Learning Review

A cancer patient becomes nauseated following chemotherapy treatments. After a few treatments, the patient begins having a sick feeling whenever entering the treatment room. The treatment room has become

• a primary reinforcer

• a conditioned reinforcer

• a neutral stimulus

• a conditioned stimulus

• an unconditioned stimulus

A child who learns that spoons are tableware and then correctly calls forks and knives tableware is demonstrating

• rote learning

• imitation training

• discrimination training

• stimulus generalization

• classical conditioning

A dog retrieves the newspaper every day because in the past it received a food reward for this behavior. The dog’s behavior is an example of which of the following?

• an operant response

• a discriminative stimulus

• an unconditioned response

• an unconditioned stimulus

• a classically conditioned response

A mental image of a spatial layout is called

• an algorithm

• a mental set

• a heuristic

• a cognitive map

• insight

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 preparedness

• spontaneous recovery

• stimulus discrimination

• stimulus generalization

• observational learning

B. F. Skinner’s claim that the environment determines an individual’s behavior was criticized for

• failing to explain how personality can change over time

• failing to acknowledge cognitive influence on behavior

• failing to acknowledge situational factors

• attributing behavior solely to genetics

• emphasizing unconscious influence on behavior

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

• negative reinforcer

• secondary reinforcer

• conditioned stimulus

• high order stimulus

• discriminative stimulus

In a classic study, a group of rats learned to run through a maze to obtain food, and another group of rats explored the maze without receiving food. Some time later, the researcher compared the two groups of rats to determine if both groups would find the food at the end of the maze. According to the researcher, the untrained rats found the food at the end of the maze as quickly as the trained rats as a result of

• latent learning

• observational learning

• avoidance learning

• counterconditioning

• aversive conditioning

Emiko’s cat often meows for food. Emiko decides to eliminate the behavior by feeding the cat only when it does not meow. Over the next few weeks, she sometimes ignores the cat when it meows. Other times, she feeds the cat when it meows. Which of the following is the most reasonable prediction to make about the cat’s meowing for food?

• it will disappear due to extinction

• it will decrease overall but not extinguish

• it will remain unchanged due to a continuous schedule of reinforcement

• it will increase due to a variable schedule of reinforcement

• it will increase due to positive punishment

In Ivan Pavlov's experiments in classical conditioning, the dog's salivation was

• an unconditioned stimulus only

• an unconditioned response only

• a conditioned response only

• both an unconditioned and a conditioned stimulus

• both an unconditioned and a conditioned response