Worksheets222 conditioning
Total questions: 122
Worksheet time: 1hrs 1mins
Which principle best aligns with Watson's rejection of introspection in favour of observable behavior?
Law of frequency
Logical positivism
Functionalism
Law of similarity
According to Aristotle’s Law of Contrast, which of the following would enhance associative learning?
Grouping similar items
Pairing frequent stimuli
Associating opposites
Presenting neutral stimuli together
Which best represents the behaviourist reinterpretation of Aristotle’s Laws of Association?
Thought processes creating mental images
Associations occurring in the “common sense” faculty
External stimuli paired with overt responses
Using introspective reports to identify patterns
In behaviourism, what does “mental concepts refer to behavioural tendencies” imply?
Mental states are illusions
Mental events should be verbalized
Internal thoughts are valid data
Thoughts are inferred through measurable behavior
Watson’s frustration with introspection led to which of the following theoretical shifts?
Emphasis on unconscious processes
Focus on neural correlates
Rejection of unobservable phenomena
Inclusion of subjective experience
In Pavlov’s experiments, what role does the researcher’s footsteps eventually play?
US
UR
CS
NS
Which of the following best describes “reflex at a distance”?
US leading to automatic response
Conditioned reflex evoked by a distal CS
Classical conditioning without UR
Reflex responses due to primary reinforcers
What differentiates a CR from a UR?
CR occurs naturally
UR is always positive
CR is learned; UR is innate
UR requires training
In the Little Albert experiment, the white rat began as a:
CS
US
UR
NS
Which phenomenon did Little Albert’s fear generalization demonstrate?
Stimulus discrimination
Over-shadowing
Response suppression
Stimulus generalization
Extinction occurs when:
CS is paired with a new US
US is removed permanently
CS is repeatedly presented without the US
CR shifts to a new CS
What evidence supports that learning persists even after extinction?
Blocking
Spontaneous recovery
Stimulus discrimination
Counter-conditioning
Which renewal type occurs when extinction happens in a different context from acquisition?
AAB
ABA
ABB
ABC
Discrimination is demonstrated when:
CR occurs to all similar stimuli
CS is no longer predictive of US
Only a specific CS elicits CR
Multiple CSs produce equal CRs
In backward conditioning:
CS precedes US
US is omitted entirely
CS follows US
CR occurs before CS
In a compound stimulus (tone + light), overshadowing occurs when:
Both stimuli elicit equal CR
One stimulus elicits a stronger CR
Neither elicits CR
Only the US elicits CR
Blocking occurs because:
The second CS is presented too early
The US is too weak
The first CS fully predicts the US
CR has extinguished
According to attention theory, blocking happens because:
CS2 is not perceived
US is absent
Attention is already focused on CS1
CS2 is more salient than CS1
In backward blocking:
Compound CS is presented after CR forms
CS1 is conditioned first, then combined with CS2
CS1 is reinforced after a compound presentation
CS2 blocks CS1 retroactively
Higher-order conditioning allows:
A CS to become a US for a new CS
A US to be replaced by extinction
A UR to generalize across stimuli
A neutral stimulus to evoke a UR
A Conditioned Emotional Response involves:
Voluntary emotional choices
Reflexive emotional reactions to CS
Habituation to repeated emotion
Generalized arousal
In conditioned suppression, which of the following is true?
A CR is amplified by a CS
An aversive US is removed after CR
The CR is replaced with a new emotional response
Suppression occurs without conditioning
Dual-process theory suggests that:
CR must be conscious to occur
Conditioning is purely reflexive
Both implicit and explicit processes operate in learning
Conditioning is impossible without awareness
Which brain structure is most involved in learned conditioned reflexes?
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Cerebellum
Prefrontal cortex
In advertising, higher-order conditioning occurs when:
The product directly causes emotional response
A celebrity becomes a CS
A product is paired with another stimulus already conditioned to cause positive emotion
Consumers consciously choose based on ads
Which therapy is based on counter-conditioning principles?
Flooding
Aversion therapy
Systematic desensitization
Punishment
In aversion therapy for alcoholism, which pairing represents classical conditioning?
Alcohol (US) → vomiting (UR)
Alcohol (CS) + emetic drug (US) → vomiting (UR)
Alcohol (US) + water (CS) → relief (UR)
Emetic drug (CS) → alcohol (UR)
Flooding works primarily through:
Generalization
Extinction
Reinforcement
Overshadowing
Which is a key limitation of flooding as a treatment?
