Question 1

A key principle in many therapies that treat phobias and fears is that the phobia or fear is learned and can therefore be

Accepted Answer

Phobias and fears are often considered learned behaviors, and many therapies aim to help individuals unlearn these responses through various techniques.

Question 2

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) conducted experiments with an 11-month-old baby named Albert to demonstrate how

Accepted Answer

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner's experiments with Little Albert demonstrated how the principles of classical conditioning could be used to create a phobia, in this case, a fear of white rats, by pairing a neutral stimulus (white rats) with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (loud noise).

Question 3

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) conducted experiments with an 11-month-old baby named Albert. Knowing that Albert was afraid of loud noises, they conditioned him to fear a white rat by pairing the presentation of the rat with a loud noise. Though he was initially unafraid of the rat, after several trials, he would cry and become fearful when shown the rat. In this instance, the rat represented the

Accepted Answer

The rat is the conditioned stimulus because it is a neutral stimulus that, through association with the loud noise (unconditioned stimulus), comes to elicit a fear response (conditioned response) in Albert.

Question 4

The textbook describes using virtual reality to treat phobias where clients, over a series of trials, receive increasing exposure to their feared stimulus (e.g., a spider). This is an example of what type of exposure therapy?

Accepted Answer

The answer of The textbook describes using virtual reality to...

Question 5

In aversion therapy, a stimulus that triggers an unwanted behaviour is paired with

Accepted Answer

In aversion therapy, a stimulus that triggers an unwanted behavior is paired with a noxious stimulus. This is done to create a negative association with the unwanted behavior, with the goal of reducing or eliminating that behavior.

Question 6

A patient starts chemotherapy and becomes ill each time after he receives it. After a few weeks of treatment, he develops anticipatory nausea at the mere sight of the waiting room at the hospital. In this instance, the unconditioned response would be considered the ________________.

Accepted Answer

The unconditioned response is the nausea induced by the chemotherapy because it is the natural, unlearned reaction to the unconditioned stimulus (the chemotherapy).

Question 7

The goal of exposure therapies is to expose a phobic person to the feared stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus, so that the process of ___________ can occur.

Accepted Answer

Exposure therapies aim to break the association between the feared stimulus and the negative response by repeatedly presenting the feared stimulus without the negative outcome, leading to extinction of the conditioned response.

Question 8

A patient starts chemotherapy and becomes ill each time after he receives it. After a few weeks of treatment, he develops anticipatory nausea at the mere sight of the waiting room at the hospital. In this instance, the unconditioned stimulus would be considered the _______________.

Accepted Answer

The unconditioned stimulus is the chemotherapy because it naturally (without prior conditioning) causes the nausea. The patient's illness after receiving chemotherapy is an unconditioned response, which becomes associated with the waiting room (a conditioned stimulus) over time, leading to anticipatory nausea (a conditioned response) before the treatment.

Question 9

Emily developed a phobia of snakes after a serious accident. According to classical conditioning, snakes would be considered an example of a

Accepted Answer

In classical conditioning, a conditioned stimulus is something that originally does not elicit a strong emotional response but comes to do so through association with an unconditioned stimulus. In this case, snakes have become a conditioned stimulus for Emily, as her fear response to them developed after the accident.

Question 10

A smart political candidate becomes friends with a very popular professional baseball player because she hopes that this will improve her popularity with the voters. With regard to classical conditioning principles, the positive emotional reactions already evoked by the professional baseball player would be viewed as a(n)

Accepted Answer

The answer of A smart political candidate becomes friends with...

Question 11

A man becomes moderately aroused whenever his wife wears a particular red outfit. In terms of classical conditioning principles, the red outfit represents a(n) ___________ that has become a(n) _______.

Accepted Answer

The red outfit initially is a neutral stimulus, but through association with arousal (an unconditioned response), it becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits arousal without any additional unconditioned stimulus needed.

Question 12

In order to cure himself of smoking, a man regularly places his package of cigarettes next to a particularly disturbing picture of two lungs that are black from a lifetime of smoking. After a week of this, the man can't pick up his cigarettes without thinking of this intense image, and as a result he smokes less. In this example, what type of therapy is the man using to help stop smoking?

