Question 1

The Law of Effect emphasized that responses were more likely to be made if they were followed by some pleasing consequence.

Accepted Answer

The Law of Effect, proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike, states that responses that are followed by a satisfying outcome or reward are more likely to be repeated in the future, while responses that lead to an unsatisfying outcome or punishment are less likely to be repeated.

Question 2

In Bandura's study of observational learning, the abbreviation AMID stands for ________.
A) attention, memory, imitation, desire 
B) alertness, motivation, intent, monetary reward
C) achievement, momentum, initiative, memory 
D) achievement, motivation, intellectual capacity, memory

Accepted Answer

Bandura's study of observational learning included the four processes of attention, memory, imitation, and desire, which are abbreviated as AMID. Option A correctly identifies and describes these processes. Option B includes some relevant factors, such as motivation, but does not fully capture the four processes studied by Bandura. Options C and D include other factors that are not part of the AMID model.

Question 3

A child is wetting his or her bed. According to our textbook, punishing the child would be the best way to permanently stop this behavior. You would recommend that the child be given no food on the day after a bedwetting incident. This is because punishment is guaranteed to stop bad behaviors.

Accepted Answer

Punishing a child for wetting their bed is not an effective solution and can actually make the problem worse. Punishing a child for something they cannot control can also cause emotional harm and damage the parent-child relationship. Bedwetting is a common issue in young children and can often be resolved with patience, understanding, and possibly medical intervention. It is not recommended to withhold food as punishment for bedwetting or any other behavior.

Question 4

Biofeedback training is an application that uses the principles of operant conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Biofeedback training is a process that uses operant conditioning principles in order to help people control bodily processes that are typically automatic, such as heart rate or muscle tension. Through biofeedback training, individuals learn to observe these processes and adjust them in order to achieve a desired outcome, such as a lower heart rate or reduced muscle tension. The process of operant conditioning involves rewarding desired behaviors in order to increase their frequency, which is a key component of biofeedback training.

Question 5

According to B. F. Skinner, negative reinforcement of a response makes you more likely to continue to make that response.

Accepted Answer

According to Skinner's theory of operant conditioning, negative reinforcement refers to the removal of an aversive stimulus following a behavior, which increases the likelihood of that behavior being repeated in the future.

Question 6

Albert was a little boy who was shown to be remarkably resistant to having his emotional responses conditioned by Watson. Watson presented Albert with a cute little furry rat and then rang a loud bell. Later, Albert should have become scared of the bell, but this never happened.

Accepted Answer

The statement is incorrect. Albert did become scared of the rat, and any other similar objects, after the loud bell was repeatedly paired with the presentation of the object. This was known as the Little Albert experiment, which is now considered unethical and was not conducted with proper consent or adherence to ethical guidelines.

Question 7

Seligman's concept of learned helplessness has been extended into the field of psychopathology to explain the emergence of schizophrenia in late adolescence.

Accepted Answer

Learned helplessness has been primarily extended into the field of psychopathology to explain depression, rather than schizophrenia. It describes a condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed, leading to depression and other negative outcomes. Schizophrenia's emergence is more often associated with a combination of genetic, brain chemistry, and environmental factors.

Question 8

Classical conditioning was accidentally discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov while he was studying the digestive system in his dogs.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true. Ivan Pavlov was studying the digestive system in his dogs when he accidentally discovered classical conditioning.

Question 9

The Brelands tried to condition pigs to drop wooden coins into a bank. This turned out not to be easy, as the pigs tended to make instinctual responses as compared to the learned responses.

Accepted Answer

This is a true statement. The Brelands, who were pioneering behaviorists, did indeed attempt to condition pigs to drop wooden coins into a bank, but they found that the pigs tended to rely on instinctual responses rather than learning the desired behavior.

Question 10

A change in behavior that is relatively permanent and brought about by experience is commonly referred to by psychologists as acquisition behavior.

