Question 1

John B. Watson rejected the definition of psychology as the scientific study of the mind in favor of a definition that emphasized the prediction and control of behavior.

Accepted Answer

This is correct. John B. Watson advocated for a behaviorist approach to psychology that focused on observable behavior and rejected the use of introspection to study the mind. He believed that the goal of psychology should be to predict and control behavior through the use of conditioning and other behavioral techniques.

Question 2

Psychologist John Watson strongly advocated the study of mental processes in order to understand how learning occurs in humans and other animals.

Accepted Answer

Watson is actually known for advocating for behaviorism, which focuses on observable behaviors rather than mental processes.

Question 3

The unconditioned response and the conditioned response are the same behavioral response, but they are elicited by different stimuli.

Accepted Answer

The unconditioned response is an automatic, natural and reflexive response to a stimulus, while the conditioned response is a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that was paired with an unconditioned stimulus. However, both responses are the same behavioral response.

Question 4

The process of classical conditioning was accidentally discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who was studying the role of saliva in digestion.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true. Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning while studying digestion in dogs.

Question 5

The conditioned response (CR) in the "Little Albert" study was the fear response to the loud clang.

Accepted Answer

In the "Little Albert" study, the conditioned response (CR) was the fear response to the white rat, which was initially a neutral stimulus but became associated with the loud clang (unconditioned stimulus) that naturally elicited fear (unconditioned response).

Question 6

After a dog has gone through the process of extinction and no longer salivates to the sound of a bell, the conditioned response will spontaneously reappear if the dog is given a period of rest and the sound of the bell is again presented.

Accepted Answer

This is known as spontaneous recovery and is a common phenomenon in classical conditioning.

Question 7

Your dog tends to salivate and get excited when you shake a box of dog biscuits. However, your dog does not drool when you shake a bag of cat food. This is an example of stimulus generalization.

Accepted Answer

This is an example of stimulus discrimination because the dog is able to distinguish between the sound of the box of dog biscuits (leading to salivation) and the sound of a bag of cat food (not leading to salivation), showing a differentiated response to two different stimuli.

Question 8

Classical conditioning is essentially the process of learning an association between two stimuli.

Accepted Answer

Classical conditioning involves the learning of an association between two stimuli, where one stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) becomes associated with the other stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) through repeated pairing, resulting in a learned response (the conditioned response) to the previously neutral stimulus.

Question 9

If a classically conditioned dog salivates not just to the original tone, but also to a higher pitched and a lower pitched tone, the process of stimulus discrimination has occurred.

Accepted Answer

If the dog has not learned to differentiate between the original tone and other tones, then stimulus discrimination has not occurred. In this scenario, the dog is showing stimulus generalization rather than stimulus discrimination.

Question 10

Pavlov was the first psychologist to receive the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research on classical conditioning.

Accepted Answer

Ivan Pavlov was a physiologist, not a psychologist, and he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for his work on the physiology of the digestive system, not for classical conditioning.

Question 11

The startle reflex will occur in response to a sudden or unexpected noise. Using Pavlov's terms, the sudden noise would be termed the conditioned stimulus, and the startle reflex would be termed the conditioned response.

Accepted Answer

In Pavlov's terms, the sudden noise would be termed the unconditioned stimulus, and the startle reflex would be termed the unconditioned response, as this reflex is a natural, unlearned reaction to the stimulus.

Question 12

If you own a dog that tends to salivate and get excited when you shake a box of dog biscuits, you may have noticed that your dog also drools when you shake a bag of cat food. If so, this would be an example of stimulus generalization.

Accepted Answer

This is because the dog has generalized the stimulus of the sound of shaking to both the dog biscuits and cat food, leading to the same behavior (salivating and excitement).

Question 13

Pavlov found that to produce a strong classically conditioned response the interval between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) should be no more than a few seconds.

Accepted Answer

Pavlov's research found that for the best classical conditioning, the CS and UCS should be presented within a few seconds of each other. This is known as the temporal contiguity principle.

Question 14

Psychologists formally define learning as a process that produces a relatively enduring change in behavior as a result of experience.

Accepted Answer

This is a correct definition of learning according to psychologists.

Question 15

A conditioned stimulus from one learning trial is used in place of an unconditioned stimulus in a new conditioning trial, where it is paired with a second conditioned stimulus. The second conditioned stimulus then comes to elicit the conditioned response, even though it has never been directly paired with the unconditioned stimulus. This is a description of a procedure called higher order conditioning.

Accepted Answer

This is a correct description of the procedure of higher order conditioning.

Question 16

Classical conditioning was discovered by behaviorist John B. Watson during the experimental research with "Little Albert."

Accepted Answer

Classical conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, during his research on the digestive systems of dogs. John B. Watson later applied the principles of classical conditioning in his experiment with "Little Albert" to demonstrate emotional conditioning in humans.

Question 17

When a dog has been classically conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell, the sound of the bell has gone from being a neutral stimulus to a conditioned stimulus.

Accepted Answer

This is correct. Classical conditioning involves pairing a neutral stimulus (like a bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (like food), so that eventually the neutral stimulus alone can elicit a response (like salivation). When this happens, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response (in this case, salivation).

Question 18

Little Albert developed a strong conditioned fear to the white rat but not to other animals or furry objects.

Accepted Answer

Little Albert developed a generalized fear that extended beyond the white rat to include other furry objects and animals, such as rabbits, dogs, and a fur coat, indicating a phenomenon known as stimulus generalization.

Question 19

Pavlov classically conditioned a dog to salivate at the sound of a tone. He then repeatedly paired the tone with another stimulus, a bell. Later, when he rang the bell the dog salivated, even though the bell had never been paired with food. This example illustrates higher order conditioning (second-order conditioning).

Accepted Answer

The statement accurately describes Pavlov's experiment and the concept of higher order conditioning.

Question 20

In his experiments with dogs, Pavlov found that after a classically conditioned response had been extinguished, the dog returned to its original unconditioned state and was unable to relearn the response.

Accepted Answer

Pavlov found that after a classically conditioned response had been extinguished, the dog could relearn the response. This is known as spontaneous recovery, where the response can temporarily reappear after extinction.

Quiz 5: Section 3: Learning