PSYC 387 Exam Questions With Complete Solutions
1. Define the terms forgetting and retention interval. (p. 347)
Correct Answers forgetting, so a common definition of
forgetting is deterioration in performance of learned behavior
following a retention interval.
The phrase retention interval means a period during which
learning or practice of the behavior does not occur.
conducted an experiment in which nutcrackers stored seeds and
were then allowed to recover them one week, three months, and
six months later. There was some decline in the ability to find
caches after prolonged periods, but even after six months the
birds found seeds with a level of success that could not be
attributed to chance.
1. Describe and provide original examples of the following (a)
declarative memories and (b) non-declarative memories. (pp.
349-350)
. Correct Answers Not all deterioration in learned behavior
following a retention interval is due to forgetting.
. It is further complicated by the fact that it is typically
incomplete. An individual's performance following a retention
interval may be abysmal, yet some learning lingers. You might,
for example, have learned the name of the capital of Montana,
but now find you have no idea what it is, or even the first letter
of the name or how many syllables the word has. Yet, though
your "mind is blank," it is certain that the forgetting is not
complete
1. Describe how the capacity to benefit from the consequences
of one's own actions contributes to survival. Illustrate by
,referring to Metzgar's (1967) experiment. (p. 131) Correct
Answers Lee Metzgar (1967) released several white-footed
mice in a laboratory environment that resem- bled the animals'
natural habitat. After several days, he released more mice and
then after several minutes released a screech owl into the area.
The owl caught five of the newcomers for every one of the long-
term residents. The latter had had time to explore their
surroundings; the new arrivals had not. Exploring the
surroundings, testing whether they could squeeze between those
two rocks, or crawl under that bit of log, or burrow under that
pile of leaves, is useful. As real estate agents are wont to say, "It
pays to know the neighborhood." And it pays to be able to learn
from the consequences of our actions
1. Describe how the non-heritability of learned behaviour limits
learning. Describe McDougall's work (1927, 1938) in testing the
theory that learned behaviours are inherited to some extent. If
acquired behaviours were passed on through inheritance, what
disadvantages would this create? Explain. (pp. 378-379) Correct
Answers McDougall was no armchair psychologist, and he
spent years performing experiments to test his theory. In a
typical experiment, McDougall (1927, 1938) trained rats to
avoid electric shocks. Then he trained the offspring of these rats
on the same task, and then their offspring, and so on for several
generations.
They ran similar experiments with better controls than
McDougall had used and found no evidence that succeeding
generations of animals learned a task any more readily than their
forebears
,nonheritability of learning is one of the severest of all its
limitations. Certainly, anyone who has had a difficult time
mastering parallel parking or memorizing the forms of the
French verb être will agree that being able to benefit from the
learning experiences of one's parents would be helpful.
If we inherited learned behavior that was no longer adaptive,
learning might be more of a hindrance than a help. Yet we must
admit that the nonheritability of learning limits what any
individual can learn in a lifetime.
1. Describe Mary Cover Jones' (1924a, 1924b) work in
counterconditioning. Define counterconditioning. Be able to
recognize and provide original examples of counterconditioning.
(pp. 97-98) Correct Answers Mary Cover Jones (1924a, 1924b),
another of Watson's students, was the first to show that
Pavlovian conditioning could help people overcome fears as
well as acquire them. Jones's subject was Peter, a 3-year-old
with a fear of rabbits. Peter's fear was "home grown," as Watson
phrased it, not the result of deliberate conditioning. The
experiment with Albert showed how Peter's fear may have been
acquired; more important, it suggested how it might be removed.
Jones called this use of Pavlovian conditioning to reverse the
unwanted effects of previous conditioning counterconditioning.
Because the person is gradually exposed to the fear-evoking
stimulus while feeling relaxed, this kind of therapy is now often
called exposure therapy.
1. Describe Pavlov's early life, career path, and other factors that
led him to study the digestive processes and the salivary reflex
, in the dog. When did Pavlov become interested in psychic
reflexes? (pp. 57-60) Correct Answers During middle age he
was thinking about staying as a physiologist and not moving on
to psychology
Pavlov started his career with research on the circulatory system
and then moved on to the physiology of digestion.
Pavlov was fascinated by the adaptability of the glands. He
found, for instance, that if he gave a dog dry, hard food, there
was a heavy flow of saliva; if he gave the animal watery food,
there was very little saliva. And if he put an inedible substance
into the dog's mouth, the amount of saliva depended on the
amount needed to eject the substance: A marble evoked very
little saliva, while sand resulted in a large supply.
The cleverness of the glands did not end there, however. When a
dog had been fed a number of times, it began to salivate before
anything was put into its mouth. In fact, it might start salivating
as soon as it entered the laboratory.
What fascinated Pavlov was that the dogs did not salivate when
they were first brought into the laboratory, but only after they
had been fed there repeatedly. How could this be? How could
experience alter the action of a gland?
1. Describe Skinner's contribution to the study of forgetting. (pp.
347-348) Correct Answers When he put the birds in the
chamber, the disc was not illuminated and the birds did not
peck. Then when Skinner illuminated it, the birds began
pecking. In short, they behaved just as they had four years
1. Define the terms forgetting and retention interval. (p. 347)
Correct Answers forgetting, so a common definition of
forgetting is deterioration in performance of learned behavior
following a retention interval.
