1.
Darwin's theory of evolution assumes that _______ change(s) through
evolution.
a. only physiology
b. only mental capacities
c. only physiology and mental capacities in animals
d. both physiology and mental capacities in animals and humans
2.
Morgan's Canon stipulates that
a. all animals will work harder and learn faster the larger the reward or
punishment.
b. all animal physiology and mental capacities gradually change via
evolution.
c. we should always use the simplest explanation possible to explain a
behavior, regardless of the behavior’s complexity.
d. we learn most behaviors through trial and error, with reward and
punishment providing feedback about our actions.
3.
Which of the following individuals is not associated with the study of
instrumental or operant learning?
a. Edward Thorndike
b. John Watson
c. Edward Tolman
d. Ivan Sechenov
4.
In classical conditioning subjects learn _______ associations.
a. S-S*
b. S-R-S*
c. R-S*
d. S-R
5.
In instrumental and operant conditioning subjects learn _______
associations.
a. S-S*
b. S-R-S*
c. R-S*
d. S-R
6.
The main distinction between classical and instrumental conditioning is
that
a. classical conditioning is effective only with reflexive behaviors,
instrumental conditioningonly with voluntary behaviors.
b. the variables that affect classical conditioning affect instrumental
conditioning differently or not at all.
c. classical conditioning involves stimulus-stimulus learning, whereas
instrumental conditioning involves response-outcome learning.
d. classical conditioning occurs more in animals, and instrumental
conditioning occurs more in humans.
e. All of the above
7.
Learning that a skull and crossbones means poison, that sour smelling
milk is spoiled milk, and that a certain cologne belongs to a loved one
are all examples of wha type of learning?
a. voluntary
b. consequence controlled
c. classically conditioned
d. instrumentally conditioned
8.
Which of the following statements about habituation is true?
a. Habituation occurs in all animal species.
b. Habituation is a simple form of associative learning.
c. Habituation occurs only with extensive instrumental practice.
d. All of the above
9.
Escape is said to occur when a subject
a. responds to a signal for an aversive event and thereby prevents the
aversive event from occurring.
b. engages in a behavior and is presented with an aversive event.
c. experiences an aversive event and then engages in a behavior that
removes that event.
d. engages in a behavior and does not experience any outcome.
10.
Avoidance is said to occur when a subject
a. responds to a signal for an aversive event and thereby prevents the
aversive event from occurring.
b. engages in a behavior and is presented with an aversive event.
c. experiences an aversive event and then engages in a behavior that
removes that event.
d. engages in a behavior and does not receive any outcome.
11.
When Sasha gets ready to walk her puppy, the dog sometimes resists
the leash by squirming. In response to this behavior, Sasha stops
what she is doing, stands up straight, crosses her arms across her
chest, and looks away, conspicuously ignoring the puppy. Sasha is
using the procedure of _______ to reduce the dog’s tendency to
misbehave.
a. omission
b. escape
c. punishment
d. avoidance
e. positive reward
12.
Punishment is a procedure in which a subject _______ every time the
subject performs a particular response.
a. has an aversive stimulus removed
b. experiences a desirable event
c. has a desirable outcome removed
d. experiences an aversive event
13.
Shaping is a procedure used in _______ conditioning to gradually
_______.
a. classical; increase the intensity of the S*
b. classical; modify how the S is presented over trials
c. instrumental; change the amount, frequency, or time of delivery of
the outcome
d. instrumental; change the amount, frequency, or kind of response
produced
14.
When an animal or human experiences a taste or odor that is
associated with illness, they learn to avoid contact with that taste or
odor in the future. This conditioning procedure is referred to as
a. sign tracking.
b. fear conditioning.
c. taste aversion learning.
d. conditioned compensatory responding.
15.
Sam’s athletic club gives current members a credit for one month’s
membership fees for every two new members they refer to the club.
To date, Sam has earned three months of credit on his athletic club
fees. The club then decides to discontinue this membership credit
program, and Sam’s referrals quickly decline to zero. This change in
Sam’s behavior is most likely due to
a. omission.
b. escape.
c. punishment.
d. avoidance.
e. extinction.
