In a set of studies, Ivan Pavlov first touched a dog lightly on the side of its body and a few seconds later placed vinegar on the dog’s tongue. The vinegar made the dog salivate. After several pairings of touch and vinegar, the dog began to salivate as soon as it was touched and before it was given the vinegar. In these studies which of the following was the unconditioned stimulus?

• Touch to the body

• Vinegar on the tongue

• Salivation to the vinegar

• Salivation to the touch

• Time interval between the touch and the vinegar

Although people can acquire phobias to almost any object or situation, certain phobias (e.g., those to snakes, spiders, heights) are much more common than others. This finding can best be explained by which of the following concepts?

• Biological predispositions

• Spontaneous recovery

• Stimulus discrimination

• Stimulus generalization

• Observational learning

Which of the following is an example of discrimination learning?

• A pigeon trained to peck a red key sometimes pecks an orange key.

• A year old calls her aunt “Mommy.”

• A dos still salivates to the sound of a bell after ten trials of extinction.

• A dog trained to salivate to a particular tone does not salivate to any other tone.

• A rat avoids an electric shock by responding to the light that always precedes it.

Whenever Sarah’s mother answered the phone, Sarah would yell for her mother’s attention and her mother would end the phone conversation. Then Sarah’s mother began ignoring Sarah’s yelling and eventually Sarah stopped behaving that way. The change in Sarah’s behavior is an example of:

• Discrimination

• Response generalization

• Extinction

• Spontaneous recovery

• Systematic desensitization

Which of the following best reflects contemporary interpretations of classical conditioning?

• They remain relatively unchanged from earlier interpretations by people like Edward Thorndike.

• They take into account cognitive processes like expectancy.

• They are in agreement with the interpretations of behaviorists like B.F. Skinner.

• They are primarily based on the theory of contiguity.

• They make a clear distinction between long-term and short-term memory.

In classical conditioning, stimulus generalization occurs when an organism responds:

• To stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus

• To stimuli that are similar to the unconditioned stimulus

• With different types of responses to neutral stimuli

• To the conditioned stimulus the same way as to the unconditioned stimulus

• With different types of responses to the unconditioned stimulus

Raul wants to teach his daughter Sonia to tie her shoes. First he praises her when she manipulates her shoelace in any way. Then he praises her when she makes a simple knot. Once she does that consistently, he praises her only when she makes a knot and a loop. He continues the pattern until she can do all the steps required to tie her shoes. Raul’s actions are an example of which of the following techniques?

• Modeling

• Shaping

• Classical conditioning

• Negative reinforcement

• Rehearsal

Children who are consistently praised for receiving high grades in school will likely continue to work for high grades. Using an operant conditioning explanation of this phenomenon, which of the following is true?

• The praise functions as a positive reinforcer.

• The grades function as the stimulus that elicits a response

• The praise functions as a generalized stimulus

• The school functions as a negative reinforcer

• The grades function as a discriminant stimulus

Of the following, which is essential for operant conditioning to occur?

• Partial reinforcement

• A behavioral consequence

• A stimulus substitution

• Delayed conditioning

• Spontaneous recovery

Money most often modifies people’s behavior because it is a powerful:

• Negative reinforcer

• Secondary reinforcer

• Higher-order stimulus

• Discriminative stimulus

• Unconditioned stimulus