience." Still others suggest it is change in the potential for behavior

Habituation

A decrease in the intensity or probability of a reflex response resulting from repeated exposure to a stimulus that elicits that response.

Mutation

Any change in a gene. When the mutation occurs in a reproductive cell, the mutation may be passed on to offspring. The term mutation may seem to have a negative connotation (film monsters are sometimes mutants), but from the standpoint of science mutation is a neutral term.

Releaser

Any event that reliably elicits a fixed action pattern. The light from which the cockroach runs is a releaser.

General behavior trait

Any general behavioral tendency that is strongly influenced by genes. Examples include introversion and general anxiety. GBTs are more variable than FAPs and are not dependent on a releasing stimulus.

Modal action pattern

Any largely inherited series of interrelated acts, usually elicited by a particular stimulus (the releaser); formerly called instinct.

Behavior

Anything an organism does that can be measured. This definition does not exclude thinking and feeling, but in practice the term usually refers to publicly observable behavior.

If a CS is presented several times alone, and is then repeatedly paired with a US, conditioning proceeds more rapidly than if the CS had never been presented alone.

False

Pavlov's work paved the way for Darwin's theory of evolution.

False

Speed and rate are different terms for the same measure of learning You Answered

False

The first person to use a single-subject reversal design was probably ____________.

Galen

_______ said that Pavlov was one of the greatest geniuses of all time.

HG Wells

constancy of change

Learning is a means of coping with change Our environments are constantly changing. Change is really the only constant!

The quotation, "Change is the only constant," is attributed to ______.

Lucretius

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

MAP

Lee Cronk wrote an article on how evolved behavior can prove nonadaptive when the environment changes. The article was called _______

Old Dogs, Old Tricks

One highly readable little book on research methods mentioned in your text is called _________.

Psychological Research: An Introduction

Pavlov was a ________.

Russian

The person who demonstrated that the marching of tropical army ants is not intelligent behavior is ______.

Schneirla

A computer simulation that is useful for teaching certain principles of learning is called _________.

Sniffy the Virtual Rat

The person who suggested that to learn how nature works, we must "sit down before fact as a little child," and "be prepared to give up every preconceived notion" was ______.

T.H. Huxley

There is debate between psychologists on the position that learning refers to durable changes. What is the problem with this position?

The concept of duration is vague.

Hybridization

The cross-breeding of closely related species. This is a way in which species can adapt to changes in their environments.

Natural selection

The tendency for characteristics that contribute to the survival of a species to persist, and for those that do not to disappear.

Darwin was influenced by the book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, by

Thomas Malthus.

A reflex is ________ .

a relationship between an event and a simple response

Researchers can control _________better with animal subjects than with human subjects.

all of the above

Pavlov is best described as ________.

an experimenter from head to foot

Your text describes four basic sources of evidence: anecdotal, case study, descriptive study, experimental study. The least reliable of these is ______.

anecdotal

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

anecdotal evidence

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

anecdotal evidence

An _____________ is something an organism tries to escape or avoid.

aversive

Oafish Bill (John's twin brother; see items above) has heard nothing of John's unfortunate encounter with Carole, 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 ________.

backward conditioning

Balster suggests that inhumane treatment of research animals is __________.

bad science

In within-subject experiments, each subject's performance is compared with his or her performance during a ______.

baseline period

____ changes when learning occurs.

behavior

The kind of study that is most likely to involve a large number of subjects is one with a ________.

between-subjects design

Darwin suggested that natural selection is analogous to

breeding

Experience refers to ________.

changes in the environment

Hart and Risley did a longitudinal study of the influence of the home verbal environment on children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. They found that _______.

children whose parents talked to them a lot later scored higher on IQ tests

A _________ stimulus is one that consists of two or more stimuli presented simultaneously.

compound

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

contingent on

Any variable that is allowed to vary freely is a(n) __________ variable.

dependent

In studying "psychic secretions," Pavlov focused his attention on the ________.

events in the dog's environment

Variation and natural selection are the foundations of _______.

evolution

spontaneous recovery is associated with _______.

extinction

B. F. Skinner was the first person to record data cumulatively

false

Pavlov's work paved the way for Darwin's theory of evolution.

false

In general, the more intense a US, the __________.

faster conditioning proceeds

Experimental research on behavior is often said to be artificial. To compensate for this problem, researchers do ________ .

field experiments

Experiments done in natural settings are called _____

field experiments

Experiments done in natural settings are called _______.

field experiments

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

fluency

Work on selective breeding in ___________ over a period of 40 years shows that behavioral characteristics can be selectively bred so that the descendants behave more like a different species than like their own ancestors.

foxes

Repeated exposure to a stimulus that evokes a reflex response results in ________.

habituation

The list of alleged human instincts ______.

has gotten shorter over the years

The experiments of Staats and Staats with nonsense syllables are examples of ____________ conditioning.

higher-order

Of the following, the one that does not belong with the others is ________.

higher-order conditioning

Any variable an experimenter manipulates is a(n) ________ variable.

independent

A cumulative record shows the total number of responses that have occurred in a given period of time as well as the rate at which they occurred.

intensity

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

is faster

The chief limitation of natural selection as a means of adapting to change is that ___________.

it is slow/takes place over generations/helps the species but not the individual

Response _______refers to the time that passes before a response occurs.

latency

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

latent inhibition

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 ______.

learned behavior

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 _______.

learning

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

learning

The author of your text evidently believes that _______.

learning is a way of adapting to change

Using an ABA reversal design is rather like using a ______.

light switch

The evidence from biology suggests that the first "eyes" were not eyes at all, but_______.

light-sensitive cells

The cowbird deposits its eggs in the nests of other birds. This is most likely a ________.

modal action pattern

The brown-headed cowbird puts its eggs in other birds's nests. This is an example of a ______.

modal action pattern/instinct

Generally, the _____ (more/less) intense a stimulus, the faster conditioning occurs.

more

The first conditioning trials are typically _____ (more/less) effective than later trials

more

One problem with computer simulations as a substitute for animal research is that ___________.

no one knows what behavior to program until the research has been done

A flat cumulative record indicates that the behavior is ________

not occurring

A flat cumulative record indicates that the behavior is ________.

not occurring

J. M. Graham and Claude Desjardins established a(n) ______ as a CS for sexual arousal in rats.

odor

Pavlov's main interest initially was ______

physiology

In a cumulative record, learning is indicated by a change in response _______.

rate

The gollypod, a fictitious aquatic animal, breaks out in a cold sweat whenever exposed to the sun. This reaction is most likely ______.

reflex

Modal action patterns are induced by events called ______.

releasers

In ____________ conditioning, the CS and US occur at the same time.

simultaneous

A thumbtack stuck in a bulletin board several feet away is less likely to affect your behavior than a thumbtack placed on the chair on which you are sitting. Even though both examples involve a thumbtack, the second is more likely to qualify as a ________.

stimulus

Harry teaches an advanced painting class. His goal is to teach students to paint more creatively. Harry will probably measure learning as a change in response _________.

topography

A cumulative record shows the total number of responses that have occurred in a given period of time as well as the rate at which they occurred.

true

A key feature of Pavlovian conditioning is that the CS and US appear together regardless of what the animal or person does.

true

According to the Rescorla-Wagner model, blocking occurs because when the second (blocked) CS is presented, most of the learning that can occur has already been "used up" by the first CS.

true

One way to test for the effects of conditioning is to use test trials

true

Research results with humans usually parallel those with animals.

true

The natural science approach assumes that things are caused only by natural events.

true

The term ___________ response refers to an innate reflex response to a stimulus.

unconditional