16.
Which of the following examples illustrates spontaneous recovery?
a. Paul tries to log onto a computer that was not working the day
before.
b. Sarah decides to take a different route to class to avoid smelling
the freshly baked bread from a bakery.
c. Steve is given the opportunity to take a make-up quiz because he
notified his teacher in advance of his impending absence.
d. Jesse attempts a new style of painting when his previous attempts
fail to produce the desired results.
17.
In general, classical and instrumental learning occur most readily
when
a. the time between R-S* or S-S* is short.
b. the time between R-S* or S-S* is long.
c. the size or intensity of the S* is large.
d. the size or intensity of the S* is small.
e. Both a and c
18.
The issue of preparedness in learning is connected to
a. the age at which we attempt to train an animal or human.
b. the particular size, type, frequency, duration, and timing of the S*
that will be used in the conditioning procedure.
c. whether the selected behavior tends to be easy or hard to learn
based on the organism’s evolutionary predispositions.
d. whether we use classical or instrumental procedures to achieve
behavioral change.
19.
The unconditional stimulus is
a. an event that naturally elicits a reliable and measurable response.
b. a learned event that elicits a reliable and measurable response.
c. an event that does not initially elicit a response but will do so after
it has been presented a few times.
d. an event that will elicit a reliable and measurable response after
this event has been preexposed to the subject.
20.
In most conditioning studies,
a. there are only a few stimuli present that could potentially enter into
the developing associative relationship.
b. there are a variety of stimuli present that could potentially enter
into the developing associative relationship.
c. there are a variety of stimuli present, but the researcher prevents
irrelevant stimuli from entering into the developing associative
relationship.
d. the researcher eliminates all irrelevant stimuli and exposes the
subject to only the relevant stimuli.
21.
The conditional stimulus is
a. an innate trigger.
b. a sign stimulus or releaser.
c. a learned trigger.
d. All of the above
22.
Clicker training, which involves pairing a metallic clicking sound with a
food treat, is currently a popular method for training zoo animals and
pets. Initially the click is meaningless, but as the number of click–food
treat pairings increases, the animal (e.g., a dog) appears to develop an
expectation that a click signals a food treat. Thus the dog approaches,
looks at the handler, and appears excited (e.g., wagging tail, drooling,
etc.). From a classical conditioning perspective, the click sound would be
classified as the
a. unconditional stimulus.
b. unconditional response.
c. conditional stimulus.
d. conditional response.
23.
A dog handler paired a click sound made by a metallic clicker with food.
If the handler forgot her clicker, she could also snap her fingers or
produce a click sound with her mouth. To the extent that dog reacts to the
finger snap or mouth click as it does to the metallic clicker, we would
classify this behavior as
a. spontaneous recovery.
b. acquisition.
c. generalization.
d. habituation.
24.
While you are stopped at a traffic light and listening to a new song on the
radio, the driver behind you accidentally hits your car. You suffer mild
whiplash, minor bruising, and are terribly frightened by the accident.
Weeks later, you still get anxious whenever you hear the song that was
on the radio at the time of the accident. One explanation of “what is
learned” in classical conditioning studies is that the subject forms an
association between the song and the impact of the car collision, thus
illustrating _______ learning.
a. S-R
b. S-S
c. R-S
d. R-R
25.
Classical conditioning is also referred to as _______ substitution
learning.
a. response
b. stimulus
c. stimulus-response
d. response-stimulus
26.
Using rats, a researcher pairs a buzzer with a flashing light and presents
these two stimuli 10 times. Next he pairs the flashing light with a twosecond blast of cold air and presents these two stimuli 10 times. The
light–cold air pairing produces a startle response in the rat. To
demonstrate that sensory preconditioning occurred, the researchers
would present the _______ and thereby produce a startle response.
a. light
b. buzzer
c. light and cold air
d. buzzer and cold air
e. buzzer-light combination
27.
