Week 1 Flashcards
Rosie and Ginny decide to eat at a restaurant. When they arrive they are greeted promptly by the hostess. The waiter is efficient and the food is fantastic. They are likely to return to the restaurant because their decision to eat there was followed by a satisfying experience. This example illustrates:
a. the law of effect.
b. the pleasure principle.
c. the Garcia effect.
d. Michelin’s law.
a. the law of effect.
Stephanie is studying her vocabulary words for German class. Each time she reads the German word and thinks of the English equivalent, she finds it easier to recall the meaning. Stephanie’s experience is best explained by the role of
a. latent learning.
b. neural networks.
c. classical conditioning.
d. operant conditioning.
b. neural networks.
While in the Bahamas, Krista orders a tropical drink called the Bahama Mama. When Krista finishes the drink, she notices that she feels extremely relaxed. One year later, Krista visits Puerto Rico and, remembering how great the Bahama Mama made her feel, she decides to order a piña colada (which contains many of the same ingredients). In other words, Krista is displaying
a. stimulus discrimination.
b. vicarious conditioning.
c. reconditioning.
d. stimulus generalisation
d. stimulus generalisation
Psychologists have defined learning as
a. the systematic organisation of information that facilitates later recall and use.
b. the adaptation of instinctual responses to new environments.
c. a temporary change in behaviour that results from past experience.
d. the modification through experience of pre-existing behaviour and understanding.
d. the modification through experience of pre-existing behaviour and understanding.
Five-year-old Sandrine jumps and cringes every time she hears thunder. Soon she cringes when she sees lightning because she knows that thunder will follow. One day when she is at her first fireworks show, she cringes when she sees the flash of light from the first fireworks in the sky. Sandrine is displaying
a. spontaneous recovery.
b. reconditioning.
c. stimulus generalisation.
d. stimulus discrimination.
c. stimulus generalisation.
Bill and Ben are about to have breakfast. Their mother asks Bill, ‘What would you like for breakfast?’ Bill answers, ‘I would like some damn porridge.’ She slaps him, then turns to Ben and asks, ‘And what would you like?’ Ben answers, ‘I don’t really care, as long as it isn’t any of that damn porridge!’ Ben’s misunderstanding highlights the importance of
a. specifying why punishment is being administered.
b. children learning through imitation.
c. immediate and efficiently severe punishments.
d. appropriate responses being identified and positively reinforced.
a. specifying why punishment is being administered.
Which of the following is true of taste-aversion conditioning?
a. It occurs most readily when taste is paired with visual stimuli.
b. It almost never occurs in the animal kingdom.
c. It requires very short time intervals between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.
d. It appears to have an adaptive value.
d. It appears to have an adaptive value.
During a storm, Mohammed experienced lightning flashes followed by very loud thunder a few seconds later. Now he cringes every time he sees a flash of lightning. Mohammed experienced what kind of conditioning?
a. Delayed
b. Backward
c. Simultaneous
d. Forward
d. Forward
One of the most difficult problems for any teacher is a child who consistently disrupts class. Researchers have shown that giving attention in the form of scolding to a disruptive child actually increases the child’s misbehaviour. In terms of operant conditioning, the scolding is a
a. penalty.
b. positive reinforcer.
c. negative reinforcer.
d. punisher.
b. positive reinforcer.
If a reinforcer (or punisher) is delivered every time a particular response occurs, which schedule is being implemented?
a. Fixed-interval
b. Variable-interval
c. Intermittent
d. Continuous
d. Continuous
The police blocked off the road in Carole’s neighbourhood that she usually uses to get home from work, so Carole used the next quickest route. Carole easily used the different route because
a. she had developed a cognitive map.
b. driving on the new road had become a conditioned response.
c. the new road was an unconditioned stimulus.
d.
she had been negatively reinforced.
a. she had developed a cognitive map.
Large amounts of guidance may produce very good performance during practice, but too much guidance may
a. impair future performance.
b. result in rote learning.
c. increase likelihood of injury.
d. reduce feedback.
a. impair future performance.
Benji spends his days in a dog pen. After seeing another dog running around the neighbourhood, Benji began to pace. Suddenly, he tipped over his dog house, climbed on top of it and jumped out of the pen. According to Wolfgang Köhler, Benji’s performance demonstrated
a. skill learning.
b. latent learning.
c. Skinner box conditioning.
d. insight.
d. insight.
When Joel asks his psychology class a question, he calls on only those students whose hands are raised. Guff, another psychology instructor, requires all students in his class to answer every question by holding up a card showing their written responses. Assuming that Joel and Guff are equally competent instructors who cover the same material, which class should perform better on the upcoming midterm?
a. Guff’s class
b. Joel’s class on multiple-choice questions and Guff’s class on essay questions.
c. Joel’s class
d. They should perform equally.
a. Guff’s class
Harry is trying to decide whether to allow his children to watch violent television programs. They enjoy seeing detective shows, but Harry worries that seeing people hurt will make his children more likely to use violence themselves. According to the textbook, which of the following should you tell Harry?
a. Correlational studies prove that watching television violence causes violent behaviour.
b. Television violence may be one cause of violent behaviour.
c. Television violence is probably not the cause of violent behaviour.
d. Experiments prove that watching television violence causes violent behaviour.
b. Television violence may be one cause of violent behaviour.