Accepted Answer

The man is using aversion therapy, a behavioral technique that involves pairing a negative stimulus (in this case, the disturbing picture of blackened lungs) with an undesirable behavior (smoking) to reduce the frequency of that behavior.

Question 13

Some chemotherapy and radiation therapy patients can become sick minutes or hours before they receive their treatments. In this anticipatory nausea and vomiting response that can occur, initially neutral stimuli, such as needles, the hospital, or the treatment room, become _______ that trigger sickness.

Accepted Answer

This is an example of classical conditioning, where initially neutral stimuli (like the hospital or treatment room) become conditioned stimuli that trigger a learned response (nausea and vomiting) after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus (the chemotherapy or radiation therapy that initially causes the nausea and vomiting).

Question 14

Classical conditioning can also affect our physical health as in the example of allergies. For example if the kitty litter is repeatedly paired with a natural allergen, like cat dander, the kitty litter alone can start to trigger the allergic reaction. In this example, the kitty litter would be the ________________.

Accepted Answer

In classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is the previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. In this example, the kitty litter, which was initially neutral, becomes associated with cat dander (the unconditioned stimulus that naturally triggers the allergic reaction, or unconditioned response) and can start to trigger the allergic reaction on its own, making it the conditioned stimulus.

Question 15

Emily developed a fear of python snakes after an accident. Using the principles of classical conditioning, the accident would be considered the unconditioned stimulus. The fact that Emily was fearful of all snakes and not just python snakes demonstrates _________.

Accepted Answer

Stimulus generalization occurs when a response that is conditioned to a specific stimulus is elicited by similar stimuli. In this case, Emily's fear extends from the specific python snakes (the conditioned stimulus) to all snakes, indicating that she is responding similarly to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus.

Question 16

In order to cure himself of smoking, a man regularly places his package of cigarettes next to a particularly disturbing picture of two lungs that are black from a lifetime of smoking. After a week of this, the man can't pick up his cigarettes without thinking of this intense image, and as a result he smokes less. In this example, since the picture naturally inspires negative feelings for the man, the picture would be considered a(n)

Accepted Answer

The picture of the blackened lungs is an unconditioned stimulus because it naturally (without prior conditioning) evokes a negative emotional response, which in turn affects the man's smoking behavior.

Question 17

Ben nearly drowned as a child and has since developed a deep fear of not only swimming, but all water in general. When Ben seeks help from Dr. Brown, the first thing Dr. Brown does is take Ben to a swimming pool and force him to get into the water. Dr. Brown is using

Accepted Answer

In vivo exposure therapy involves exposing the patient to the actual feared object or context without any danger, to help them overcome their anxiety or fear. In this case, Dr. Brown is using in vivo exposure therapy by taking Ben to a swimming pool and having him confront his fear of water directly.

Question 18

A researcher conducted an experiment with rats in which she paired the administration of a drug that boosted the immune system with sweet water. Later, when the drug was removed and the rats continued to receive just the sweet water, the functioning of the rats' immune systems

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is an example of classical conditioning, where the rats associated the sweet water (a neutral stimulus) with the immune-boosting drug (an unconditioned stimulus). After repeated pairings, the sweet water alone (now a conditioned stimulus) elicited an improved immune response (a conditioned response), even in the absence of the drug.

Question 19

According to behaviourists the formation of phobias is due to what type of learning?

Accepted Answer

Classical conditioning is a learning process that behaviorists believe leads to the formation of phobias. This process involves associating a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response until the neutral stimulus alone comes to evoke a similar response.

Question 20

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) conditioned an 11-month-old baby named Albert to fear a white rat by pairing it with a loud noise. Albert already feared the loud noise. After the conditioning had taken place, the researchers also found that Albert was afraid of furry white and grey objects, such as a rabbit and a Santa Claus mask. The fact that Albert was afraid of these additional items demonstrated that

Accepted Answer

The answer of John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) conditioned...

Quiz 7: Learning and Adaptation: the Role of Experience