Accepted Answer

A change in behavior that is relatively permanent and brought about by experience is commonly referred to by psychologists as learning, not acquisition behavior. Acquisition specifically refers to the initial stage of learning when a response is first established.

Question 11

Which letters correspond to the four elements of modeling from Bandura's theory?
A) MIMA 
B) AMID 
C) BANDURA
D) MOMA

Accepted Answer

Bandura's theory of observational learning includes four elements: Attention, Memory, Imitation, and Desire (AMID).

Question 12

In Pavlov's original experiment of classical conditioning, dogs learned to salivate at the sound of a metronome when the metronome was repeatedly paired with the presentation of food. The food is referred to as the unconditioned response.

Accepted Answer

The food is referred to as the unconditioned stimulus, not the unconditioned response. The unconditioned response is the natural response, such as the dog's instinctive salivation in response to the food.

Question 13

If one presented the conditioned stimulus (such as a metronome) after the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus (the food) in Pavlov's learning experiment, little or no classical conditioning would occur.

Accepted Answer

In classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus should be presented before the unconditioned stimulus to establish an association between them. If the conditioned stimulus is presented after the unconditioned stimulus, the individual may not make the association and little or no conditioning would occur.

Question 14

The "aha!" moment that indicates insight learning was first hypothesized by Tolman.

Accepted Answer

The "aha" moment that indicates insight learning was first hypothesized by Wolfgang Köhler, not Edward C. Tolman. Köhler observed this phenomenon in his experiments with chimpanzees.

Question 15

A conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the paired presentation of the UCS. After time, the subject no longer makes the conditioned response. This fading of the CR is known as habituation.

Accepted Answer

This fading of the CR is known as extinction, not habituation. Habituation refers to a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations, without the involvement of a conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus pairing.

Question 16

Conditioned emotional responses are some of the easiest forms of classical conditioning to accomplish, as demonstrated by the fact that our lives are so full of them.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true. Examples of conditioned emotional responses include feeling scared when seeing a spider or feeling happy when hearing a favorite song.

Question 17

After graduating from college, you are hired to work in a factory as an industrial psychologist. The workers assemble iPads. They can either be paid by the hour or by the number of iPads they assemble in a day. You decide that you will do the latter (pay by the number of iPads put together). According to Skinner, you have put the workers on a fixed-ratio schedule.

Accepted Answer

A fixed-ratio schedule is a type of reinforcement schedule in which a behavior is reinforced only after a specific number of responses have been completed. In this case, the workers are being paid based on the number of iPads they assemble, which would be a specific number of responses (i.e. completing the assembly of one iPad) before they receive reinforcement in the form of payment.

Question 18

Current views of conditioning by psychologists, such as Rescorla, indicate that learning is completely automatic and has nothing to do with cognitive processes.

Accepted Answer

Current views of conditioning by psychologists, such as Rescorla, acknowledge that learning involves both automatic and cognitive processes.

Question 19

Karawynn Long attempted to toilet train her cat. The principle of learning that was in operation was ________.
A) observational learning 
B) classical conditioning
C) AMIM
D) shaping

Accepted Answer

The principle of learning that was in operation when Karawynn Long attempted to toilet train her cat was shaping. Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations towards a desired behavior. In this case, Long likely reinforced her cat for using the toilet in small steps, gradually shaping the behavior towards complete toilet training. Observational learning and classical conditioning are not applicable in this situation, and "AMIM" does not refer to a known principle of learning.

Question 20

Using continuous reinforcement is the BEST way to prevent a response from becoming extinguished.

Accepted Answer

Using continuous reinforcement can actually lead to the fastest acquisition of a behavior, but it is not the best way to prevent a response from becoming extinguished. In fact, using variable reinforcement schedules (where rewards are given intermittently rather than every time) has been shown to be more effective in maintaining a behavior over a longer period of time without becoming extinguished.

Quiz 5: Learning