To learn to look both ways before crossing the street, children merely need to hear about the consequences of getting hit by a car (instead of having to experience it themselves). This is an example of
a. vicarious experience.
b. insight.
c. shaping.
d. escape learning.
a. vicarious experience.
The most critical component of skill learning is
a. acquisition.
b. imagination.
c. practice.
d. guidance.
c. practice.
One aspect common to Tolman’s research on latent learning and Köhler’s research on insight is
a. vicarious experience.
b. slow, gradual improvement in performance.
c. sudden, dramatic improvement in performance.
d. negative reinforcement.
c. sudden, dramatic improvement in performance.
Grasping how to perform a complex action sequence, such as driving a car or playing the harmonica, is referred to as
a. skill learning.
b. insight.
c. part-task learning.
d. trace learning.
a. skill learning.
The biological basis for observational learning may lie in
a. vicarious experience.
b. genetic species memories.
c. stimulation of the hippocampus.
d. activation of the amygdala.
c. stimulation of the hippocampus.
Developmental psychology is best defined as the study of
a. the influence of genes on the behaviour of infants, children, adolescents and adults.
b. children’s thought processes and moral reasoning.
c. the social, cognitive and physical changes that occur over the course of the life span.
d. the physical changes that occur in the womb and during the childhood years.
c. the social, cognitive and physical changes that occur over the course of the life span.
Korean and Chinese children can do arithmetic with three-digit numbers with greater skill than
Australian children. According to research, one of the most important factors explaining this
difference is
a. cultural influences on Piaget’s sensorimotor stage.
b. Asian language labels for the numbers 11 to 19.
c. genetics.
d. cultural influences on Vygotsky’s social scripts.
b. Asian language labels for the numbers 11 to 19.
Nellie has just discovered that she is pregnant. She is a smoker and knows she should quit
because nicotine is especially harmful to the foetus during the ___________ stage of development
and leads to ___________.
a. foetal; loss of limbs
b. embryonic; low birth weight
c. embryonic; intellectual disability
d. foetal; brain damage
b. embryonic; low birth weight
Newborns typically exhibit
a. hearing that is sharper than that of the average adult
b. well-developed vision
c. an inability to discriminate between different tastes
d. a preference for certain smells
d. a preference for certain smells
Which of the following suggests a genetic basis for gender differences?
a. Finding similar gender differences across cultures
b. The media glamorising gender-appropriate behaviour
c. Differential treatment of boys and girls by parents
d. Peer pressure among children to behave in gender-appropriate ways
a. Finding similar gender differences across cultures
Rachel has missed several classes because of family troubles. On the day of the exam, Rachel asks
you if she can copy your answers so she does not fail. According to Kohlberg, how would you respond
if you were using postconventional moral reasoning?
a. ‘I cannot let you cheat because it would be unfair to the students who worked hard and attended class.’
b. ‘No way! I could get caught by the instructor and then I’d fail.’
c. ‘I’ll let you copy my answers, but you owe me a favour now.’
d. ‘Okay. As a friend, it’s my duty to help you.’
a. ‘I cannot let you cheat because it would be unfair to the students who worked hard and attended class.’
Linda and Stu are the parents of two teenagers. Stu likes to reason with the children and discuss the limits he is setting. Linda likes to lay down the law and take no arguments from the children. According to the textbook, Stu displays a(n) ___________ parenting style and Linda displays a(n) ___________ parenting style.
a. authoritative; controlling
b. permissive; controlling
c. authoritative; authoritarian
d. authoritarian; authoritative
c. authoritative; authoritarian
In Baillargeon’s experiments, babies looked longer at impossible events than possible events. The
conclusion drawn from this research was that Piaget
a. underestimated babies – babies have some knowledge of physics.
b. was correct – babies do not have mental representations nor any knowledge of physics.
c. was irrelevant – Baillargeon’s work was unrelated.
d. overestimated babies – babies do not have sensorimotor abilities.
a. underestimated babies – babies have some knowledge of physics.
Dr Gaumer has been observing children at play, both alone and with others. He has concluded that
motor skills, such as walking and throwing a ball, develop in all children in a fixed sequence that is
relatively independent of the child’s environment. Dr Gaumer is supporting a ___________ theory.
a. habituational
b. behavioural
c. tabula rasa
d. maturational
d. maturational
Nathan, who is three years old, tried to feed a cookie to his sister’s hamster and was surprised
when the hamster refused to eat the cookie. Because Nathan assumed that hamsters like the same
kinds of food as little kids, his schema for hamsters needs to be ___________ according to Piaget.
a. assimilated
b. expanded
c. organised
d. accommodated
d. accommodated
A person may be culturally ___________ if they ignore or do not see cultural differences.
a. blind
b. incompetent
c. aversive
d. pre-competent
a. blind
Indigenous psychologies tend to be more
a. relativist.
b. universalist.
c. absolutist.
d. collectivist.
a. relativist.
