Download Meyers Chapter 5—Sensation and perception

UNIT 6: LEARNING
[Note: Correct Answers are in Bold.]
Through direct experience with animals, we come to anticipate that dogs will bark and
that birds will chirp. This best illustrates:
A. the law of effect.
B. spontaneous recovery.
C. respondent behavior.
D. associative learning.
Ivan Pavlov noticed that dogs began salivating at the mere sight of the person who
regularly brought food to them. For the dogs, the sight of this person was a(n):
A. primary reinforcer.
B. unconditional stimulus.
C. immediate reinforcer.
D. conditioned stimulus.
Conditioning seldom occurs when a(n) ________ comes after a(n) _____.
A. CS; US
B. UR; CS
C. secondary reinforcer; operant behavior
D. negative reinforcer; operant behavior
The predictability of an association between a CS and a US facilitates an organism's
ability to anticipate the occurrence of the US. This fact is most likely to be highlighted by
a(n) ________ perspective.
A. evolutionary
B. behaviorist
C. cognitive
D. neuroscience
Researchers condition a flatworm to contract when exposed to light by repeatedly pairing
the light with electric shock. The electric shock is a(n):
A. negative reinforcer.
B. conditioned stimulus.
C. conditioned reinforcer.
D. unconditioned stimulus.
If you get violently ill a couple of hours after eating contaminated food, you will
probably develop an aversion to the taste of that food but not to the sight of the restaurant
where you ate or to the sound of the music you heard there. This best illustrates that
associative learning is constrained by:
A. intrinsic motivation.
B. spontaneous recovery.
C. biological predispositions.
D. conditioned reinforcers.
After getting ill from eating her friend’s Thanksgiving turkey, Natalia couldn’t stand the
sight or smell of turkey. However, when her friend baked a whole chicken, Natalia
thought it sounded good. This illustrates:
A. generalization.
B. discrimination.
C. extinction.
D. acquisition.
The law of effect relates most closely to:
A. modeling.
B. operant conditioning.
C. classical conditioning.
D. latent learning.
For some children who bite themselves or bang their heads, squirting water at their faces
when they hurt themselves has been observed to decrease the frequency of these selfabusive behaviors. This best illustrates the potential value of:
A. punishment.
B. conditioned reinforcers.
C. negative reinforcers.
D. latent learning.
Occasional, unpredictable reinforcement usually results in _________ rates of
responding.
A. unpredictable
B. steady
C. delayed
D. speedy
Mirror neurons are important to the process of learning because they:
A. enhance cognitive maps.
B. enable imitation.
C. provide a neurological basis for operant conditioning.
D. explain aversive conditioning.
Critical Thinking Questions:
A child is sent to his room with no supper because he presented a bad report card to his
parents. The parent’s intent was to:
A. punish poor academic performance.
B. negatively reinforce poor academic performance.
C. extinguish poor academic performance.
D. partially reinforce poor academic performance.
Brian ate a tuna salad sandwich that had become tainted from being in the sun too long.
Not long after eating, Brian became extremely nauseated and felt awful. After that, even
the sight of a tuna sandwich caused Brian to feel nauseated. In this scenario, what is the
conditioned response (CR)?
A. tuna
B. nausea
C. mayonnaise
D. sight of any sandwich
Luke gets paid a fixed sum after every four pianos he tunes. He is on a _________
schedule of reinforcement.
A. fixed interval
B. fixed ratio
C. variable interval
D. variable ratio
Extinction occurs ___________ in classical conditioning and ___________ in operant
conditioning.
A. when the CS is presented with the US; when reinforcement increases
B. when the CS is presented alone repeatedly; when reinforcement increases
C. when the CS is presented alone repeatedly; when reinforcement stops
D. when the CS is presented with the US; when reinforcement stops