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CHAPTER 3
BEHAVIORISM AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which one of the following characteristics of behaviorist learning theories is a direct
outgrowth of the equipotentiality assumption?
a. Rewards and punishments have equally strong, but opposite, effects on behavior.
*b. Conclusions derived from research with rats are applicable to human learning.
c. All people have an equal ability to learn something.
d. Several different responses may be learned to the same stimulus.
2. Which one of the following statements best describes the view of early behaviorists about
how learning can best be studied?
a. Psychologists can determine how learning occurs only if they can identify its
physiological basis.
b. Introspection—reporting what and how one is thinking—is likely to yield the most
accurate results.
c. To study learning scientifically, researchers must confine their investigations to
animal research in a laboratory setting.
*d. The study of learning will be more objective and scientific if only observable events
are considered.
3. When behaviorists describe an organism as a “black box,” they mean that:
a. Many stimuli have no noticeable effect on the organism.
*b. Learning processes occurring within the organism cannot be studied scientifically.
c. Learning is, by its very nature, something that takes place outside the organism.
d. An organism makes many responses even in the absence of any observed external
stimulus.
4. Which one of the following statements best reflects behaviorists’ notion of tabula rasa
(“blank slate”)?
*a. Organisms inherit few predispositions to behave in particular ways; instead, the
behaviors they exhibit are largely the result of environmental experiences.
b. Stimuli that occur after responses are made are usually more influential on an
organism’s learning that stimuli that occur before responses are made.
c. The things that organisms learn in a new situation largely override the things that
they’ve learned in previous situations; as a result, newly learned behaviors often
replace previously learned behaviors.
d. Learning is more a function of what the environment does to the organism than of
what the organism does to the environment; in other words, the organism plays a
relatively passive role in the learning process.
5. Ivan Pavlov conducted a series of studies that led him to propose his theory of classical
conditioning. In these studies, Pavlov observed how a dog learned to:
a. Bark when meat was presented
b. Bark when meat was taken away
c. Wake up when an auditory stimulus (e.g., a bell) was presented
*d. Salivate to a simple stimulus such as a light or bell
6. Classical conditioning typically occurs when:
a. A response is followed by two stimuli
b. A response is followed by a single aversive stimulus
*c. Two stimuli are presented at about the same time
d. Two responses occur (usually coincidentally) at about the same time
7. Which one of the following responses is most likely to be learned through classical
conditioning?
*a. Feeling anxious around horses
b. Taking a walk on a nice day
c. Doing homework
d. Waving to a friend
8. On several occasions Edward is severely beaten by his alcoholic father. Before long,
Edward begins to shake whenever his father approaches. In this situation, Edward’s
shaking at the sight of his father is a(n) _____; the severe beating he has received is a(n)
_____.
a. unconditioned stimulus; conditioned response
b. unconditioned response; conditioned stimulus
c. conditioned stimulus; unconditional response
*d. conditioned response; unconditional stimulus
9. After repeatedly being beaten by his father, Edward begins to show signs of fearing other
men as well as his father. Edward’s fear of other men can be explained by:
a. sensory preconditioning
*b. generalization
c. higher-order conditioning
d. stimulus discrimination
10. Matthew once had a teacher who punished him severely whenever he did poorly on a
classroom test. Now he refuses to take tests, saying he is too frightened to do so. He has
learned to associate tests with the pain of punishment. From the perspective of classical
conditioning, the painful punishment is:
*a. An unconditioned stimulus
b. An unconditioned response
c. A conditioned stimulus
d. A conditioned response
11. At the dentist’s office, Teresa has a painful experience that leaves her tense and fearful.
The next time her mother brings her to the dentist’s office, Teresa begins to get tense and
anxious. In this situation, the dentist and dentist’s office are _____; Teresa’s fear of pain is
a(n) _____.
a. unconditioned stimuli; conditioned response
b. unconditioned responses; conditioned stimulus
*c. conditioned stimuli; unconditioned response
d. conditioned responses; unconditioned stimulus
12. After a painful experience at one dentist’s office, Teresa’s mother takes Teresa to a
different dentist, who takes great care to make her visits painless. Teresa is anxious at
first, but after a few visits, Teresa gradually becomes less resistant about going to the new
dentist. Teresa’s change in behavior can probably best be explained in terms of _____. But
then Teresa doesn’t go to see the dentist again until three years later. On her first visit to
the painless dentist after that time interval, she is anxious once again, even though she had
not been anxious in her previous visits. The return of this response after it had previously
disappeared is known as _____.
