Chapter 8
Learning
Review 8.1: Classical Conditioning
Antonia lives in Alaska. She loves walking through falling snow and feeling the wet snowflakes on her face.
Whenever a snowflake—the (1) unconditioned stimulus —falls into her eye, it triggers an eye blink, which is
the (2) unconditioned response. Coincidentally, each time a snowflake falls into her eye, the school bell rings,
which is a (3) conditioned stimulus. And, after several pairings with the snowflake in the eye, the bell also
begins to trigger an eye blink, and so it is now the (4) conditioned response. This is the (5) acquisition stage of
classical conditioning. While in school, the bell rings between class periods, but, of course, there are no
snowflakes, which results in (6) extinction of Antonia’s eye blink response. At recess, another snowflake falls
into her eye just as the warning bell rings to go back inside. When the final bell rings a few minutes later,
Antonia finds herself blinking, which shows that she has experienced (7) spontaneous recovery of her eye
blink response to the bell. If a clock chime similar to the original school bell were to be presented, responding
with the eye blink would represent (8) generalization. Not responding to the similar stimulus would represent
(9) discrimination.
Review 8.2: Operant Conditioning
Leon is trying to teach his cat to jump through a hoop. A small treat, a (1) primary reinforcer, or rubbing the
cat’s ears, a (2) conditioned reinforcer, can be used to train or (3) shape this jumping behavior. In teaching the
cat to jump through the hoop, Leon tries two different (4) variable reinforcement schedules. First he tries
rewarding the cat after different amounts of time which is a (5) variable-interval schedule. Next, he tries
rewarding the cat after different numbers of correct responses (jumping through the hoop), a (6) variable-ratio
schedule. The steadiest rate of responding occurs with a (7) variable-ratio schedule. Leon chose jumping
through a hoop because of the cat’s (8) biological predisposition to jump high and land on its feet.
Review 8.3: Learning by Observation
According to pioneering researcher Albert (1) Bandura, we learn not only by association but also by (2)
modeling (imitating) the behavior of people who are successful, admirable, and (3) similar to us. For example,
during holiday breaks, Lionel watcher Monday Night Raw, a World Wrestling Entertainment extravaganza,
which (4) increases his aggressive tendencies. His broth er Michael won’t watch the wrestling, because he feels
the pain of a choke hold, for example, as reflected in his brain’s (5) mirror neurons. Instead, Michael spends
time with Grandma, who cooks for the poor during the holiday season, helping Michael to learn (6) prosocial
behavior.