Question 1

A cat is classically conditioned to purr when it hears the refrigerator door open, because it contains the cat food. But the cat does not purr when it hears the pantry door open. The fact that the cat only purrs when the refrigerator door opens is most likely a result of
A) stimulus discrimination.
B) spontaneous recovery.
C) stimulus generalization.
D) extinction.

Accepted Answer

The cat has learned to associate the sound of the refrigerator door opening with the presence of cat food. However, it has not generalized this response to the pantry door opening, indicating that the cat can discriminate between the two stimuli. Therefore, the best choice is A) stimulus discrimination.

Question 2

Dr. Shaw has a patient who has a phobia of spiders and also loves doing puzzles. Dr. Shaw exposes the patient to spiders briefly while having the patient complete a fun puzzle. Dr. Shaw
Is using ________ to treat his patient's phobia.
A) second-order conditioning
B) systematic desensitization
C) modeling
D) counterconditioning

Accepted Answer

Dr. Shaw is using counterconditioning by pairing the phobic stimulus (spiders) with a positive stimulus (completing a fun puzzle) to change the patient's emotional response to the spiders.

Question 3

Ever since she saw a snake eat a mouse at the reptile exhibit at the zoo, Jin has been terrified of snakes. Now Jin's class has a pet snake and her teacher wants to help reduce Jin's fear.
The teacher begins by only uncovering the snake aquarium when Jin and her classmates are
Eating snack. This attempt at associating the snake with something positive is called
A) systematic desensitization.
B) stimulus discrimination.
C) counterconditioning.
D) second-order conditioning.

Accepted Answer

The attempt made by the teacher to associate the snake with something positive (snack time) is an example of counterconditioning. Systematic desensitization involves gradually exposing the person to the feared situation, stimulus discrimination involves learning to respond differently to similar stimuli, and second-order conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with a previously conditioned stimulus. Therefore, only option C is the best choice.

Question 4

Katie is afraid of clowns. She has been trying to overcome this fear by getting into a relaxed state and then looking at pictures of clowns. After months of this exposure, she is no longer
Afraid when she sees a clown. Katie has been using ________ to overcome her fear.
A) counterconditioning
B) systematic desensitization
C) extinction
D) modeling

Accepted Answer

Systematic desensitization involves gradually exposing the person to the feared stimulus (such as in this case, pictures of clowns) while in a relaxed state until the fear response is extinguished. This is exactly what Katie has been doing, so the best answer is B.

Question 5

Kathy is classically conditioned to fear the toilet flushing while she is in the shower because the flush causes a surge of hot water. Kathy showers at her parent's house, someone flushes
The toilet, and she does not get burned. Still, when showering back at home, the toilet flushes
And Kathy immediately feels a surge of fear. This example best illustrates the fact that
Extinction
A) reduces the strength of an association, but does not eliminate it.
B) is an adaptive response to delete information from memory.
C) helps readapt old learning strategies to novel problems.
D) forms the basis for non-associative learning when applied to novel situations.

Accepted Answer

This scenario demonstrates that even though Kathy was exposed to a situation that should have caused her fear response to diminish (the toilet flushing without causing harm), the association between the toilet flushing and the surge of hot water is not completely eliminated. This is an example of extinction reducing the strength of an association, but not completely erasing it.

Question 6

Sunil wants to classically condition his dog to fear skunks so that he does not get sprayed again. This task should be much easier than teaching him to fear a house plant because a dog
A) is biologically prepared to fear animals that might cause it harm.
B) has high intelligence compared with other animals.
C) can easily be conditioned to fear skunks specifically.
D) associates house plants with grass, which is where the dog goes to the bathroom.

Accepted Answer

Dogs have a natural biological predisposition to fear animals that might cause them harm, such as skunks. This means that the process of classical conditioning will be easier and more effective compared to trying to teach the dog to fear something that does not pose a natural threat.

Question 7

If Pavlov repeatedly presented the conditioned stimulus, the metronome, without the unconditioned stimulus, the food, the dogs would stop salivating to the sound of the metronome. In classical conditioning, this process is called
A) acquisition.
B) extinction.
C) spontaneous recovery.
D) stimulus generalization.

Accepted Answer

Extinction is the process by which the conditioned response decreases or disappears when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus. This means that the dogs would eventually stop salivating to the sound of the metronome if the food is not presented with it, and this process is called extinction.

Question 8

Dante was recently bitten in the leg by a snake and now has learned to fear snakes. If his fear is out of proportion with the danger posed by snakes, then Dante has developed
A) an evolutionary adaptation.
B) stimulus discrimination.
C) a phobia.
D) second-order conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Dante's fear of snakes that is out of proportion with the danger posed by snakes is characteristic of a phobia. A phobia is an irrational or excessive fear of an object or situation, often resulting from a previous negative experience or association.

Question 9

Yamah was enjoying a latte while her favorite song was playing in the coffee shop. Later, she felt sick to her stomach and began to associate drinking the latte with feeling ill. She did
Not form an association with hearing the song and feeling ill because
A) the song was not played repeatedly.
B) taste guides our eating behavior, but sound does not.
C) the song was not loud enough.
D) taste is the only thing we consider when we feel ill.