You are driving your younger brother to basketball practice when the
wheels of the truck in front of you throw a rock up at your car
windshield. After the rock hits the windshield, your younger brother yells
“Incoming!” You are unlikely to learn an association between the word
“Incoming” and the rock because the event was a real-life example of the
_______ conditioning procedure
a. trace
b. backward
c. delay
d. simultaneous
28.
Preexposing a CS or US
a. increases its salience and effectiveness in forming a classical
association.
b. decreases its salience and effectiveness in forming a classical
association.
c. has no effect on its salience or effectiveness in forming a classical
association.
d. has a negative effect on delay, trace, or backward conditioning,
but no effect on simultaneous conditioning.
29.
A negative contingency is a situation in which
a. neither a CS nor a US will occur.
b. a CS but not a US will occur.
c. a US will occur during the CS as well as when the CS is absent.
d. a CS is paired with an aversive US.
30.
In an experiment with rats, a researcher first pairs a light with a shock for
20 trials, and then pairs a light-and-tone compound with the same shock.
When the rats are tested with trials of the tone only, the light only, and
the light-tone compound only, the researcher finds that the subjects show
fear responses with
a. the light only, the tone only, and the light-tone compound.
b. the light only, but not the tone only or the light-tone compound.
c. the light only and the light-tone compound, but not the tone only.
d. the light-tone compound, but not the tone only or the light only
31.
The Rescorla-Wagner model emphasizes the importance of
a. contiguity between the CS and US.
b. the surprisingness of the CS.
c. the surprisingness of the US.
d. contextual conditioning.
32.
The term “asymptote” is used to refer to the
a. surprisingness or salience of the CS.
b. surprisingness or salience of the US.
c. lower limit of the learning curve.
d. upper limit of the learning curve.
e. variability in responding until learning occurs.
33.
In the Rescorla-Wagner model, the symbol _______ refers to the limit of
the amount of associative strength or learning that may occur.
a. 
b. 
c. V
d. 
e. 
34.
Which set of symbols is used to represent the surprisingness of the US?
a.   
b.   
c.  – SV
d.  + SV
e.  + 
35.
According to the Rescorla-Wagner model, if the _______, then no
conditioning of associative strength will occur.
a. salience of the CS is zero
b. salience of the US is zero
c. US is not biologically significant
d. a or b
36.
The Rescorla-Wagner model predicts that the associative strength of a
single CS that has been trained to asymptote and then completely
extinguished is
a. neutral or zero.
b. weak but inhibitory.
c. weak but excitatory.
d. moderately inhibitory.
e. strongly inhibitory.
37.
According to the Rescorla-Wagner model’s assumptions about CS
salience (), if two neutral stimuli (light with an  =. 8 and tone with an
 =. 4) are put in compound and paired with a shock,
a. on each conditioning trial the tone will acquire more associative
strength than the light.
b. on each conditioning trial the light will acquire more associative
strength than the tone.
c. the tone and the light will acquire equal amounts of conditioning on
each trial, with subjects learning about light in half the amount of time it
takes to learn about tone.
d. the tone and the light will acquire equal amounts of conditioning on
each trial, with subjects taking about half as long as usual to learn about
stimuli.
38.
In a third-grade classroom, Carla became an aversive excitatory stimulus
to Kelly because she often embarrassed her in front of other pupils. In
the fourth grade, Kelly and Carla are again in the same class, but the new
teacher will not tolerate abusive behavior. After six weeks, Kelly is no
longer made anxious by Carla’s presence. When Kelly later joins a
soccer team, and finds that Carla belongs to the same team. According to
the Rescorla-Wagner model, Kelly is likely to _______ about Carla’s
presence on the team.
a. feel a little anxious
b. feel a little excited
c. be unconcerned
d. be surprised
39.
The Rescorla-Wagner model emphasizes the importance of the _______,
whereas the Mackintosh model emphasizes the importance of the
_______.
a. US; context
b. CS; context
c. context; CS
d. context; US
e. US; CS
40.
The term “reactivated memory” refers to
a. retraining procedures that restore the forgotten memory.
b. retraining procedures that change the original meaning of the forgotten
memory.
c. priming procedures that facilitate retrieval of the forgotten memory.
d. a memory that occurs inappropriately and is no longer triggered by a
specific CS
41.