Slow progress over time
Requires reinforcement schedules
May cause trauma due to intensity
Relies on insight-based learning
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy relies on:
Counter-conditioning
Discriminative stimuli
Simulated CS to induce extinction
Positive punishment
A person who develops nausea when seeing a food that once caused food poisoning is demonstrating:
Extinction
Backward conditioning
Conditioned taste aversion
Higher-order conditioning
Which condition must be met for overshadowing to occur?
US must follow CS at random
The stimuli must be dissimilar in salience
Only one CS is used
The CR must generalize across contexts
A rat conditioned to fear a tone continues to show fear when exposed to similar tones, but not a buzzer. This is:
Stimulus blocking
Spontaneous recovery
Stimulus generalization with discrimination
Overshadowing
What distinguishes blocking from overshadowing?
Blocking requires different contexts
Blocking occurs when learning has already happened with one CS
Blocking is purely sensory
Overshadowing involves reinforcement
In a therapeutic setting, backward conditioning is least effective because:
CS lacks biological significance
US does not evoke a UR
CS loses predictive power
Patient is resistant to learning
In the dual-process model, implicit conditioning is typically measured by:
Verbal responses
Self-report questionnaires
Physiological indicators like SCR or HR
Reaction time tasks
What would be strong evidence that explicit awareness is not necessary for conditioning?
Higher-order conditioning fails
CRs occur without the participant being aware of the CS-US pairing
Blocking only occurs with conscious attention
Discrimination fails in all contexts
Which technique best combines classical and operant principles in clinical intervention?
Extinction therapy
Counter-conditioning with reinforcement
Flooding alone
VR exposure with punishment
The cerebellum plays a critical role in classical conditioning because it:
Governs reinforcement schedules
Controls emotional memory
Is responsible for motor aspects of learned reflexes
Inhibits spontaneous recovery
Which brain region is most likely activated in a CER involving fear?
Prefrontal cortex
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Corpus callosum
Which brain region is most likely activated in a CER involving fear?
Prefrontal cortex
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Corpus callosum
Which of the following is a real-world example of generalization?
A child fears all dogs after being bitten by one
A smoker only craves cigarettes in their car
A person eats when hearing a bell
A patient forgets about their phobia in a safe setting
In marketing, when a brand logo (CS) is paired with upbeat music and smiles (US), what is the CR marketers aim to produce?
Craving the product
Avoiding competitors
Emotional pleasure upon seeing the logo
Impulse to buy
In the UCS: celebrity; UCR: admiration; CS: product → what is the desired CR?
Curiosity
Admiration for the product
Confusion
General awareness
An ad campaign uses multiple CSs to promote the same US. Which process does this best reflect?
Blocking
Overshadowing
Compound conditioning
Higher-order conditioning
Which of the following would violate ethical standards if performed today?
Systematic desensitization with mild phobias
Flooding with extreme fear stimuli without consent
VRET using simulated environments
Pairing neutral images with pleasant stimuli
You hear the ringtone of your ex’s messages and suddenly feel anxious again—months after you thought you’d moved on. This is:
Extinction
Discrimination
Spontaneous recovery
Generalization
A child conditioned to fear dogs no longer reacts to poodles but still fears German Shepherds. This indicates:
Stimulus generalization
Stimulus discrimination
Blocking
Renewal
You always salivate at the smell of pizza. Then you hear a song every time you smell pizza. Later, the song alone makes you salivate. This is:
Backward blocking
Higher-order conditioning
Classical extinction
Over-shadowing
If you extinguish a fear of spiders in therapy (context B), but the fear returns at home (context A), this is:
AAB renewal
ABA renewal
Generalization
Stimulus substitution
Which type of learning is most resistant to extinction?
Backward conditioning
Higher-order conditioning
Conditioned emotional response
Blocking
Systematic desensitization differs from flooding in that:
It’s faster
It uses punishment
It involves gradual exposure with relaxation
It is more traumatic
In aversion therapy for violence, shocking the person after viewing aggressive images would be:
Higher-order conditioning
Operant punishment
Classical conditioning (CS + US = CR)
Generalization
In counter-conditioning for a phobia of rabbits, introducing food during rabbit exposure is designed to:
Make the rabbit a US
Extinguish the fear with punishment
Create a new association with positive feelings
Distract the subject
In VRET, why might traditional extinction fail where VR succeeds?
VR causes spontaneous recovery
VR enhances cognitive dissonance
VR approximates the original fear context better
VR does not require a therapist
After repeated exposure to Coca-Cola ads with exciting music and smiling friends, a person feels happy just seeing the logo. What is this an example of?
Conditioned suppression
Conditioned emotional response
Discrimination
Extinction resistance
Why does classical conditioning have limited use for changing voluntary habits?