Accepted Answer

Taste directly influences our eating behavior and how we associate food with feelings of illness, unlike sound, which doesn't have a direct impact on our eating habits or our physical response to food.

Question 10

Pederson's teacher blows a whistle when it is time for his class to come in from recess. Pederson is afraid of being left on the playground alone, so he starts to go inside any time he
Hears a sound like the teacher's whistle, such as the school bell ringing. Pederson's behavior
Is an example of
A) second-order conditioning.
B) stimulus discrimination.
C) spontaneous recovery.
D) stimulus generalization.

Accepted Answer

Pederson's behavior indicates that he is responding to stimuli that are similar to the sound of the whistle, such as the ringing of the bell. This is an example of stimulus generalization.

Question 11

During the famous experiment with "Little Albert," Albert learned to fear rats when researchers used classical conditioning and presented a
A) loud sound as the unconditioned stimulus.
B) rat as the unconditioned stimulus.
C) rat as the conditioned response.
D) loud sound as the conditioned response.

Accepted Answer

In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus is the stimulus that naturally triggers a response, and the unconditioned response is the automatic response that occurs without any learning. In the case of Little Albert, the loud sound was the unconditioned stimulus that naturally caused him to be startled and jump (unconditioned response). By pairing the rat with the loud sound, the rat eventually became the conditioned stimulus that caused Albert to also feel fear (conditioned response).

Question 12

Humans tend to fear things that are potentially dangerous, rather than things that are not threatening. Psychologist Martin Seligman suggests this is because humans
A) learn from their experiences.
B) habituate to dangerous things.
C) are genetically programmed this way.
D) are conditioned by watching animals.

Accepted Answer

Martin Seligman suggests that humans are genetically programmed to fear things that are potentially dangerous, a concept stemming from the idea of "preparedness" in evolutionary psychology. This suggests that certain fears are more easily acquired because they have been historically significant for survival.

Question 13

In the cognitive model of classical conditioning, the strength of the association between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus is determined by how ________ the________ stimulus is.
A) likely; conditioned
B) pleasing; unconditioned
C) frequent; conditioned
D) surprising; unconditioned

Accepted Answer

The cognitive model of classical conditioning proposes that the strength of the association between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) is determined by how surprising the unconditioned stimulus is. This means that if the US is highly unexpected or surprising, it will create a stronger association with the CS. This is because the CS provides a signal that predicts the occurrence of the US, and if the US is highly surprising, it creates a stronger association in memory with the CS, making it more likely that the CS will predict the occurrence of the US in the future.

Question 14

The gray wolves of the Northern Rocky Mountain region vomited after eating poisoned sheep meat. The wolves formed the association of feeling ill with preying on sheep. In this example,
Feeling ill is the
A) unconditioned response.
B) conditioned response.
C) unconditioned stimulus.
D) conditioned stimulus.

Accepted Answer

The vomiting is not a natural reaction to eating sheep meat, so it cannot be the unconditioned response. It is also not the unconditioned stimulus because it did not elicit the response in the first place. However, the association between preying on sheep and feeling ill is learned, making it the conditioned response.

Question 15

Three-year-old Markus is startled by the booming sound of thunder he heard before a storm. According to the cognitive model of classical learning, Markus will pay close attention to his environment in an effort to try to
A) avoid the loud noise in the future.
B) predict when the noise will happen again.
C) figure out when it might rain.
D) desensitize his fear response.

Accepted Answer

According to the cognitive model of classical learning, Markus will try to predict when the noise will happen again by paying close attention to his environment. This is because he has formed an association between the sound of thunder and the storm, and he wants to be able to anticipate the storm in the future. A is incorrect because avoiding the loud noise is not necessarily his primary goal. C is incorrect because figuring out when it might rain is not directly related to his fear response to the sound of thunder. D is incorrect because desensitizing his fear response would require a different kind of learning (exposure therapy or other types of behavioral interventions), which is not what the cognitive model of classical learning predicts.

Question 16

Rachel's dog loves meat and salivates when he sees it. Rachel repeatedly shows her dog a picture of a circle before showing him a piece of meat. Soon, the dog salivates at the picture
Of the circle. When Rachel shows her dog a picture of an oval, the dog does not salivate,
Which is best explained by
A) stimulus generalization.
B) stimulus discrimination.
C) spontaneous recovery.
D) second-order conditioning.

Accepted Answer

The dog has learned to discriminate between the circle and other shapes, indicating stimulus discrimination.

Question 17

Last year, Martina was in love with Robert, but they broke up a few months ago. Today in the mall, Martina smells someone wearing the same cologne that Robert always wore. She is immediately filled with positive feelings, which is most likely due to
A) stimulus generalization.
B) stimulus discrimination.
C) second-order conditioning.
D) spontaneous recovery.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Last year, Martina was in love with...

