PSY 201 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Chessboard, Prefrontal Cortex, Episodic Memory
2 Jul 2018
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Psych 201, Midterm 3, Practice Qs from Inquizitive
Chapter 6:
Select all of the following statements that accurately describe widely held beliefs by
modern psychologists about learning.
● There are different types of learning
● Learning is a change in behavior that comes about through an individual’s experience
● Learning is crucial for all creatures
Fill in the blanks in the following bullet points that state the essential difference between
classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
● In classical conditioning, an association is made between events that the human or
animal learner cannot control.
● In operant conditioning, an association is made between events that the human or
animal learner can control
We learn many behaviors not by doing them but by watching others do them. Drag the
terms to complete these statements about the ways we learn by watching others.
● The imitation of an observed behavior is a learning process called modeling.
○ An example of modeling would be a child eating her peas with a fork after
watching her mother do so.
● Learning the consequences of an action by watching others being rewarded or punished
for performing the action is known as vicarious conditioning.
● Observational learning is when an individual acquires or changes a behavior after being
exposed to another person performing that behavior.
Which of the following aspects of classical conditioning are specifically predicted by the
Rescorla-Wagner cognitive model of classical learning?
● When a second neutral stimulus is added to a conditioning trial with a previously learned
CS, the new stimulus will not become conditioned.
● An animal or person will more easily associate an unconditioned stimulus with a novel
stimulus than with a familiar stimulus.
○ It’s easier to learn an association with a novel stimulus than with a familiar
stimulus. For example, a dog can be conditioned more easily with a sound new to
it (such as that of metronome) than with a sound it knows (e.g. another dog’s
bark).
In Pavlov’s original experiment, he initially presented the metronome alone, before
pairing it with the food. Which of the following statements are good explanations for why
he did this?
● It was necessary to first demonstrate that the dog did not already salivate to the
metronome.
● Any response to the metronome after pairing with food could then be shown to have
been caused by the pairing.
Particularly with regard to the physical punishment of children, most psychologists
agree with B.F. Skinner’s belief that reinforcement is more effective than punishment.
Which of these statements support Skinner’s conclusion?
● Punishment often fails to offset the reinforcing aspects of the undesired behavior.
Psych 201, Midterm 3, Practice Qs from Inquizitive
● Physical punishment teaches a child that violence is an appropriate behavior for adults.
Which of the following statements correctly describes negative reinforcement?
● Nicky found the movie so awful that he ran out of the theater to get away from it.
● A prisoner’s sentence is reduced by a year for good behavior.
Practice identifying habituation and sensitization by selecting the term that applies to
each of these four situations.
● Habituation: a decrease in behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus
○ Meena got a mild sunburn, but a couple of hours later she didn’t notice the pain
anymore.
○ Owen got glasses a year ago. He wears them daily but has stopped noticing
them.
● Sensitization: an increase in behavioral response after exposure to a stimulus
○ Wes liked very scary movies. After an especially scary scene, he felt a tap on his
shoulder and nearly jumped out of his seat.
○ Lexi was outside when a loud clap of thunder occurred very close by. When her
friend called her name immediately afterward, she was quite startled.
Match the following classical conditioning processes with their definitions:
● a process in which a previously extinguished response reemerges after re-exposure to
the CS: spontaneous recovery
● learning that occurs when stimuli that are similar but not identical to the CS produce the
CR: stimulus generalization
● a process in which the CR is weakened when the CS is repeated without being followed
by the US: extinction
● a process in which an association between the CS and US is gradually formed:
acquisition
● a differentiation between two similar stimuli when only one of them is consistently
associated with the US: stimulus discrimination
John Watson, the founder of behaviorism, had a strong influence on the study of
psychology, including thinking about learning. Which of the following are behaviorist
beliefs that Watson held?
● Observable behavior is the only valid indicator of psychological activity.
● The environment is the sole determinant of learning and behavior.
● Humans are born knowing nothing and have the potential to learn just about anything.
Continuous reinforcement is when behavior is reinforced every time it occurs. But in the
real world, partial reinforcement—the occasional reinforcement of behavior—is more
common.
Drag the correct reinforcement schedule into the blanks after each situation below.
● Steve’s Intro Psych instructor collects homework assignments after every class. She
sometimes awards extra credit after every assignment; sometimes five assignments will
go by without extra credit. To increase his chances of getting the extra points, Steve
consistently turns in the homework. Steve is reinforced on a variable ratio schedule.
Psych 201, Midterm 3, Practice Qs from Inquizitive
● Radio station WPYS gives prizes to listeners who call in as a promotion. WPYS makes a
rule that the same person can win only once a month. This is an example of a fixed
interval schedule.
Which of the following statements about the influence of adaptation and cognition on
classical conditioning is correct?
● Animals seem to be biologically prepared to fear specific objects that signal potential
dangers.
● Certain pairings of stimuli, such as taste and illness, are more likely to become
associated because they are evolutionarily adaptive.
● The strength of an association between the CS and the US is determined by how well
the CS predicts the US.
Gwen’s children really like to watch a comedy TV show that comes on at 7:00 pm. The
children are not fond of clearing the dinner table and washing the dishes. How can Gwen
use the Premack principle to get her children to clear the table and wash the dishes?
● Have them wash the dishes then make watching the show the reward afterwards
Select all of the following statements that accurately describe how the brain changes
during learning.
● Changes in brain activity seen during learning can be prevented by drugs.
● Learning reflects changes in the connections between synapses.
Gustavo watched a cooking show on television demonstrating how to make chicken
Parmesan. Even though he had never made chicken Parmesan, he could then explain to
a friend how to make it. Gustavo’s knowledge of cooking chicken Parmesan is best
explained by ____________.
● Observational learning
Kiel goes fishing every weekend. Sometimes it takes an hour to catch a fish, sometimes
it takes 15 minutes, and sometimes it takes 45 minutes. Kiel catches fish on a ________
schedule of reinforcement.
● Variable interval
Betty is 7 years old. When a dog approaches Betty while wagging its tail, she reaches
down and pets the dog, and the dog licks her hand, which makes her giggle. The next
time she sees a dog and goes to pet it, the dog growls and barks, scaring her. From then
on, Betty only pets dogs with wagging tails, and she avoids growling dogs. Which
options describe the way in which Betty has learned to pet only dogs that wag their tails?
● Discrimination, generalization
Which of the following are correct statements about the role of the neurotransmitter
dopamine in operant conditioning?
● Drugs that block dopamine’s effects disrupt operant conditioning.
● Dopamine appears to be especially important for the craving of a reward, rather than
being satisfied by the reward.
● Dopamine determines the value of a reinforcer such as eating food to satisfy hunger:
the greater the hunger, the greater the craving for food, and consequently the greater
the dopamine release.
Document Summary
Select all of the following statements that accurately describe widely held beliefs by modern psychologists about learning. Learning is a change in behavior that comes about through an individual"s experience. Fill in the blanks in the following bullet points that state the essential difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, an association is made between events that the human or animal learner cannot control. In operant conditioning, an association is made between events that the human or animal learner can control. We learn many behaviors not by doing them but by watching others do them. Drag the terms to complete these statements about the ways we learn by watching others. The imitation of an observed behavior is a learning process called modeling. An example of modeling would be a child eating her peas with a fork after watching her mother do so.