CRs are always unconscious
It doesn’t involve decision-making or reinforcement
It focuses on choices over reflexes
Operant conditioning is stronger
Which is NOT a key requirement for classical conditioning to occur?
Repetition
Close temporal pairing of CS and US
Awareness of the association
A biologically relevant US
The emotional reaction to a stimulus without conscious awareness is most likely:
Operant conditioning
Conditioned suppression
Dual-process implicit conditioning
Insight learning
What makes higher-order conditioning difficult to maintain across levels?
US becomes neutral
CS loses its original power
Each new CS becomes less predictive
Blocking occurs earlier
Which of the following best reflects the transition from Watson’s behaviourism to modern neuroscience?
Study of mental images
Rejection of reflexes
Integration of brain structures in learning mechanisms
Shift to psychoanalysis
According to Thorndike’s Law of Effect, which behavior is most likely to be repeated?
One that was punished but later ignored
One that leads to a satisfying outcome
One followed by a delay in reinforcement
One frequently rehearsed without consequences
What would violate the Law of Readiness?
A hungry rat being taught to press a lever
A sleepy child asked to do complex math
A motivated adult learning coding
A student revising before an exam
Thorndike's puzzle box findings support:
Insight learning
Classical conditioning
Trial-and-error and incremental learning
Generalization gradients
What distinguishes Skinner’s operant behavior from respondent behavior?
Operant behavior is reflexive
Respondent behavior is voluntary
Operant behavior is emitted and consequence-driven
Respondent behavior requires attention
Skinner’s view of behavior differed from Pavlov’s because it emphasized:
The importance of stimuli alone
Internal mental states
The consequences of actions
Emotional responses
The Skinner Box was designed to study:
Insight learning in humans
Reflexes in dogs
Operant responses and reinforcement
Observational learning in primates
What does the “O” in S-R-O learning stand for?
Orientation
Operation
Outcome
Overcorrection
In chaining, a sequence of behaviors is reinforced:
In random order
As one complex unit after complete acquisition
One step at a time until a full behavioral sequence forms
With a delay schedule
Which process is most essential for initially training complex behaviors like dolphin tricks?
Negative punishment
Spontaneous recovery
Shaping with successive approximations
Intermittent reinforcement
Which of the following is a secondary reinforcer?
Water
Food
Money
Pain relief
Which is an example of positive punishment?
Taking away a toy for hitting
Spraying water when a cat scratches
Giving praise for doing chores
Turning off the lights to stop loud talking
Negative punishment involves:
Giving something pleasant to increase behavior
Removing something unpleasant to increase behavior
Removing something pleasant to decrease behavior
Giving something unpleasant to decrease behavior
Taking Panadol to relieve a headache is an example of:
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Positive punishment
Classical extinction
A child gets a gold star for completing homework. This is:
Positive punishment
Negative punishment
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Removing a loud alarm when a button is pressed illustrates:
Classical inhibition
Negative reinforcement
Discrimination
Variable ratio
A boss yells at an employee for being late. This is:
Negative punishment
Positive punishment
Negative reinforcement
Classical conditioning
A teen is grounded for missing curfew, losing phone privileges. This is:
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Positive punishment
Negative punishment
The main goal of reinforcement is to:
Increase the likelihood of a behavior
Punish unwanted behavior
The main goal of reinforcement is to:
Increase the likelihood of a behavior
Punish unwanted behavior
Weaken existing reflexes
Replace old S-R pairings
The key difference between punishment and reinforcement is:
Whether a stimulus is added
Whether a consequence increases or decreases behavior
Whether the behavior is voluntary
Whether the CS is novel
Giving a child candy to stop them from crying is:
Negative reinforcement
Positive reinforcement
Negative punishment
Operant suppression
Which of these is a potential downside of relying heavily on punishment?
Increased CR
Generalization to unrelated stimuli
Learned helplessness
Over-shadowing
Time-out is effective when:
It involves adding an aversive stimulus
It removes access to reinforcement temporarily
It requires no explanation
It is paired with classical extinction
Which of these is not a reinforcer?
Attention
Food
Shock
Praise
If a behavior increases because it stops a bad stimulus, this is:
Classical reinforcement
Positive punishment
Negative reinforcement
Secondary punishment
"Premack Principle" suggests:
Weak behaviors follow strong ones
Strong behaviors reinforce weaker ones
Reinforcement schedules are fixed
Motivation is irrelevant to reinforcement
Which reinforcement schedule is most resistant to extinction?
CRF
Fixed Ratio
Fixed Interval
Variable Ratio
Slot machines use which schedule?