The phrase retention interval means a period during which
learning or practice of the behavior does not occur.
conducted an experiment in which nutcrackers stored seeds and
were then allowed to recover them one week, three months, and
six months later. There was some decline in the ability to find
caches after prolonged periods, but even after six months the
birds found seeds with a level of success that could not be
attributed to chance.
1. Describe and provide original examples of the following (a)
declarative memories and (b) non-declarative memories. (pp.
349-350)
. Correct Answers Not all deterioration in learned behavior
following a retention interval is due to forgetting.
. It is further complicated by the fact that it is typically
incomplete. An individual's performance following a retention
interval may be abysmal, yet some learning lingers. You might,
for example, have learned the name of the capital of Montana,
but now find you have no idea what it is, or even the first letter
of the name or how many syllables the word has. Yet, though
your "mind is blank," it is certain that the forgetting is not
complete
1. Describe how the capacity to benefit from the consequences
of one's own actions contributes to survival. Illustrate by
,referring to Metzgar's (1967) experiment. (p. 131) Correct
Answers Lee Metzgar (1967) released several white-footed
mice in a laboratory environment that resem- bled the animals'
natural habitat. After several days, he released more mice and
then after several minutes released a screech owl into the area.
The owl caught five of the newcomers for every one of the long-
term residents. The latter had had time to explore their
surroundings; the new arrivals had not. Exploring the
surroundings, testing whether they could squeeze between those
two rocks, or crawl under that bit of log, or burrow under that
pile of leaves, is useful. As real estate agents are wont to say, "It
pays to know the neighborhood." And it pays to be able to learn
from the consequences of our actions
1. Describe how the non-heritability of learned behaviour limits
learning. Describe McDougall's work (1927, 1938) in testing the
theory that learned behaviours are inherited to some extent. If
acquired behaviours were passed on through inheritance, what
disadvantages would this create? Explain. (pp. 378-379) Correct
Answers McDougall was no armchair psychologist, and he
spent years performing experiments to test his theory. In a
typical experiment, McDougall (1927, 1938) trained rats to
avoid electric shocks. Then he trained the offspring of these rats
on the same task, and then their offspring, and so on for several
generations.
They ran similar experiments with better controls than
McDougall had used and found no evidence that succeeding
generations of animals learned a task any more readily than their
forebears
,nonheritability of learning is one of the severest of all its
limitations. Certainly, anyone who has had a difficult time
mastering parallel parking or memorizing the forms of the
French verb être will agree that being able to benefit from the
learning experiences of one's parents would be helpful.
If we inherited learned behavior that was no longer adaptive,
learning might be more of a hindrance than a help. Yet we must
admit that the nonheritability of learning limits what any
individual can learn in a lifetime.
1. Describe Mary Cover Jones' (1924a, 1924b) work in
counterconditioning. Define counterconditioning. Be able to
recognize and provide original examples of counterconditioning.
(pp. 97-98) Correct Answers Mary Cover Jones (1924a, 1924b),
another of Watson's students, was the first to show that
Pavlovian conditioning could help people overcome fears as
well as acquire them. Jones's subject was Peter, a 3-year-old
with a fear of rabbits. Peter's fear was "home grown," as Watson
phrased it, not the result of deliberate conditioning. The
experiment with Albert showed how Peter's fear may have been
acquired; more important, it suggested how it might be removed.
Jones called this use of Pavlovian conditioning to reverse the
unwanted effects of previous conditioning counterconditioning.
Because the person is gradually exposed to the fear-evoking
stimulus while feeling relaxed, this kind of therapy is now often
called exposure therapy.
1. Describe Pavlov's early life, career path, and other factors that
led him to study the digestive processes and the salivary reflex
, in the dog. When did Pavlov become interested in psychic
reflexes? (pp. 57-60) Correct Answers During middle age he
was thinking about staying as a physiologist and not moving on
to psychology
Pavlov started his career with research on the circulatory system
and then moved on to the physiology of digestion.
Pavlov was fascinated by the adaptability of the glands. He
found, for instance, that if he gave a dog dry, hard food, there
was a heavy flow of saliva; if he gave the animal watery food,
there was very little saliva. And if he put an inedible substance
into the dog's mouth, the amount of saliva depended on the
amount needed to eject the substance: A marble evoked very
little saliva, while sand resulted in a large supply.
The cleverness of the glands did not end there, however. When a
dog had been fed a number of times, it began to salivate before
anything was put into its mouth. In fact, it might start salivating
as soon as it entered the laboratory.
What fascinated Pavlov was that the dogs did not salivate when
they were first brought into the laboratory, but only after they
had been fed there repeatedly. How could this be? How could
experience alter the action of a gland?
1. Describe Skinner's contribution to the study of forgetting. (pp.
347-348) Correct Answers When he put the birds in the
chamber, the disc was not illuminated and the birds did not
peck. Then when Skinner illuminated it, the birds began
pecking. In short, they behaved just as they had four years
