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Oakdale High School
Advanced Placement Psychology
Mr. Simoncini
Chapter 6 Reading Response Questions
PP. 195-205
1. How does the textbook define learning? What two parts of that definition do the authors
elaborate upon?
2. Differentiate between the opinions of the behaviorists and the cognitive psychologists
regarding the topic of learning.
3. How does instinctive behavior (species-typical behavior) contrast with learning?
4. Discuss the terms “habituation” and “mere exposure effect,” as they pertain to learning.
5. Discuss Ivan Pavlov and his seminal experiment that led to the concept of classical
conditioning.
6. Define classical conditioning.
7. Discuss the terms neutral stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response,
acquisition, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response and how Pavlov’s
experiments served to determine those terms.
8. How is timing critical in conditioning?
9. Discuss the meaning of the terms extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus
generalization, stimulus discrimination and experimental neurosis as they pertain to
classical conditioning.
10. What was the Little Albert experiment?
11. What other applications of classical condition do the authors discuss?
12. What is counterconditioning therapy?
13. What are food aversions and how do they pertain to classical conditioning? In your
discussion please include the findings of Garcia and Koelling (1966).
14. What is the big lesson taste aversions provide for our understanding of classical
conditioning?
PP. 206-215
15. What aspects of operant conditioning have no role in classical conditioning?
16. Define the term “operant conditioning.”
17. What was Thorndike’s law of effect? Cite an example of human learning that would tend
to support Thorndike’s theory. How did B. F. Skinner alter it Thorndike’s theory?
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18. Differentiate between positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. How do the
actual definitions of those terms differ from the common understanding of their
meanings?
19. What is an operant chamber? What is its more common name? What can it be used to
test?
20. Be prepared to cite an example from your life of contingencies of reinforcement.
21. Be prepared to cite an example from your life of continuous reinforcement and shaping.
In general, for what type of teaching or learning is continuous reinforcement the best
strategy?
22. What is intermittent reinforcement and for what type of learning is it the most efficient
technique?
23. How does the term “extinction” apply to operant conditioning?
24. Understand each of the terms discussed under the heading “Schedules of
Reinforcement” and be prepared to offer examples from life of fixed ratio, variable ratio,
fixed interval and variable interval schedules.
25. Give examples from your life of primary reinforcers and conditioned, or secondary,
reinforcers. With strong conditioning, what can happen with some secondary
reinforcers?
26. Define the term “token economy.”
27. What is the Premack principle?
28. What is the role that culture plays in operant conditioning?
29. According to the textbook, “. . .Punishment is an aversive consequence used to weaken
the behavior it follows” (p. 211). Given that definition, differentiate between positive
punishment and negative punishment (omission training) and be prepared to provide
examples of each concept.
30. What is a major difference between reinforcement and punishment with regard to
administration?
31. What is the difference between punishment and negative reinforcement? Explain.
32. Who experiences reinforcement during punishment? What behavior does that fact lead
to?
33. Discuss in detail the four reasons why punishment is so difficult to use effectively.
34. What conditions to the authors of the textbook suggest as appropriate for effective
punishment? Discuss.
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PP. 215-218
35. Noting the chart on p. 215 and the discussion on pp. 215-216, compare and contrast
operant and classical conditioning.
36. According to child psychologists, what is the preferred approach to designing a way to
alter a child’s inappropriate behavior? Be prepared to work on a group activity in class in
which you design a program to overcome some sort of inappropriate behavior.
PP. 218-225
37. At the most fundamental level, how do cognitive psychologists differ from behaviorists in
their ideas of how learning takes place?
38. Describe the Kohler experiment (1925) and the concept of insight learning.
39. Be prepared to give an example of a cognitive map. What did Edward Tolman say
cognitive maps accounted for in his maze experiments?
40. What was Tolman’s definition of latent learning and what experiment did he perform that
led to that definition?
41. What was the primary significance of Tolman’s work?
42. How has recent brain imaging supported Tolman’s work?
43. Describe Albert Bandura’s BoBo doll experiment and discuss what the textbook authors
say is an important implication of that study. What is the name for the particular form of
learning that Bandura’s study outlined?
44. After reading the sub-section entitled “Effects of Media Violence,” brainstorm and be
prepared to discuss examples of specific prosocial and antisocial behaviors people
engage in within our society based primarily on observation of others. (Don’t limit your
thinking to merely the media.)
45. What has Robert Rescorla shown with regard to the adaptive value of classical
conditioning for an animal?
46. What have neuroscientists Eric Kandel and Robert Hawkins learned about how the brain
supports the theories of the behaviorists and the cognitive psychologists?
PP. 225-227
47. What is the general opinion of the authors of our textbook regarding “learning styles?”
48. What did the Sternberg and Grigorenko experiment (1994 and 1997) determine about
learning styles?
49. According to the textbook authors, what three important frontiers regarding learning still
need much more exploration?