Chapter 6

Question 1

learning phase during which conditioning occurs, i.e. a neutral stimulus is being transformed into the conditioned stimulus.

Answer 1

acquisition

Question 2

behavior that lacks consideration for others.

Answer 2

antisocial

Question 3

an individual who has completed the course work and testing to become certified to use the principles of learning in a variety of employment settings.

Answer 3

applied behavior analyst

Question 4

conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented after the presentation of an unconditioned stimulus; is an ineffective form of conditioning.

Answer 4

backward conditioning

Question 5

the application of the principles of learning to structure interventions to change behavior.

Answer 5

behavior modification

Question 6

psychologists who embrace “behaviorism” a perspective that proposes that people’s behavioral tendencies, moral boundaries, and personality traits are an expression of each individual’s learning history that transpired programmatically or haphazardly in their environment.

Answer 6

behaviorists

Question 7

a form of associative learning that occurs when an initially neutral stimulus becomes transformed into a conditioned stimulus (and elicits a conditioned response) because of its association with an unconditioned stimulus.

Answer 7

classical conditioning

Question 8

a stimulus that gains its capacity to reinforce through its associations with a primary reinforcer, i.e. money.

Answer 8

conditioned reinforcer

Question 9

a stimulus that produces a response because it is associated with an unconditioned stimulus; i.e. the sound of a tone causing salivation because it is always heard when food is presented.

Answer 9

conditioned stimulus

Question 10

Thorndike’s theory that successful responses will be more strongly connected to a specific situation than other responses; explains operant conditioning.

Answer 10

connectionism

Question 11

when a reinforcement is dependent upon the emission of the behavior; i.e. the behavior must be performed before a reinforcement will be issued.

Answer 11

contingent

Question 12

each individual incidence of a target response produces reinforcement.

Answer 12

continuous reinforcement

Question 13

conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented before and during presentation of an unconditioned stimulus, terminating when the unconditioned stimulus ends; is the most effective form of conditioning.

Answer 13

delayed conditioning

Question 14

the idea that individuals have a preferred pattern of distributing their time between a wide variety of activities, and the opportunity to engage in behaviors for which they are most out of equilibrium may be most reinforcing event for that moment.

Answer 14

disequilibrium principle

Question 15

emotional responses evoked by offensive tastes or smells or by behaviors we judge to be in bad taste; propels us to avoid disease.

Answer 15

disgust reactions

Question 16

the idea that any arbitrary response could be reinforced with equal potency with any arbitrary reward, and that any conditioned stimulus could be associated with any unconditioned stimulus; this assumption is not true due to our biological predispositions to associate certain consequences with specific behaviors or stimuli.

Answer 16

equipotentiality

Question 17

phase during which a conditioned stimulus is presented without an unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioning, and in which target behaviors are no longer reinforced in operant conditioning; weakens the association between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli in classical conditioning, and weakens the association between the response and reinforcement in operant conditioning.

Answer 17

extinction

Question 18

a sexual response induced by exposure to an inanimate object; can be a result of classical conditioning.

Answer 18

fetishism

Question 19

reinforcement schedule in which the first response is reinforced after a predetermined fixed time interval has been met; the subject starts to respond and increases rate of responding as the subject anticipates the interval might have been met.

Answer 19

fixed interval

Question 20

schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement occurs after the subject completes a predetermined fixed number of responses; if the ratio is large, individual’s take a break after receiving reinforcement (post-reinforcement pause).

Answer 20

fixed ratio

Question 21

learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli; is a decrease in response strength as a consequence of repeated exposure to a stimulus; the inverse of sensitization.

Answer 21

habituation

Question 22

when classical conditioning occurs for novel stimuli that become paired with a conditioned stimulus but are never directly paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Answer 22

higher order conditioning

Question 23

the tendency for the behavior of animals trained by operant conditioning to revert to a form naturally or instinctively associated with the reward situation.

Answer 23

instinctive drift

Question 24

responses followed by positive outcomes will be repeated, whereas those followed by negative outcomes will not.

Answer 24

law of effect

Question 25

a phenomenon that occurs when subject’s have experienced aversive events and did not have to opportunity to overcome them; can lead to depression.

Answer 25

learned helplessness

Question 26

a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience; includes motor skills and academic skills.

Answer 26

learning

Question 27

(also known as time-out) the removal of a subject from a situation in which they are being positively reinforced following a response; decreases the likelihood of that response in the future.

Answer 27

negative punishment

Question 28

the removal or termination of an unpleasant stimulus or event following a response; increases the likelihood of that response in the future.

Answer 28

negative reinforcement

Question 29

a stimulus that does not yet elicit a specific response.

Answer 29

neutral stimulus

Question 30

the delivery of an aversive stimulus or event independent of the subject’s behavior.

Answer 30

noncontingent punishment

Question 31

learning by watching others; occurs in the absence of reinforcement or the delivery of conditioned or unconditioned stimuli.

