Question 1

Thorndike's law of effect states that

Accepted Answer

A) responses followed by unsatisfying consequences will become more likely to occur 
B) responses followed by unsatisfying consequences will become less likely to occur 
C) aversive consequences produce greater learning than do positive consequences 
D) positive consequences produce greater learning than do negative consequences

Question 2

An instructor administers exams every 2 weeks throughout the term of her course. As a result, a sizeable percentage of the students in her class study very hard every 2 weeks and do little studying in between. This example is most similar to which partial reinforcement schedule?

Accepted Answer

A) Fixed interval schedule 
B) Fixed ratio schedule 
C) Variable interval schedule 
D) Variable ratio schedule

Question 3

Are variable or fixed schedules more resistant to extinction? Why?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Are variable or fixed schedules more resistant...

Question 4

Tyler wakes up to a noisy drilling machine from the neighbour's house. He is unable to concentrate on his work from the disturbing loud drilling. As the day goes by, he is able to do his work despite the noise from the drilling machine being as loud as it was when it started. Tyler has _____________.

Accepted Answer

A) got sensitized to the noise 
B) given up 
C) become ignorant of the noise 
D) got habituated to the noise

Question 5

In operant conditioning, to decrease the likelihood of a behaviour, punishment is applied as a ________.

Accepted Answer

A) stimulus 
B) response 
C) consequence 
D) reinforcer

Question 6

A child typically needs to burn her hand on a hot stove only once to learn to avoid doing this in the future. Psychologists involved in classical conditioning would most likely consider this as an example of

Accepted Answer

A) uni-trial extinction 
B) negative reinforcement 
C) punishment 
D) fear conditioning 
E) habituation

Question 7

Starbucks has a new program where you receive stars for purchases made at their stores. Later you can redeem these stars for other products. It seems that Starbucks is using a procedure similar to

Accepted Answer

A) aversive conditioning 
B) preparedness 
C) a token economy 
D) higher-order conditioning 
E) discrimination training

Question 8

Stuart is afraid of public speaking, but only when he has to make speeches on the weekend. He is a professor and has no trouble speaking in front of large groups of students, and he has made effective presentations at conferences, as long as he presents on a weekday. The specificity of Stuart's fear mostly clearly demonstrates the process of

Accepted Answer

A) negative reinforcement 
B) avoidance conditioning 
C) stimulus generalization 
D) discrimination

Question 9

When a response increases in frequency by the subsequent removal (or avoidance) of a stimulus, it is called ______________.

Accepted Answer

A) positive reinforcement 
B) negative reinforcement 
C) aversive punishment 
D) response cost punishment

Question 10

A researcher in a classical conditioning experiment is attempting to condition a startle response to a green light. To do this, she illuminates the light at the same time that she plays a very loud noise. This experiment is utilizing what is called simultaneous pairing of the

Accepted Answer

A) unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus 
B) unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response 
C) unconditioned response and conditioned stimulus 
D) unconditioned response and conditioned response

Question 11

If your cat learns to associate the sound of an electric can opener with being fed and gets excited whenever they hear you use it, they may nevertheless show no response to the sound of other electric appliances that sound somewhat similar (e.g. a garbage disposal). What concept does that demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

A) discrimination 
B) generalization 
C) extinction 
D) spontaneous recovery 
E) deliberate recovery

Question 12

you want to try to determine the best predictor of behaviour. From a cognitive perspective, the best predictor of behaviour is

Accepted Answer

A) past behaviour 
B) perceived contingencies 
C) actual contingencies 
D) attention 
E) motivation

Question 13

How animals appear to be biologically "prewired" to easily learn behaviours that are related to their survival as a species because of evolutionary forces is referred to by the term ____________________.

Accepted Answer

A) latent learning 
B) operant extinction 
C) preparedness 
D) fixed action pattern

Question 14

The psychologist Albert Bandura identified a four-step process necessary for observational learning to occur. Which of the following is NOT one of the steps?

Accepted Answer

A) retention 
B) recollection 
C) reproduction 
D) motivation

Question 15

Operant extinction refers to the process in which a behaviour is

Accepted Answer

A) weakened because it is no longer reinforced 
B) weakened because it is positively punished 
C) weakened because of negative punishment 
D) strengthened because it is negatively reinforced

Question 16

Which of the following illustrates aversive (positive) punishment?

Accepted Answer

A) Parents pay their daughter for getting good grades. 
B) An owner angrily scolds his dog after she chews up a sock. 
C) A boy loses his TV privileges after lying to his parents. 
D) A man puts on his seat belt in order to stop the annoying warning bell in his car.

Question 17

Edward Thorndike proposed that a response that was followed by a satisfying consequence was more likely to occur. This was termed as Thorndike's law of __________.

Accepted Answer

A) instrumental learning 
B) generalization 
C) aversive conditioning 
D) effect

Question 18

You are watching a rat press a bar in a Skinner box. As you look at the cumulative record, you notice that there are significant pauses in responding after reinforcement is delivered. Moreover, the pauses are not flat, they are curved or scalloped. What kind of schedule is the rat being trained on?

Accepted Answer

A) fixed interval 
B) variable interval 
C) fixed ratio 
D) variable ratio 
E) continuous reinforcement

Question 19

Edward Thorndike assumed that animals were able to escape his puzzle box because

Accepted Answer

A) they eventually gained insight into how to solve the problem 
B) they eventually were able to discriminate the conditioned stimulus sufficiently 
C) they used trial-and-error and slowly eliminated ineffective responses 
D) the response costs for ineffective action eventually became too high

Question 20

A few days ago, Wendy got a speeding ticket on a highway behind Superior College. This morning, on her way to College, on the same stretch of the road where she had received the speeding ticket, Wendy immediately slowed down and checked her speedometer when she saw the flashing lights of a security vehicle. The security vehicle reminded her of the police car from the day she got the ticket. This is an example of _____________.

Accepted Answer

A) spontaneous recovery 
B) extinction 
C) stimulus generalization 
D) stimulus discrimination

Exam 7: Learning and Adaptation: the Role of Experience