Deck 5: Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning

Question 1

When photographing cats escaping their puzzle box,Guthrie and Horton found that

A)all cats learned to respond in the same way
B)a cat's responses became more variable over trials
C)a cat's responses became more consistent over trials
D)some cats never learned the escape response

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Thorndike's explanation of the learning that took place in his puzzle box involved all of the following except

A)the animal's knowledge
B)the animal's satisfaction
C)a strengthening of S-R connections
D)the law of effect

Answer 2

A

Question 3

A modern term for the law of effect is

A)reinforcement
B)classical conditioning
C)evolution
D)generalization

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The procedure of shaping usually involves

A)positive reinforcement
B)conditioned reinforcement
C)variability in behavior
D)all of the above

Question 5

The Brelands usually observed "instinctive drift" in their animals

A)early in training
B)after a response had been successfully learned
C)during extinction
D)when the animals were not highly motivated to work for food

Question 6

Experiments on superstitious behavior in humans have found

A)that adults cannot be fooled into developing superstitious behaviors in a laboratory setting
B)that children cannot be fooled into developing superstitious behaviors in a laboratory setting
C)that if children are given periodic free reinforcers,they all develop the same superstitious behavior
D)none of the above

Question 7

Which of the following is not part of the three-term contingency-

A)operant response
B)reinforcer
C)discriminative stimulus
D)conditioned stimulus

Question 8

From the perspective of traditional reinforcement principles,the most puzzling finding made by the Brelands in their animal training was that

A)their animals had difficulty learning outside the laboratory
B)their animals had difficulty learning sequences of behavior
C)their animals exhibited behaviors that delayed the reinforcer
D)their animals exhibited various instinctive behavior patterns

Question 9

Unlike a discrete trial procedure,the free operant procedure involves

A)a response that the subject can perform at any time
B)just about any response the experimenter decides to examine
C)both a and b
D)neither a nor b

Question 10

Money is an example of

A)a primary reinforcer
B)a generalized reinforcer
C)an unconditioned stimulus
D)none of the above

Question 11

In a response chain,the weakest response is usually

A)the response at the beginning of the chain
B)the response at the end of the chain
C)the last response the individual learns
D)the first response the individual learns

Question 12

Which of the following is an example of a conditioned reinforcer-

A)food
B)warmth
C)sexual stimulation
D)a good grade on an exam

Question 13

 When photographing cats escaping their puzzle box,Guthrie and Horton found evidence for

A)conditioned inhibition
B)spontaneous recovery
C)the stop-action principle
D)conditioned reinforcement

Question 14

A stimulus that occurs in the middle of a response chain serves as

A)a conditioned reinforce
B)a discriminative stimulus
C)both a and b
D)neither a nor b

Question 15

What makes shaping such a useful technique in behavior modification is that it

A)relies on instinctive behaviors
B)produces behavior changes that are permanent
C)can be used to produce behaviors the learner has never displayed before
D)does not require the use of reinforcement

Question 16

If a response is reinforced,then reappears when another response is extinguished,this is called

A)spontaneous recover
B)resurgence
C)disinhibition
D)generalization

Question 17

Skinner's explanation of his superstition experiment made use of the concept of

A)interim behaviors
B)terminal behaviors
C)accidental reinforcement
D)none of the above

Question 18

In a percentile schedule of reinforcement,

A)a higher and higher percentage of responses receive reinforcement as training proceeds
B)a lower and lower percentage of response receive reinforcement as training proceeds
C)a fixed percentage of response receive reinforcement as training proceeds
D)the percentage of responses that receive reinforcement depends on how well the subject performs

Question 19

All of the following can be observed in both classical and operant conditioning except

A)extinction
B)spontaneous recovery
C)generalization
D)none of the above (that is,all three can be observed in both)

Question 20

Experiments that repeated the basic procedure of Skinner's superstition experiment found

A)no evidence that animals repeated similar behaviors trial after trial
B)evidence for adjunctive behaviors during the time between reinforce deliveries
C)evidence that one animal would learn a superstitious behavior by observing another animal
D)none of the above

Question 21

The biggest problem with the classical conditioning explanation of autoshaped behaviors is that

A)there is no autoshaped responding if the key illumination is a redundant stimulus
B)the autoshaped response is sometimes very different from the unconditioned response to the reinforcer
C)the form of the autoshaped response varies with the type of reinforcer that is used
D)autoshaped responses do not disappear with extensive training

Question 22

The biggest problem with the superstition explanation of autoshaped behaviors is that

A)autoshaped responses persist even when each response cancels the reinforce delivery
B)the autoshaped response is sometimes very different from the unconditioned response to the reinforcer
C)the form of the autoshaped response varies with the type of reinforcer that is used
D)autoshaped responses do not disappear with extensive training

Question 23

Autoshaping will not be observed unless

A)illumination of the key light predicts an upcoming food delivery
B)a peck at the key produces immediate food
C)a peck at the key produces a darkening of the key light
D)all of the above

Question 24

Regarding the topic of biological constraints on learning,today most learning theorists believe that

A)it is not possible to discover general principles of learning
B)different general principles of learning are needed for different species
C)different general principles of learning are needed for different categories of behavior
D)many behaviors are controlled by a mixture of learning and hereditary factors

Question 25

The different topographies of a pigeon's autoshaped key pecks with food and water reinforcers are most consistent with the theory that these behaviors are

A)superstitious behaviors
B)operant responses
C)classically conditioned responses
D)adaptive to environmental contingencies