Question 1

Compare the evidence for behavioral variability and stereotypy.What evidence is there that variability can be conditioned?

Accepted Answer

No Answer provided

Question 2

What factors contribute to the effectiveness of an instrumental reinforcer?

Accepted Answer

No Answer provided

Question 3

Which of the following is an example of a response reinforcer relationship with good contingency but weak temporal contiguity?

Accepted Answer

A)  sending sweepstakes coupons to the clearinghouse
B)  putting a sandwich in the microwave to heat
C)  mailing three cereal box tops to receive a plastic toy
D)  being burned by a hot stove C

Question 4

The competition between natural responses and the responses required by the experimenter sometimes leads to the development of behaviors that interfere with an animal making an instrumental response.The development of these behaviors is called

Accepted Answer

A)  stereotypy.
B)  differential variability.
C)  instinctive drift.
D)  behavioral systems.

Question 5

Which of the following is an example of (positive) punishment?

Accepted Answer

A)  Dora is sent to her room without dessert because of her poor manners.
B)  Steve has his mouth washed out with soap for swearing.
C)  Bobby is not allowed to buy cigarettes because he is too young.
D)  All of the above

Question 6

Your sister's hamster keeps escaping from its cage.On the first day, it took the hamster 14 hours to escape, but by the second week, the hamster could only be confined for 30 minutes before it worked its way to freedom.According to Thorndike's theory,

Accepted Answer

A)  the stimulus of the cage has become associated with the desire to be free.
B)  the stimulus of the cage has become associated with the jumping necessary to gain freedom.
C)  the hamster jumps in order to gain freedom.
D)  the hamster "operates" on its environment to gain freedom.

Question 7

Which of the following is an example of positive reinforcement?

Accepted Answer

A)  receiving a time-out instead of a spanking
B)  turning off the radio when the DJ plays a song you dislike
C)  going out to dinner after winning an award
D)  faking illness to avoid school in the morning

Question 8

According to Skinner, superstitious behavior is due to

Accepted Answer

A)  an accidental negative response-reinforcer contingency.
B)  interim reinforcement.
C)  terminal reinforcement.
D)  adventitious reinforcement.

Question 9

According to behavioral systems theory, the periodicity of interim responses is best explained by

Accepted Answer

A)  species-typical responses that reflect other sources of motivation when food is unlikely.
B)  early components of foraging behavior.
C)  adventitious reinforcement.
D)  pseudoconditioning.

Question 10

What are the effects of a delay of reinforcement on instrumental learning and what causes these effects?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What are the effects of a delay...

Question 11

What is the current thinking about instrumental reinforcement and creativity, and what is the relevant experimental evidence?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is the current thinking about instrumental...

Question 12

Subjects exposed to inescapable shock in the exposure phase of a learned helplessness experiment typically show slowed escape learning during a later conditioning phase.However, if during the conditioning phase their escape responses are marked by an external stimulus, they show little disruption of their escape learning.This suggests that

Accepted Answer

A)  animals can perceive the contingency between their behavior and the delivery of a reinforcer.
B)  animals learn to be inactive in response to inescapable shock during the exposure phase.
C)  animals pay less attention to their actions due to inescapable shock.
D)  animals perseverate in their responses following inescapable shock.

Question 13

Dave the Druid makes a sacrificial offering of wine to the sun every 365 days.Each time he does so, the sun rises over the same stone.Dave believes pouring wine over the stone causes the sun to rise there because he has made a mistake in the component of the response reinforcer relationship.

Accepted Answer

A)  temporal contiguity
B)  belongingness
C)  contingency
D)  timing

Question 14

Ralph only gets to watch television in the afternoons if he doesn't hit his sister.Otherwise, he must spend the afternoon in his room.This is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  differential reinforcement of other behavior.
B)  avoidance training.
C)  punishment.
D)  negative reinforcement.

Question 15

In a discrete trial procedure, the researcher can measure all of the following except

Accepted Answer

A)  response rate.
B)  running speed.
C)  food preference.
D)  latency to leave the start box.

Question 16

Activating the ventral medial prefrontal cortex

Accepted Answer

A)  substitutes for behavioral control in learned helplessness paradigms.
B)  interferes with behavioral control in learned helplessness paradigms.
C)  provides evidence supporting the learned helplessness hypothesis.
D)  none of the above

Question 17

Your dog is sitting quietly in the front yard when an intruder approaches.As you would hope, the dog begins to bark vigorously and the intruder runs away.The dog's barking is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  sensitization.
B)  elicited behavior.
C)  goal directed behavior.
D)  It cannot be determined with the given information.

Question 18

Steve anxiously taps his pencil on his desk every day at 11:50.By 11:55 he is licking his lips.Assuming lunch is always served at noon, what, according to behavioral systems theory, best explains his pencil tapping behavior?

Accepted Answer

A)  adventitious reinforcement
B)  superstitious behavior
C)  species-typical responses that reflect other sources of motivation when food is unlikely
D)  early components of foraging behavior

Question 19

A rat in a Skinner box receives a food pellet every fifth time it pushes the response lever.This is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  punishment.
B)  differential reinforcement of other behavior.
C)  positive reinforcement.
D)  negative reinforcement.

Question 20

Sometimes, removing a stimulus after some response increases the occurrence of that response.This is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  punishment.
B)  omission training.
C)  positive reinforcement.
D)  negative reinforcement.

Exam 5: Instrumental Conditioning