Chapter 5 - Textbook

Question 1

hree fundamental elements of the instrumental conditioning paradigm

Answer 1

(1) the instrumental response
(2) the reinforcer or goal event
(3) the relation between the instrumental response and the goal event

Question 2

Instrumental behavior:

Answer 2

Behavior that occurs because it was previously effective in producing certain consequences

Question 3

consequences of an action can determine whether

Answer 3

you make that response again

Question 4

factors responsible for goal-directed behavior are difficult to isolate without:

Answer 4

experimental manipulation

Question 6

Laboratory and theoretical analyses of instrumental conditioning began in earnest with the work of the American psychologist

Answer 6

E. L. Thorndike.

Question 7

Thorndike’s original intent was to study

Answer 7

animal intelligence

Question 8

Thorndike devised a series of __ for his experiments

Answer 8

puzzle boxes

Question 9

Thorndike’s training procedure consisted of:

Answer 9

placing a hungry animal (often a young cat) in the puzzle box with some food left outside in plain view of the animal
The task for the animal was to learn how to get out of the box and get the food.

Question 10

Thorndike’s careful empirical approach was a significant advance in

Answer 10

the study of animal intelligence

Question 11

to Thorndike many aspects of behavior seemed

Answer 11

rather unintelligent

Question 12

Thorndike interpreted the results of his studies as

Answer 12

Reflecting the learning of a new S–R association

Question 13

Thorndike formulated the

Answer 13

law of effect.

Question 14

The law of effect states that:

Answer 14

if a response R in the presence of a stimulus S is followed by a satisfying event, the association between the stimulus S and the response R becomes strengthenedIf the response is followed by an annoying event, the S–R association is weakened

Question 15

according to the law of effect, what is learned is:

Answer 15

an association between the response and the stimuli present at the time of the response.

Question 16

the consequence of the response is

Answer 16

not one of the elements in the association

Question 17

The satisfying or annoying consequence simply serves to:

Answer 17

strengthen or weaken the associa- tion between the preceding stimulus and response.

Question 18

Thorndike’s law of effect involves:

Answer 18

S–R learning

Question 19

Once learned, habitual responses occur because:

Answer 19

they are triggered by an antecedent stimulus and not because they result in a desired consequence

Question 21

Discrete-trial procedures are similar to the method Thorndike used in that

Answer 21

each training trial begins with putting the animal in the apparatus and ends with removal of the animal after the instrumental response has been performed.

Question 22

Behavior in a runway can be quantified by measuring:

Answer 22

RUNNING SPEED: how fast the animal gets from the start box to the goal box.

Question 23

running spead typically increases with:

Answer 23

repeated training trials

Question 24

Another common measure of behavior in runways is

Answer 24

response latency

Question 25

latency:

Answer 25

the time it takes the animal to leave the start box and begin running down the alley.

Question 26

Typically, latencies become __ as training progresses

Answer 26

shorter

Question 27

T maze consists of:

Answer 27

a start box and alleys arranged in the shape of a T.A goal box is located at the end of each arm of the T

Question 28

Because the T maze has two choice arms, it can be used to :

Answer 28

study more complex questions

Question 29

free-operant procedures allow

Answer 29

the animal to repeat the instrumental response without constraint over and over again without being taken out of the apparatus until the end of an experimental session.

Question 30

the free-operant method was invented by

Answer 30

B. F. Skinner (1938) to study behavior in a more continuous manner than is possible with mazes.

Question 31

Skinner (Figure 5.4) was interested in analyzing in the laboratory a form of behav- ior that would be representative of

Answer 31

all naturally occurring ongoing activity

Question 32

Skinner recognized that before behaviour can be experimentally annalyzed:

Answer 32

a measureable unit of behavior must be defines

Question 33

Skinner proposed the concept of

Answer 33

the operant as a way of dividing behavior into meaningful measurable units.

Question 34

operant response is defined in terms of:

Answer 34

the effect that the behaviour has on the environment

Question 35

Activities that have the same environmental effect are considered to be:

Answer 35

instances of the same operant response

Question 36

Behavior is not defined in terms of particular muscle movements but in terms of

Answer 36

how the behavior operates on the environment.

Question 37

any response that is required to produce a desired consequence is:

Answer 37

an instrumental response because it is “instrumental” in producing a particular outcome.

Question 38

food-delivery device is called:

Answer 38

the food magazine.

Question 39

After enough pairings of the sound of the food magazine with food delivery, the sound elicits

Answer 39

a classically conditioned approach response:

Question 40

preliminary phase of conditioning is called

Answer 40

magazine training.

Question 41

After magazine training, the rat is ready to

Answer 41

learn the required operant response.

Question 42

sequence of training steps is called:

Answer 42

response shaping

Question 43

shaping of a new operant response requires:

Answer 43

training components or approximations to the final behavior.

Question 44

Successful shaping of behavior involves __ components.

Answer 44

three

Question 45

What are the three components involved in shaping?