Question 18

Katrina is training her dog to sit whenever she points at him. She repeatedly points right before giving a verbal command. Her dog gradually learns to associate the pointing with the
Verbal command and will eventually sit when she points without the verbal command. This
Process of gradual learning is known as
A) habituation.
B) acquisition.
C) extinction.
D) spontaneous recovery.

Accepted Answer

The process of gradual learning described in the scenario is known as acquisition, which is the gradual formation of an association between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. This leads to the development of the conditioned response.

Question 19

Jack uses classical conditioning to teach his dog Luna to sit whenever Jack says "Sit." But now, anything that Jack says that is similar to "Sit" causes Luna to show the conditioned response of sitting. This is most likely the result of
A) stimulus generalization.
B) stimulus discrimination.
C) extinction.
D) second-order conditioning.

Accepted Answer

This scenario describes stimulus generalization, which occurs when the conditioned response occurs in response to a stimulus that is similar to but not exactly the same as the original conditioned stimulus. In this case, Luna is responding to anything that sounds similar to "Sit," indicating that she has generalized the association between "Sit" and sitting to other similar stimuli.

Question 20

Vincent wants to use systematic desensitization to treat his patient's phobia of elevators. After the patient learns how to relax her muscles, Vincent's next step should be to
A) get the patient into an elevator and practice relaxing.
B) explain to the patient what is going on in her brain when she feels fearful.
C) have the patient imagine an elevator while continuing the relaxation exercises.
D) give the patient a dollar for every floor she passes during an elevator ride.

Accepted Answer

After the patient learns how to relax her muscles, the next step in systematic desensitization is to have the patient imagine an elevator while continuing the relaxation exercises. This is called the "imaginal exposure" stage and helps the patient gradually confront their fear in a safe and controlled way. Once the patient has successfully imagined being in an elevator without feeling anxious, Vincent can then move on to in vivo exposure (actually getting into an elevator) and continuing to practice relaxation techniques. Choices A and D are not the best option because they involve exposure to the feared stimulus (the elevator) before the patient is ready, which could make the fear worse. Choice B is not a necessary step in the systematic desensitization process.

Quiz 6: Learning

A cat is classically conditioned to purr when it hears the refrigerator door open, because it contains the cat food. But the cat does not purr when it hears the pantry door open. The fact that the cat only purrs when the refrigerator door opens is most likely a result of

Dr. Shaw has a patient who has a phobia of spiders and also loves doing puzzles. Dr. Shaw exposes the patient to spiders briefly while having the patient complete a fun puzzle. Dr. Shaw Is using ________ to treat his patient's phobia.

Katie is afraid of clowns. She has been trying to overcome this fear by getting into a relaxed state and then looking at pictures of clowns. After months of this exposure, she is no longer Afraid when she sees a clown. Katie has been using ________ to overcome her fear.

Sunil wants to classically condition his dog to fear skunks so that he does not get sprayed again. This task should be much easier than teaching him to fear a house plant because a dog

If Pavlov repeatedly presented the conditioned stimulus, the metronome, without the unconditioned stimulus, the food, the dogs would stop salivating to the sound of the metronome. In classical conditioning, this process is called

Dante was recently bitten in the leg by a snake and now has learned to fear snakes. If his fear is out of proportion with the danger posed by snakes, then Dante has developed

Yamah was enjoying a latte while her favorite song was playing in the coffee shop. Later, she felt sick to her stomach and began to associate drinking the latte with feeling ill. She did Not form an association with hearing the song and feeling ill because

Pederson's teacher blows a whistle when it is time for his class to come in from recess. Pederson is afraid of being left on the playground alone, so he starts to go inside any time he Hears a sound like the teacher's whistle, such as the school bell ringing. Pederson's behavior Is an example of

During the famous experiment with "Little Albert," Albert learned to fear rats when researchers used classical conditioning and presented a

Humans tend to fear things that are potentially dangerous, rather than things that are not threatening. Psychologist Martin Seligman suggests this is because humans

In the cognitive model of classical conditioning, the strength of the association between the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus is determined by how the stimulus is.

The gray wolves of the Northern Rocky Mountain region vomited after eating poisoned sheep meat. The wolves formed the association of feeling ill with preying on sheep. In this example, Feeling ill is the

Three-year-old Markus is startled by the booming sound of thunder he heard before a storm. According to the cognitive model of classical learning, Markus will pay close attention to his environment in an effort to try to

Rachel's dog loves meat and salivates when he sees it. Rachel repeatedly shows her dog a picture of a circle before showing him a piece of meat. Soon, the dog salivates at the picture Of the circle. When Rachel shows her dog a picture of an oval, the dog does not salivate, Which is best explained by

Last year, Martina was in love with Robert, but they broke up a few months ago. Today in the mall, Martina smells someone wearing the same cologne that Robert always wore. She is immediately filled with positive feelings, which is most likely due to

Jack uses classical conditioning to teach his dog Luna to sit whenever Jack says "Sit." But now, anything that Jack says that is similar to "Sit" causes Luna to show the conditioned response of sitting. This is most likely the result of

Vincent wants to use systematic desensitization to treat his patient's phobia of elevators. After the patient learns how to relax her muscles, Vincent's next step should be to