Fixed interval
Continuous
Variable ratio
Fixed ratio
A paycheck every 2 weeks is an example of:
Variable ratio
Fixed interval
Negative reinforcement
Positive punishment
A rat gets a pellet after every 10th lever press. This is:
Fixed interval
Variable interval
Fixed ratio
Variable ratio
Checking your email intermittently and sometimes getting a message is:
Fixed ratio
Continuous reinforcement
Variable interval
Positive punishment
Post-reinforcement pauses are most characteristic of:
CRF
Fixed Ratio schedules
Variable Ratio schedules
Backward chaining
Scalloped response patterns are associated with:
Fixed ratio
Fixed interval
Variable interval
Intermittent reinforcement
The least predictable reinforcement schedule is:
FI
VR
FR
CRF
Which schedule reinforces the first response after a varying time interval?
FR
FI
VI
VR
Which schedule would produce the most rapid acquisition?
Variable ratio
Fixed interval
Continuous reinforcement
Variable interval
Tolman's latent learning contradicted strict behaviourism because:
Learning occurred without observable performance
Rewards were required
Behavior was involuntary
Shaping wasn’t involved
Which group in Tolman's maze study showed latent learning?
Group with consistent rewards
Group with no rewards
Group rewarded only from Day 11
Group that received punishment
Tolman’s cognitive maps support:
S-R chaining
Molar, goal-directed behavior
Reflexive behavior
Blocking
Learned helplessness emerges when:
Reinforcers are too strong
Escape behaviors are punished
Individuals perceive lack of control over outcomes
Schedules become too fixed
Dogs in Seligman’s helplessness study failed to escape shocks because:
They were conditioned to fear
They were punished for trying
They had learned their behavior was ineffective
The lever shocked them
Learned helplessness relates most closely to:
Reinforcement magnitude
Conditioned inhibition
Self-efficacy and control beliefs
Backward chaining
Bandura’s social learning theory was a response to:
The failure of classical conditioning
Limitations of direct reinforcement models
Lack of brain-based research
Overreliance on animal studies
A child watches a sibling get praised for cleaning. The child then cleans. This is:
Vicarious reinforcement
Shaping
Operant extinction
Stimulus generalization
The Bobo Doll experiment demonstrated:
Operant chaining
Observational learning without direct reinforcement
Fixed interval schedules
Conditioned suppression
Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes:
Reflexive behavior
Self-efficacy and triadic reciprocity
Extinction through observation
Inherited learning tendencies
Which is not one of Bandura’s four required processes for modeling?
Attention
Reproduction
Habituation
Motivation
“People are proactive, self-regulating, and reflective” reflects:
Classical behaviorism
Operant chaining theory
Social cognitive theory
Observational punishment
Watching someone receive a reward and then imitating them demonstrates:
Positive reinforcement
Social imitation
Vicarious reinforcement
Spontaneous recovery
A toddler copies a parent brushing their teeth, even without reward. This shows:
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Social learning
Fixed ratio training
Which factor enhances observational learning the most?
The observer's past conditioning history
The observer’s ability to reproduce the behavior
Frequency of reinforcement
Delay between observation and imitation
Token economies in schools are based on:
Classical conditioning
Primary reinforcers only
Secondary reinforcement via operant principles
Extinction and flooding
A child is taught to raise their hand before speaking. Over time, reinforcement is gradually withdrawn. This is:
Continuous reinforcement
Chaining
Fading
Flooding
Gambling addiction is sustained primarily through:
Variable interval schedules
Fixed ratio punishment
Variable ratio reinforcement
Primary punishment
DRI (Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible behavior) works by:
Punishing harmful behavior directly
Pairing harmful behavior with a mild shock
Reinforcing an incompatible alternative to reduce the target behavior
Providing reinforcers at variable intervals
What makes time-out effective in treating self-injurious behavior?
It uses negative reinforcement
It removes access to social or tangible reinforcement
It relies on operant extinction
It is unpredictable
In clinical behavior therapy, reinforcement is most effective when:
Delivered randomly
Immediate and contingent on behavior
Delayed and weak
Infrequent
Operant conditioning principles are least effective when:
Behaviors are vague or ill-defined
The US is too strong
Stimuli are clearly linked to rewards
A VR schedule is used
Which type of reinforcement schedule is most useful for maintaining behavior long-term?
Continuous
Fixed interval
Variable ratio
CRF
A child learns to associate quiet play with praise from parents. This demonstrates:
Negative punishment
Classical conditioning
Positive reinforcement in operant learning
Modeling
The success of behavior-based interventions (e.g., for obesity or addiction) depends most on:
Discrimination training
Classical aversion
Appropriate reinforcement and motivation
Delayed punishment