Answer 45

(1) you have to clearly define the final response you want the trainee to perform
(2) you have to clearly assess the starting level of performance, no matter how far it is from the final response you are interested in.
(3) you have to divide the progression from the starting point to the final target behavior into appropriate training steps or successive approximations

Question 46

the execution of the training plan for shaping involves two complementary tactics:

Answer 46

(1) reinforcement of successive approximations to the final behaviour
(2) Withholding reinforcement for earlier response forms

Question 47

in shaping, we are teaching the rat how to:

Answer 47

combine familiar responses into a new activity.

Question 48

Instrumental conditioning often involves

Answer 48

he con- struction, or synthesis, of a new behavioral unit from preexisting response components that already occur in the organism’s repertoire

Question 49

Instrumental conditioning can also be used to produce responses

Answer 49

unlike anything the trainee ever did before.

Question 50

The creation of new responses by shaping depends on

Answer 50

the inherent variability of behavior

Question 51

In contrast to discrete-trial techniques for studying instrumental behavior, free-operant methods permit:

Answer 51

continuous observation of behavior over long periods.

Question 52

With continuous opportunity to respond, the organism, rather than the experimenter, determines

Answer 52

the frequency of its instrumental response

Question 53

free-operant techniques provide a special opportunity to observe changes in the likelihood of behavior over time

Question 54

Measures of response latency and speed that are commonly used in discrete-trial procedures

Answer 54

do not characterize the likelihood of repetitions of a response.

Question 55

__has become the primary measure in studies that employ free-operant procedures.

Answer 55

Response rate

Question 56

In all instrumental conditioning situations, the participant makes

Answer 56

a response and thereby produces an outcome or consequence.

Question 57

negative reinforcement

Answer 57

the instrumental response turns off an aversive stimulus.

Question 58

Instrumental behavior is ___ by punishment and ___ by negative reinforcement.

Answer 58

Instrumental behavior is decreased by punishment and increased by negative reinforcement.

Question 59

In omission training or negative punishment, the instrumental response results in

Answer 59

the removal of a pleasant or appetitive stimulus

Question 60

ega- tive punishment is often preferred over positive punishment as a method of discouraging human behavior because:

Answer 60

it does not involve delivering an aversive stimulus.

Question 61

the essence of instrumental behavior is that it is controlled by

Answer 61

its consequences.

Question 62

instrumental conditioning fundamentally involves three elements

Answer 62

the instrumental response, the outcome of the response (the reinforcer), and the relation or contingency between the response and the outcome

Question 63

Thorndike described instrumental behavior as involving the

Answer 63

stamping in of an S–R association

Question 64

Skinner wrote about behavior being

Answer 64

trengthened or reinforced

Question 65

both thorndike and skinner emphasized that:

Answer 65

reinforcement increases the likelihood that the instrumental response will be repeated in the future.

Question 66

Thorndike and Skinner were partially correct in saying that

Answer 66

responding becomes more stereotyped with continued instrumen- tal conditioning

Question 67

“A behavior cannot be reinforced by a reinforcer if

Answer 67

it is not naturally linked to that reinforcer in the repertoire of the animal”

Question 68

“A behavior cannot be reinforced by a reinforcer if it is not naturally linked to that reinforcer in the repertoire of the animal” (p. 78).
This type of natural linkage was first observed by

Answer 68

Thorndike.

Question 69

Thorndike used the term ___ to explain his failures to train scratching and yawning as instrumental responses

Answer 69

belongingness

Question 70

according to the concept of belongingness:

Answer 70

certain responses nat- urally belong with the reinforcer because of the animal’s evolutionary history

Question 71

The effectiveness of the procedure in increasing an instrumental response will depend on

Answer 71

the compatibility of that response with the preexisting organization of the feeding system.

Question 72

the nature of other responses that emerge during the course of training (or instinctive drift) will depend on:

Answer 72

the behavioral components of the feeding system that become activated by the instrumental conditioning procedure.

Question 73

According to the behavior systems approach, we should be able to predict which responses will increase with food reinforcement by

Answer 73

studying what animals do when their feeding system is activated in the absence of instrumental conditioning.

Question 74

Another way to diagnose whether a response is a part of a behavior system is to

Answer 74

perform a classical conditioning experiment.Through classical conditioning, a CS elicits components of the behavior system activated by the US. If instinctive drift reflects responses of the behavior system, responses akin to instinctive drift should be evident in a classical conditioning experiment.

Question 75

The effectiveness of a reinforcer depends not only on its quality and quantity but also on

Answer 75

what the subject received previously.

Question 76

positive and negative behavioral contrast effects.

Answer 76

Speaking loosely, a large reward is treated as especially good after reinforcement with a small reward, and a small reward is treated as especially poor after reinforcement with a large reward

Question 77

Behavioral-contrast effects can occur either because of

Answer 77

(1)a shift from a prior reward magnitude
(2)because of an anticipated reward.

Question 78

The hallmark of instrumental behavior is that it produces and is controlled by

Answer 78

its consequences

Question 79

two types of relationships between a response and a reinforcer

Answer 79

(1)temporal relation
(2)causal relation or response–reinforcer contingency

Question 80

The temporal relation refers to

Answer 80

he time between the response and the reinforcer. A special case of the temporal relation is temporal contiguity.

