LEARNING QUIZ II

Emily’s mouth starts to water whenever she gets ready to eat fresh baked pizza. Recently she noticed that she now salivates when she drives past her favorite pizza shop on the way to school even though she cannot see or smell the pizza from inside the car.

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• OPERANT CONDITIONING

• OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

Answer explanation

That’s correct! The original US was the smell and taste of pizza and the UR was salivation. She learned to associate a pizza shop (CS) with the pizza (US) to produce salivation (CR).

Mittens the cat just happened to brush against the refrigerator when Jana, her owner, was in the kitchen. Jana said, “Oh, you want some milk!” and gave her a little bowl. Mittens started hanging out near the refrigerator more often, which meant she brushed against it more often. Jana thought it was cute, so she gave her milk every time she brushed the refrigerator. Soon, mittens learned that brushing against the refrigerator was a sure way to get some milk.

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• OPERANT CONDITIONING

• OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

Answer explanation

That’s incorrect. Mittens behavior—brushing the refrigerator—was not triggered by any stimulus the first time she did it. There was no existing association (UCS-UR) to use as the basis of classical conditioning. In this example, Mittens’ inadvertent act of brushing the refrigerator led to a pleasant result—she got some milk. By noticing the consequences of her actions, Mittens learned a new behavior. That is operant conditioning.

Last week, little Jack got a bag of cookies from the cabinet and ate them all. When his mother found out, she didn’t let him watch television that evening as punishment. The next day, Jack thinks about having cookies, but decides that it is not a great idea.

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• OPERANT CONDITIONING

• OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

Answer explanation

That’s correct! Jack does something (eats the cookies) and learns the consequences (no television). When the eating cookies is possible again, the consequences of his previous action makes him less likely to do it again. That is operant conditioning.

Frank goes out with some friends to a new restaurant near campus. He gets fish-and-chips, but he also drinks a few too many mixed drinks and gets sick. The next time he goes to the restaurant, he avoids the fish-and-chips because the very thought of them makes him feel nauseous.

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• OPERANT CONDITIONING

• OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

Answer explanation

That’s correct! The unconditioned stimulus was the drinks and the unconditioned response was the feeling of nausea. The fish-and-chips, which Frank ate before the drinks had their effect, were the conditioned stimulus. Food aversion is easily produced by classically conditioned associations between a food and feelings of nausea, even if the food does not produce the nausea.

________ is when you take away a pleasant stimulus to stop a behavior.

• + Reinforcement

• - Reinforcement

• + Punishment

• - Punishment

Answer explanation

Correct. A punishment’s goal is to decrease the likelihood of a behavior, and a negative punishment does so by taking away something desirable.

While he is at a meeting, Rubin tells a joke, and everybody laughs. Now he is at another meeting and telling another joke he heard. Everybody laughing at his joke at the first meeting is a

• + Reinforcement

• - Reinforcement

• + Punishment

• - Punishment

Answer explanation

That’s correct! Positive means that something is added to the situation, and the laughter is a response that the listeners added.

That’s correct! The laughter is a reinforcer because it is the response Rubin wanted, so it makes him more likely to tell a joke again.

Janette comes home too late after her high school party. She loses her driving privileges for two weeks. A month later, Janette is at another party and she is supposed to be home in a half hour. The loss of driving privileges is a

• + Reinforcement

• - Reinforcement

• + Punishment

• - Punishment

Answer explanation

That’s correct! Negative means that something was taken away from the situation and that is what happened to Janette. She had driving privileges and she temporarily lost them.

That’s correct! A punisher is a consequence of some action that decreases the likelihood of taking that action again. Loss of driving privileges for doing something—staying out too late—is a consequence that makes it less likely she will do it again.

Terry keeps interrupting the teacher during spelling instruction. The teacher says he has to write each spelling word ten times for extra homework. The next day, Terry interrupts the teacher again. The extra homework is a

• + Reinforcement

• - Reinforcement

• + Punishment

• - Punishment

Answer explanation

That’s correct! Positive means that something is added to the situation. The extra homework is something Terry received as a consequence of his behavior.

That’s correct! A punisher is a consequence of some action that decreases the likelihood of taking that action again. The extra homework is not something Terry will like so it likely to decrease is enthusiasm about talking while the teacher is talking. It is a punisher.

Dave has a splitting headache. He decides to go for a run, and like magic, the headache disappears. The next time he has a headache, he goes for a run again. The disappearance of the headache is a

• + Reinforcement

• - Reinforcement

• + Punishment

• - Punishment

Answer explanation

That’s correct! Negative means that something was taken away from the situation and that is what happened to Dave. He had a headache and it was eliminated or taken away. Don’t confuse “negative with “bad.” Negative simply means that something was removed.

That’s correct! Reinforcers make a behavior more likely. The behavior in question—going for a run—is more likely the next time Dave gets a headache due to its success the first time.

Rewarding successive approximations toward a target behavior is ________.

• + Reinforcement

• - Reinforcement

• Shaping

• Extinction

Answer explanation

Correct. Shaping uses positive reinforcement to reward progress toward the desired behavior; the teacher will reward behaviors that come closer and closer to the target behavior, until it is met, encouraging the learner to keep trying by rewarding approximations.