*a. extinction; spontaneous recovery
b. generalization; discriminative learning
c. higher-order conditioning; sensory preconditioning
d. sensory preconditioning; higher-order conditioning
13. Jacob is suffering from a mild case of flu and, as a result, is feeling a bit nauseous. He
decides that he needs to eat something to keep up his strength, so he gets out of bed, puts
on a heavy sweater to keep himself warm, heats up a bowl of leftover chili, and settles
down in an easy chair to watch a television game show while he eats. A few days later,
after Jacob has recovered from the flu, one of the stimuli in the situation just described
elicits a feeling of nausea. With the phenomenon of associative bias in mind, choose the
stimulus that is most likely to elicit nausea.
a. The sweater
*b. The chili
c. The easy chair
d. The television game show
14. Which one of the following best illustrates associative bias in classical conditioning?
a. A man is afraid of heights, but only when there is no railing to hold him back.
*b. After a painful dog bite, a girl fears the dog that bit her but is not afraid of the room in
which she was bitten.
c. You associate pleasant feelings with “Unchained Melody” but not with “You’ve Lost
That Lovin’ Feeling,” even though both songs are sung by the Righteous Brothers.
d. After being conditioned to fear a white rat, Little Albert generalizes his fear to other
white, fuzzy things.
15. A mother in Montana wants to teach her four-year-old son to stay away from the bears
that occasionally wander into the backyard; in other words, she wants him to be afraid of
bears. On the other hand, she doesn’t want her son to fear such other large animals as
cows and horses. Below are four possible approaches she might take. Which one is based
on Pavlov’s view of how stimulus discrimination develops?
a. She takes her son to a zoo, where he can see bears in cages; she then takes him to a
neighbor’s dairy farm, where he can pet several dogs, cows, and horses.
b. She shows the child several pictures of growling, fierce-looking bears.
c. Using language the child can understand, she explains that bears are not to be cuddled
and played with in the same way that teddy bears are.
*d. She turns on a loud, startling siren every time a bear approaches; she also makes sure
the child has numerous contacts with other animals in quieter contexts.
16. Paul is usually successful on the math problems his teacher assigns at school, although he
occasionally fails on one or two problems. In contrast, Peter’s experiences with
mathematics are almost always associated with frustration and failure. Considering
contemporary views of the roles of contiguity and contingency in classical conditioning,
who will acquire classically conditioned anxiety regarding mathematics?
a. Both Paul and Peter will develop a considerable degree of mathematics anxiety.
b. Only Paul will develop math anxiety, because the relationship between math and
failure is unpredictable.
*c. Only Peter will develop math anxiety, because whenever math is presented, failure
always follows.
d. Neither Paul nor Peter will develop math anxiety, because neither situation reflects
contingency of the CS and UCS.
17. If students associate failure with punishment, and then associate playing sports with
failure, they may begin to fear playing sports through a process of:
a. generalization
b. spontaneous recovery
*c. higher-order conditioning
d. sensory preconditioning
18. Which one of the following best describes contemporary theorists’ perspective on classical
conditioning?
*a. Cognitive factors, such as mental representations of stimuli and predictions that
organisms make, must often be considered in addition to observable stimuli and
responses.
b. Despite Pavlov’s early findings to the contrary, higher-order conditioning and sensory
preconditioning seldom occur.
c. Classical conditioning typically occurs only in conjunction with operant conditioning;
for example, conditioned stimuli elicit conditioned responses only when those
responses are followed by reinforcement.
d. Classical conditioning occurs primarily in artificial laboratory conditions; it rarely
occurs in more naturalistic, real-life settings.
19. David is addicted to a drug that increases his blood sugar level, temporarily giving him
more energy. David always takes this drug in the bathroom. He finds that he becomes tired
when he enters the bathroom and also that he needs more and more of the drug to maintain
the same high energy level. From the perspective of classical conditioning, which one of
the following is the most likely explanation of David’s increasing addiction to the drug?
*a. Lowering blood sugar level to counteract the effect of the drug has become a
conditioned response to the “bathroom” stimulus.
b. David has learned to respond to some drugs but not to others through the combined
processes of stimulus discrimination and higher-order conditioning.
c. Taking the drugs provides negative reinforcement, in that David no longer feels tired.
d. Associative bias has predisposed David to associate the bathroom with fatigue.