Question 81

Temporal contiguity refers to

Answer 81

the delivery of the reinforcer immediately after the response.

Question 82

The response– reinforcer contingency refers to

Answer 82

he extent to which the instrumental response is necessary and sufficient to produce the reinforcer.

Question 83

since the early work of Grice (1948), learning psychologists have correctly emphasized that instrumental conditioning requires providing

Answer 83

the reinforcer immediately after the occurrence of the instrumental response.

Question 84

Why is instrumental conditioning so sensitive to a delay of reinforcement?

Answer 84

A major culprit is the credit-assignment problem. With delayed reinforcement, it is difficult to figure out which response deserves the credit for the delivery of the reinforcer. As I pointed out earlier, behavior is an ongoing, continual stream of activities.

Question 85

couple of ways to overcome the credit-assignment problem:

Answer 85

(1)Provide a secondary or conditioned reinforcer immediately after the instrumental response, even if the primary reinforcer cannot occur until sometime later
(2)mark the target instrumental response in some way to make it distinguishable from the other activities of the organism

Question 86

The effectiveness of a marking procedure was first demon- strated by

Answer 86

David Lieberman and his colleagues

Question 87

he response–reinforcer contingency refers to

Answer 87

the extent to which the delivery of the reinforcer depends on the prior occurrence of the instrumental response.

Question 88

In studies of delayed reinforcement, there is a perfect causal relation between the response and the reinforcer, but

Answer 88

learning is disrupted

perfect causal relation between the response and the reinforcer is not sufficient to produce vigorous instrumental responding!!!!

Question 89

Skinner’s Superstition Experiment

Answer 89

The role of contiguity versus contingency in instrumental learning became a major issue with Skinner’s superstition experiment

Question 90

Skinner’s explanation of superstitious behavior rests on the idea of

Answer 90

accidental, or adventitious, reinforcement. Adventitious reinforcement refers to the accidental pairing of a response with delivery of the reinforcer.

Question 91

Reinterpretation of the Superstition Experiment Skinner’s bold claim that tempo- ral contiguity, rather than response-reinforcer contingency, is most important for instru- mental conditioning was challenged by subsequent empirical evidence

Answer 91

Staddon and Simmelhag (1971) repeated Skinner’s experiment. However, Staddon and Simmelhag made more extensive and systematic observations. They defined a variety of responses, such as orienting to the food hopper, pecking the response key, wing flap- ping, turning in quarter circles, and preening. They then recorded the frequency of each response according to when it occurred during the interval between successive free deliv- eries of food.

Question 92

data from Staddon and stimmelhag revealed:

Answer 92

terminal response:some of the responses occurred predominantly toward the end of the interval between successive reinforcers

interim responses:Other activities increased in frequency after the delivery of food and then decreased as the time for the next food delivery drew closer

Question 93

Explanation of the Periodicity of Interim and Terminal Responses

Answer 93

Simmelhag (1971) suggested that terminal responses are species-typical responses that reflect the anticipation of food as time draws closer to the next food presentation.
they viewed interim responses as reflecting other sources of motivation that are prominent early in the interfood interval, when food presentation is unlikely.

Question 94

nvestigated the effects of exposure to uncontrollable shock on subsequent escape-avoidance learning in dogs

Answer 94

Overmier and Seligman (1967) and Seligman and Maier (1967),

Question 95

The Triadic Design

Answer 95

Learned-helplessness experiments are usually conducted using the triadic design

Question 96

learned-helplessness hypoth- esis

Answer 96

assumes that during exposure to uncontrollable shocks, animals learn that the shocks are independent of their behavior—that there is nothing they can do to control the shocks. Furthermore, they come to expect that reinforcers will continue to be inde- pendent of their behavior in the future.

Question 97

learning deficit (in learned helplessness hypothesis) occurs for two reasons:

Answer 97

(1)expectation of lack of control reduces the motivation to perform an instrumental response
(2)even if they make the response and get reinforced in the conditioning phase, the previously learned expectation of lack of con- trol makes it more difficult for the subjects to learn that their behavior is now effective in producing reinforcement.

Question 98

It is important to distinguish the learned-helplessness hypothesis from the learned- helplessness effect:

Answer 98

he effect is the pattern of results obtained with the triadic design (disruption of instrumental conditioning caused by prior exposure to inescapable shock). The learned-helplessness effect has been replicated in numerous studies and is a firmly established finding. By contrast, the learned-helplessness hypothesis is an explana- tion or interpretation of the effect, which has been provocative and controversial since its introduction (LoLordo & Overmier, 2011).

Question 99

Alternatives to the Helplessness Hypothesis:

Answer 99

(1) activity deficit hypothesis
(2) attention deficit hypothesis

Question 100

According to the activity deficit hypothesis

Answer 100

animals in Group Y show a learning deficit following exposure to inescapable shock because inescapable shocks encourage animals to become inactive or freeze