Associative learning involves forming connections between stimuli or events that occur together.
Correct Answer
True
True. Associative learning is central to classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning. In each, an organism links events that occur together, such as a stimulus with another stimulus or a behavior with its consequence.
Category: Learning Basics
Question 2
Simple reflexes, such as pupils narrowing in bright light, are controlled mainly by higher brain centers such as the cerebral cortex.
Correct Answer
False
False. Reflexes are controlled by lower centers of the nervous system, such as the spinal cord and the medulla. Instincts, which are more complex, involve higher brain centers.
Category: Learning Basics
Question 3
In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus at first produces no relevant response.
Correct Answer
True
True. A neutral stimulus, such as a tone before training, does not by itself trigger the response being studied. Only after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus does it become a conditioned stimulus that triggers a conditioned response.
Category: Classical Conditioning
Question 4
In classical conditioning, the conditioned response is an unlearned reaction to the unconditioned stimulus.
Correct Answer
False
False. The unlearned reaction to the unconditioned stimulus is the unconditioned response. The conditioned response is the learned reaction to the conditioned stimulus, such as a dog salivating to a tone.
Category: Classical Conditioning
Question 5
A taste aversion usually requires many pairings of a food with illness before it forms.
Correct Answer
False
False. A taste aversion can form after a single pairing of a food with illness, even when the illness comes hours after eating. This rapid learning is viewed as an adaptation that helps animals avoid poisonous foods.
Category: Classical Conditioning
Question 6
Classical conditioning helps explain why advertisers pair their products with attractive people to make the products seem more appealing.
Correct Answer
True
True. When a product is repeatedly paired with an attractive person who already triggers positive feelings, the product itself can come to trigger those feelings. The product acts as a conditioned stimulus.
Category: Classical Conditioning
Question 7
Stimulus discrimination is the ability to respond to a specific conditioned stimulus but not to similar stimuli.
Correct Answer
True
True. In stimulus discrimination, an organism learns to tell the conditioned stimulus apart from similar stimuli, such as a cat that runs to the sound of the can opener but ignores the sound of a blender.
Category: Conditioning Processes
Question 8
In operant conditioning, an organism learns to associate two stimuli that occur together.
Correct Answer
False
False. Operant conditioning links a behavior with its consequence, either reinforcement or punishment. Learning to associate two stimuli that occur together is classical conditioning.
Category: Operant Conditioning
Question 9
In operant conditioning, the word negative means that the behavior becomes less likely.
Correct Answer
False
False. In operant terms, negative means a stimulus is removed and positive means a stimulus is added. Whether behavior increases or decreases depends on whether the consequence is reinforcement or punishment.
Category: Operant Conditioning
Question 10
Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus after a behavior to make that behavior more likely.
Correct Answer
True
True. Giving a child a small toy for cleaning her room is positive reinforcement, because something pleasant is added and the cleaning becomes more likely in the future.
Category: Operant Conditioning
Question 11
A primary reinforcer, such as food or water, has reinforcing value that does not have to be learned.
Correct Answer
True
True. Primary reinforcers satisfy innate needs, so they are reinforcing without any learning. Other examples include sleep, shelter and touch.
Category: Operant Conditioning
Question 12
Research has linked physical punishment such as spanking to lower levels of aggression in children.
Correct Answer
False
False. Research has linked physical punishment to more aggression, antisocial behavior and delinquency in children, and it can also teach fear of the person giving the punishment.
Category: Operant Conditioning
Question 13
Experts today generally recommend reinforcing desired behavior rather than relying on punishment to change behavior.
Correct Answer
True
True. Because punishment can produce fear and aggression, most experts favor reinforcing the behavior that is wanted. Skinner himself urged weighing punishment against its possible negative effects.
Category: Operant Conditioning
Question 14
Of the four partial reinforcement schedules, the variable ratio schedule is the most resistant to extinction.
Correct Answer
True
True. Because reinforcement could come with any response, behavior on a variable ratio schedule continues for a long time after reinforcement stops. The fixed interval schedule is the easiest to extinguish.
Category: Reinforcement Schedules
Question 15
A variable interval schedule delivers reinforcement after a set number of responses.
Correct Answer
False
False. A variable interval schedule reinforces a response after unpredictable amounts of time have passed. Reinforcement after a set number of responses is a fixed ratio schedule.
Category: Reinforcement Schedules
Question 16
On a partial reinforcement schedule, every occurrence of the behavior is reinforced.
Correct Answer
False
False. Partial, or intermittent, reinforcement rewards only some occurrences of a behavior. Reinforcing every occurrence is continuous reinforcement.
Category: Reinforcement Schedules
Question 17
Edward Tolman's maze research showed that learning cannot occur without reinforcement.
Correct Answer
False
False. Tolman found that rats exploring a maze without any reward still formed cognitive maps of it, and they used that knowledge once food appeared. His work showed that learning can occur without reinforcement.
Category: Cognition and Learning
Question 18
A symbolic model can be a real or fictional character in a book, movie, television show or video game.
Correct Answer
True
True. Symbolic models are people or characters shown in media. They differ from live models, who perform the behavior in person, and verbal models, who describe or explain it.
Category: Observational Learning
Question 19
Observational learning can involve learning a general rule from watching others, not just copying one exact behavior.
Correct Answer
True
True. Simple imitation is copying a model, but observational learning is broader. A learner may pick up a new response, decide not to imitate a behavior, or infer a general rule from what was observed.
Category: Observational Learning
Question 20
Children tend to copy what adults say more than what adults actually do.
Correct Answer
False
False. Children tend to imitate what adults do more than what they say, which is why parents who model a behavior teach it more effectively than those who only tell children to do it.
Category: Observational Learning