Answer 31

observational learning

Question 32

form of conditioning in which subjects form an association between their behavior and its consequences; their behavior is directed toward manipulating or operating on some feature in the environment.

Answer 32

operant conditioning

Question 33

reinforcing only a portion of an organism’s responses to increase the probability of that response; results in behaviors that are more resistant to extinction.

Answer 33

partial reinforcement

Question 34

a phenomenon that occurs in a generalization test when the greatest response rate does not occur in the presence of the initial conditioned stimulus (S+), but occurs in the presence of a novel stimulus that is shifted past the S+ and away from a discrimination stimulus (S-); the peak shift phenomenon only occurs when the S+ and S- stimuli are both on the same dimension such as wavelength or tone frequency.

Answer 34

peak shift

Question 35

an irrational fear of a particular object or situation.

Answer 35

phobia

Question 36

the delivery of a reward following the occurrence of a response; increases the likelihood of that response in the future.

Answer 36

positive reinforcement

Question 37

the opportunity to engage in a higher-probability behavior will serve as reinforcement for any lower-probability behavior.

Answer 37

premack

Question 38

being biologically predisposed to form certain associations because of their relevance to survival under ancestral conditions.

Answer 38

preparedness

Question 39

stimulus that satisfies a biological need such as food or water.

Answer 39

primary reinforcer

Question 40

behavior that is positive and helpful to others.

Answer 40

prosocial

Question 41

when a presumed “conditioned stimulus” appears to evoke a “conditioned response” when in fact the response is actually an unconditioned reflex or is due to some other phenomenon; conditioning did not actually happen.

Answer 41

pseudoconditioning

Question 42

the delivery of an aversive stimulus or event following a response; decreases the likelihood of that response in the future.

Answer 42

punishment (or positive punishment)

Question 43

effect that occurs when a conditioned response is extinguished in a setting that is different from the setting in which the conditioned response was first acquired; when the subjests returns to the original setting, the conditioned response returns.

Answer 43

renewal effect

Question 44

how long it takes for extinction to occur; is higher the more intermittently and unpredictably the behavior was reinforced during conditioning.

Answer 44

resistance to extinction

Question 45

eating food with an unfamiliar flavor (one individuals can do without) when all foods and flavors are likely to become associated with the experience of nausea, such as with chemotherapy patients; protects the subject’s appetite for important foods from taste aversion learning.

Answer 45

scapegoat technique

Question 46

a protocol that determines when the next target response is reinforced.

Answer 46

schedules of reinforcement

Question 47

an increase in response strength as a consequence of repeated exposure to a stimulus; the inverse of habituation.

Answer 47

sensitization

Question 48

the systematic application of the principle of reinforcing successive approximations to the target behavior; each time the subject emits a response that more closely resembles the form or topography of a target behavior, they are reinforced until the target behavior is performed.

Answer 48

shaping

Question 49

conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented synchronously with presentation of an unconditioned stimulus; is an ineffective form of conditioning.

Answer 49

simultaneous conditioning

Question 50

the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period.

Answer 50

spontaneous recover

Question 51

when the subject’s response to a similar conditioned stimulus is weaker than that produced by the original conditioned stimulus.

Answer 51

stimulus discrimination

Question 52

when the subject displays a conditioned response in the presence of a novel stimulus that resembles but is not identical to the original conditioned stimulus.

Answer 52

stimulus generalization

Question 53

small scale responses such as muscle twitches or eye-blinking; can be conditioned just like more overt behaviors.

Answer 53

suboperants

Question 54

a response whose occurrence has no bearing on the delivery of reinforcement, but the subject acts as if it does.

Answer 54

superstitious behavior

Question 55

a conditioned food aversion that arises when the subject forms an association between the flavor of a specific food and the experience of nausea

Answer 55

taste aversion learning

Question 56

also known as negative punishment) the removal of a subject from positive reinforcement; decreases the likelihood of that response in the future.

Answer 56

time-out

Question 57

conditioning in which a neutral stimulus is presented before the presentation of an unconditioned stimulus and terminates before that stimulus is presented; is effective, but somewhat less so than delayed conditioning.

Answer 57

trace conditioning

Question 58

a response to a stimulus that is not learned but merely a reflex; i.e. salivating at the smell of food.

Answer 58

unconditioned response

Question 59

a stimulus that elicits a response that is not learned but rather a reflex; i.e. the smell of food eliciting salivation.

Answer 59

unconditioned stimulus

Question 60

reinforcement schedule in which the first response is reinforced after an unpredictable predetermined time interval has passed; a subject cannot double his rate of reinforcement by doubling his rate of work.

Answer 60

variable interval

Question 61

reinforcement schedule in which the subject receives reinforcement once they have completed a predetermined number of responses, but this quota changes unpredictably after each successive reinforcement; abolishes the post-reinforcement pause.

Answer 61

variable ratio