20. Which one of the following situations illustrates extinction of a classically conditioned
response?
a. Andrew thinks school is a waste of time because he doesn’t learn anything he can
really use.
b. Brian experiences more and more anxiety about mathematics as his math problems
become increasingly difficult.
*c. Carla becomes less afraid of tests over time when she finds that she can succeed at
them.
d. Deirdre doesn’t like keeping her desk tidy because she has too much stuff to arrange
it all neatly inside.
21. Extinction is one method of eliminating undesirable conditioned responses, but there are
several problems associated with its use. Which one is not a problem encountered in using
extinction?
a. Some responses extinguish slowly, if at all.
b. Extinguished responses may reappear through spontaneous recovery.
*c. Extinction often occurs too quickly to be controlled.
d. Organisms tend to stay away from stimuli they have learned to fear, thus preventing
their exposure to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned
stimulus.
22. After being bitten by a neighbor’s dog, Kathy is now afraid of the puppy her family has
just adopted. Kathy’s father gives Kathy a hot fudge sundae; then, while she is happily
eating it, he brings the puppy about fifteen feet from where she is sitting. On each
successive day, Kathy gets another ice cream treat, and her father brings the puppy a little
closer than he did on the previous day. Eventually Kathy is able to pet and enjoy the new
puppy. Kathy’s father is using a procedure known as:
a. sensory preconditioning
b. stimulus discrimination
c. extinction
*d. counterconditioning
23. To help Kathy overcome her fear of the new family puppy, her father gives her a hot fudge
sundae and then, while she eats it, gradually brings the puppy closer and closer to her. The
procedure works because Kathy cannot be happy eating the ice cream and fearful about
the puppy at the same time. Being happy and being fearful are, in this situation,
a. a conditioned response and an unconditioned response, respectively
b. unconditioned responses
c. an involuntary response and a voluntary response, respectively
*d. incompatible responses
24. Nick is extremely anxious whenever he takes a test. From a classical conditioning
perspective, a teacher can best reduce his anxiety by:
a. Giving him a few extremely difficult tests at first, and then gradually giving him
easier ones
*b. Giving him a few easy tests while he is feeling relaxed
c. Reinforcing him for each test question he answers correctly
d. Reassuring him that he can do well if he tries hard
25. Given what we know about how classical conditioning occurs, which one of the following
teaching strategies should be most productive?
a. Asking students to engage in activities that they can already do quite well, so that
they never make mistakes.
*b. Engaging students in classroom activities they find enjoyable.
c. Giving students numerous opportunities to explore the world around them in a
relatively unrestricted fashion.
d. Making sure that desired student responses are always followed by reinforcing
consequences.
26. Which one of the following educational practices is most clearly derived from behaviorist
principles?
*a. Having students make overt responses
b. Teaching students how to apply information
c. Asking students to generate questions about what they read
d. Presenting information in a logical sequence that stresses interrelationships among
ideas
27. A smoker is asked to smoke one cigarette after another until she is unable to continue any
longer. Which method for breaking bad habits is best illustrated in this situation?
a. Threshold method
b. Consolidation method
*c. Exhaustion method
d. Incompatible stimulus method
28. A student who is afraid of mathematics is first given some problems that bear little
resemblance to mathematics, then is given a sequence of problems that become
increasingly more mathematical in content. The progression of problems is gradual
enough that the fear response does not occur, and eventually the student loses his fear of
mathematics. Which method for breaking bad habits is best illustrated in this situation?
a. Incompatible stimulus method
b. Consolidation method
c. Exhaustion method
*d. Threshold method
Essay Questions
1. Behaviorist theories tend to share a number of common underlying assumptions. In five short
paragraphs, describe five of these assumptions.
2. On several occasions, Edward is severely beaten by his alcoholic father. Before long, Edward
begins to shake whenever his father approaches.
a. Explain this situation in terms of classical conditioning, identifying the UCS, UCR, CS,
and CR.
b. Edward soon shows signs of fearing other men in addition to his father, even though they
have never beaten him. Identify and describe the classical conditioning process that
accounts for Edward’s fear of men.
c. Explain how you might eliminate Edward’s fear of men through a process of
counterconditioning.
3. Last week Gretel was accidentally hurt in her physical education class when a much larger
student ran into her and knocked her to the floor. Gretel is now afraid to go to physical
education. Explain this situation in terms of classical conditioning, identifying the UCS,
UCR, CS, and CR.
4. The textbook describes three methods for breaking bad habits. Describe two of these
methods, and illustrate each with an example.