Question 1

A large body of research examines schedule-induced polydipsia as a form of adjunctive behavior. Which of the following sentences best describes the current state of this research?

Accepted Answer

Research on schedule-induced polydipsia has not yet led to a definitive understanding or test for its nature, despite extensive study.

Question 2

Which of the following brain regions shows increased levels of c-fos following lithium chloride (LiCl) administration?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following brain regions shows...

Question 3

Doyle and Samson (1988) found what relationship between beer drinking and the length of a fixed-interval schedule?

Accepted Answer

Doyle and Samson (1988) observed that participants on an extended fixed-interval schedule consumed more beer, suggesting that the longer wait until reinforcement (in this case, the opportunity to drink beer) increased the amount of beer consumed.

Question 4

A dog that approaches the source of a signal for food, such as an illuminated light, instead of the source of food, such as the food bowl, is demonstrating:

Accepted Answer

Sign tracking refers to the behavior where an animal, such as a dog, follows or approaches a cue (like an illuminated light) that signals the availability of a reward (like food), rather than going directly to the reward itself. This behavior demonstrates the animal's attraction to the signal associated with the reward.

Question 5

In the television show The Office, Jim pranks his coworker Dwight by repeatedly playing a sound on his computer and then immediately offering Dwight a strong breath mint. After several days of this, Dwight immediately holds out his hand when the computer beeps and reports that he has a bad taste in his mouth. In this (fake) demonstration of learning:

Accepted Answer

Holding out his hand is an operant behavior because it is a voluntary action that has been learned in response to the environment (the sound). Salivating is a respondent behavior because it is an automatic, reflexive response to the stimulus (the taste of the mint).

Question 6

Falk (1977) suggested that the adaptive function of adjunctive behavior may be to:

Accepted Answer

The answer of Falk (1977) suggested that the adaptive function...

Question 7

The fundamental distinction between respondent and operant conditioning is:

Accepted Answer

The fundamental distinction between respondent and operant conditioning lies in the nature of how behaviors are learned: respondent conditioning involves the correlation of stimuli (as in Pavlovian conditioning), while operant conditioning is based on a contingency between a response and its consequence (as in Skinner's work), emphasizing the role of reinforcement or punishment following the behavior.

Question 8

Marian and Keller Breland's work to train a racoon to place two coins in a container resulted in:

Accepted Answer

The raccoon, instead of simply placing the coins into the container, exhibited a natural behavior known as "food washing" or rubbing the coins together and dipping them into the container, which is similar to how raccoons handle their food.

Question 9

Which of the following statements is most consistent with the view of adjunctive behavior in humans expressed by the authors of the textbook?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following statements is most...

Question 10

Activity anorexia:

Accepted Answer

Activity anorexia refers to the phenomenon where increased physical activity leads to decreased food intake, often observed in animal studies.

Question 11

Timberlake's solution to the finding that chicks would "snuggle" a key light that is correlated with the activation of a heat lamp was that:

Accepted Answer

Timberlake proposed that "snuggling" is part of a larger behavior system, suggesting that behaviors are organized into systems that are activated by certain stimuli, such as the heat lamp in this case.

Question 12

The observation that pigeons will peck at a key light associated with the presentation of food even when doing so cancels the delivery of reinforcement is seen as evidence that:

Accepted Answer

The answer of The observation that pigeons will peck at...

Question 13

During omission training pigeons produce _____ pecks to the illuminated key and during autoshaping pigeons produce _____ pecks to the illuminated key.

Accepted Answer

During omission training, pigeons learn to withhold pecking to avoid losing a reward, resulting in short duration pecks. In autoshaping, pigeons are conditioned to peck at a key that predicts food, leading to long duration pecks.

Question 14

Pierce, Epling, and colleagues found that the reinforcing value of food:

Accepted Answer

Pierce, Epling, and colleagues discovered that the reinforcing value of food decreased as wheel running increased. This finding suggests that increased physical activity, such as wheel running, can reduce the motivation to obtain food, possibly due to the competing rewarding properties of exercise.

Question 15

A report in Science showed that smokers with strokes involving damage to the _______________ lost their craving for cigarettes.

Accepted Answer

The insula, a region of the brain, has been shown to play a significant role in addiction. The report in Science highlighted that smokers who suffered strokes damaging the insula lost their craving for cigarettes, suggesting the insula's critical role in maintaining the addiction to smoking.

Question 16

Pierce, Epling, and their colleagues found that the reinforcing value of wheel running:

Accepted Answer

Pierce, Epling, and their colleagues discovered that the reinforcing value of wheel running decreased as food consumption increased. This finding suggests that when animals have access to more food, the motivation to engage in wheel running as a rewarding activity diminishes.

Question 17

Dunlap and Stephens's (2014) study with flies (Drosophila) exposed to a distinct color or odor before laying eggs demonstrates that:

Accepted Answer

Dunlap and Stephens's study suggests that biological preparedness, which refers to the predisposition of living organisms to learn certain types of behaviors or to associate specific stimuli with certain responses more easily than others, can indeed be sensitive to environmental changes. This is demonstrated through the flies' ability to adapt their egg-laying preferences based on exposure to specific environmental cues, such as color or odor.

Question 18

The bivalent effect of wheel running in rats refers to:

Accepted Answer

The bivalent effect refers to the dual impact of wheel running on taste preferences, causing aversion to foods consumed before running and preference for foods consumed after.

Question 19

Biofeedback, such as that involved in brain-computer interfaces for persons with missing limbs, are of particular interest to understanding behavior because:

Accepted Answer

Biofeedback, especially in the context of brain-computer interfaces for individuals with missing limbs, showcases the ability of individuals to exert operant control over responses that might initially seem to be automatic or respondent in nature. This is because the individuals learn to modify their brain activity (or other physiological processes) to control a device or computer system, which is a learned behavior influenced by consequences, thus demonstrating operant conditioning principles.

Question 20

Neuroscience studies of autoshaping have found that the NAc (nucleus accumbens) appears to be directly involved in:

Accepted Answer

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is involved in various aspects of reward and motivation, including enhancing the incentive salience of cues associated with rewards (A), acquiring conditioned responses such as feeding-like behaviors in response to cues (B), and adapting behavior based on changes in the relationship between stimuli and outcomes, as in reversal learning (C). Therefore, it plays a critical role in all the processes listed.

Quiz 7: Operantrespondent Interrelationships: the Biological Context of Conditioning