Conditioning Review

Firefighters are often required to walk through local buildings and drive trucks around the areas they serve as part of their training. The most likely purpose of this type of training is to develop

• cognitive map

• a positive reinforcement

• an unconditioned stimulus

• an aversion

Gianna can no longer stomach the taste of sushi after she vomited from eating a spoiled serving of it. However, the appearance of sushi does not make her sick. Which of the following best accounts for why Gianna becomes sick upon tasting sushi but not seeing sushi?

• Latent learning, because sushi acts as a reinforcer.

• Insight learning, because sushi acts as a reinforcer.

• Social learning, because Xander is probably imitating someone else who also got sick from the sushi.

• Biological predisposition, because this example illustrates taste aversion.

• Negative punishment, because this example illustrates taste aversion.

Dylan has difficulty solving a physics problem in class. The next day, he suddenly thinks of a solution to the problem as he is watching a friend play the guitar. The thought process that Dylan experienced is an example of

• spontaneous recovery

• social learning

• discrimination

• latent learning

• insight learning

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

Although Paolo loved playing football for fun in high school, he enjoys it less now that he is paid to be a professional football player. Which of the following best explains Paolo's decreased interest in playing football?

• the overjustification effect

• social facilitation

• negative reinforcement

• the framing effect

• partial reinforcement

In high school, it did not seem to make a difference how much Clive studied Spanish; he always earned poor grades. Now that Clive is in college, he is required to take Spanish again. According to the concept of learned helplessness, which of the following statements can be most expected from Clive as he starts the new Spanish class?

• “Spanish is a difficult subject that I am very bad at.”

• “I sure hope that my Spanish professor is better than my high school Spanish teacher.”

• “Why study? There isn’t anything I can do to improve my Spanish skills.”

• “If I spend more time studying, I’m sure I will do better than in high school.”

• “I need to find a good tutor to help me learn Spanish; I can’t learn it on my own.”