AP Psychology Learning Quiz

The technique of strengthening behavior by reinforcing successive approximations is called

• positive reinforcement
• negative reinforcement
• distributed practice
• modeling
• shaping

Which of the following is the best example of shaping?

• A child receives five dollars each time he cleans his room.
• An employee receives a termination notice after coming to work late every day over a period of three months
• A child gets candy from a dispenser one time but gets nothing from the dispenser the next two times.
• A teacher rewards a student for sitting quietly for ten minutes on Monday, fifteen minutes on Tuesday, twenty minutes on Wednesday, and thirty minutes on Thursday.
• A rat receives a mild shock each time it tries to open the door of its cage.

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

With which statement would B. F. Skinner most likely agree? (Hint: What does the B stand for?)

• Pavlov's dog learned to expect that food would follow the bell.
• Baby Albert thought the white rat meant the loud noise would sound.
• All learning is observable.
• Pigeons peck disks knowing that they will receive food.
• Cognition plays an important role in learning.

Just before something scary happens in a horror film, they often play scary-sounding music. When I hear the music, I tense up in anticipation of the scary event. In this situation, the music serves as a(n)

• US
• CS
• UR
• CR
• NR

For extinction to occur, which of the following must be true of the conditioned response (CR), the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) ?

• The CR occurs after the CS but does not occur after other stimuli.
• The CR occurs after a stimulus that is similar to the CS
• The CS and the UCS are repeatedly paired, and the CR gains strength.
• The CS is repeatedly presented in the absence of the UCS, and the CR loses strength.
• When the CR loses strength, a rest period is given, after which the CS again elicits the CR.

Taking a painkiller to relieve a toothache is behavior learned through which of the following processes?

• Shaping
• Punishment
• Positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement
• Omission training

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

Just before the doors of the elevator close, Lola, a coworker you despise, enters the elevator. You immediately leave, mumbling about having forgotten something. Your behavior results in

• positive reinforcement.
• a secondary reinforcer.
• punishment.
• negative reinforcement.
• omission training.

Lily keeps poking Jared in Mr. Clayton's third-grade class. Mr. Clayton tells Jared to ignore Lily. Mr. Clayton is hoping that Lily's behavior will

• punish her.
• extinguish the behavior.
• negatively reinforce the behavior.
• cause Lily to generalize.
• make the behavior latent.