We use the term _______ to refer to memories that may be forgotten
because recently learned memories block or conflict with access to older
memories
a. retroactive interference
b. proactive interference
c. encoding failure
d. trace decay
42.
A rat is trained to expect food whenever a flashing light occurs. In a
second training phase, the same rat gets food whenever the left key light
is illuminated but no food when the right key light is illuminated. The rat
has some difficulty learning the association in the second training phase,
likely due to
a. retroactive interference.
b. proactive interference.
c. encoding failure.
d. trace decay
43.
Kevin likes to study chemistry while listening to his favorite band on his
iPod. When he goes to take his first chemistry test, he finds that his
professor does not allow anyone to listen to their iPod while taking the
test. During the test Kevin has difficulty remembering some of the
chemistry information he studied, likely due to
a. proactive interference.
b. retroactive interference.
c. trace decay.
d. retrieval failure.
44.
An occasion setter
a. increases the ambiguity of another cue.
b. reduces the ambiguity of another cue.
c. disrupts responding to a meaningful cue.
d. reduces response fatigue or sensory adaptation.
45.
Researchers have found that children of parents with alcoholism learn to
predict the parents’ behavioral tendencies. For example, when a child
interacts with a parent (CS1) and detects the smell of alcohol (CS1CS2),
the child knows that the parent will not prepare a meal; when the child
detects no alcohol (CS1), the child knows that the parent will prepare a
meal and perform other parental functions. This is a real-world example
of a
a. feature-negative discrimination.
b. feature-positive discrimination.
c. reinstatement effect.
d. rapid reacquisition effect.
e. renewal effect.
46.
Which one of the terms in the following list does not belong with the
others?
a. Feature-negative stimulus
b. Feature-positive stimulus
c. Occasion setter
d. Target stimulus
47.
To test the meaning of an occasion setter in a serial, feature-negative
discrimination, a buzzer is sometimes followed by food and sometimes
followed by no food. However, when a flashing light precedes the
buzzer, no food is delivered. In a second phase of training, the flashing
light is paired with food. When the flashing light is again presented with
the buzzer, the occasion-setting model predicts that when the buzzer is
presented we should see
a. a high sustained rate of lever pressing.
b. bursts of lever pressing intermixed with periods of no responding.
c. no lever pressing.
d. a low sustained rate of lever pressing.
48.
The confusion of a young child who can recognize many common birds
(e.g., robins, cardinals, blue jays, gold finches, etc.) as birds, but is
stumped when presented with a picture of an exotic-looking peacock,
illustrates the _______ theoretical approach to concept learning.
a. transfer
b. feature
c. prototype
d. exemplar
49. Subjects who learn a concept by distinguishing characteristics that
are associated with reinforcement from those that are not, are
illustrations of the _______ theory.
a. transfer
b. feature
c. prototype
d. exemplar
50.
_______ memory is a type of reference memory related to an
organism’s ability to remember specific personal experiences (e.g.,
Where did I put my keys?).
a. Working
b. Episodic
c. Procedural
d. Semantic
51.
Which of the following findings about time cognition is false?
a. Biological clocks operate according to a repeating cycle, even when
environmental cues are constant or unchanging.
b. Changing environmental cues can reset or change the cycling of
biological clocks.
c. Cognition of time is regulated by biological clocks in animals and by
external environmental cues in humans.
d. Biological clocks are readily entrained by external cues and can be
adjusted in a relatively short period of time.
52.
A researcher trains animals on an interval schedule using the onset of an
explicit cue (e.g., light) as the signal that behavior will not be reinforced
until a set amount of time has elapsed. This researcher is using the
_______ procedure.
a. temporal generalization
b. temporal bisection
c. superposition
d. peak
53.
In the information processing model for timing proposed by Gibbon and
Church, a hypothetical mechanism produces a timing sensation or pulse
that is used to measure the amount of time that has passed. This
mechanism is referred to as the
a. accumulator.
b. pacemaker.
c. comparator.
d. scalar.
e. switch.