Chapter 7

Psychologists who focus on how organisms learn and assume that there are general laws of learning that apply to virtually all organisms are called ________.The notion of tabula rasa, or blank tablet upon which learning experiences were ascribed, is most closely associated with which of the following schools of psychology? A) behaviourism B) ethology C) constructivism D) cognitive perspective Answer: A 3) Which perspective in psychology assumes that the laws of learning apply to virtually all organisms, and therefore studies learning in animals such as rats and pigeons to learn more about humans? A) humanist B) cognitive C) psychoanalytic D) behaviourist Answer: D 4) The term "personal adaptation" is concerned with how: A) learning directly modifies the genes of a species. B) evolutionary factors operate through the environment to shape the biology of a species. C) the laws of learning and the environment shape the behaviour of organisms. D) adaptive significance affects species adaptation. Answer: C 5) A decreasing response to a repeated stimulus is called ________. A) shaping B) habituation C) latent learning D) extinction Answer: B 6) While writing your exam, the person next to you keeps tapping their pencil. At first you find it quite distracting but after a while you stop noticing it. This is an example of ________. A) habituation B) latent learning C) sensitization D) extinction Answer: A 7) Learning NOT to respond to uneventful, familiar stimuli so that the organism can conserve energy and attend to more important stimuli is an example of: A) operant generalization. B) a fixed action pattern. C) habituation. D) generalization. Answer: C 8) Which of the following provides the best definition of habituation? A) Habituation is an extinction of response to an increasing stimulus. B) Habituation is a decrease in the strength of response to a repeated stimulus. C) Habituation is an increase in the strength of response to a changing stimulus. D) Habituation is a continuous response to a discriminative stimulus. Answer: B 1 PSYCH 1000 9) You have just settled down to begin studying for your exam in this course when your roommate decides to turn on some music. At first, the music distracts you from your studying, but after a short time, the music no longer bothers you even though it continues to play. This example most clearly demonstrates the process of: A) habituation. B) classical conditioning. C) extinction. D) negative reinforcement. Answer: A 10) Ahmen adopts a dog from the local animal shelter. When Ahmen's mother comes home that day, she runs to the dog to pet her, but the dog cowers and puts her tail between her legs. The dog continues to exhibit this response whenever Ahmen's mother approaches her. Eventually, after several weeks, the dog cowers less until finally, Ahmen's mother is able to pet the dog. What the dog has learned is that Ahmen's mother will not harm her; therefore, her response decreases with time. This is an example of: A) latent learning B) tabula rasa C) habituation D) extinction Answer: D 11) This form of learning has strong adaptive significance because if we responded continuously to every stimulus in the environment, we would quickly become fatigued and overwhelmed. This form of learning is called: A) habituation B) extinction C) negative reinforcement D) one-trial learning Answer: A 12) Habituation has strong adaptive significance because it allows organisms to learn not to respond to ________ stimuli. A) novel B) discriminative C) changing D) uneventful and familiar Answer: D 13) Five-year-old Anais has foolishly covered her arms in masking tape. As her mother starts to remove the tape, little Anais cries harder and harder as the removal of tape becomes more and more painful over time. This would be an example of ________. A) sensitization B) latent learning C) operant conditioning D) habituation Answer: A 14) A picture fell off the wall startling James quite a bit, making him jump. His roommate comes home a couple minutes later and his shutting the door makes James jump again though it doesn't typically. The reason he jumps the second time is that the falling picture ________ to loud noises. A) habituated him B) made him more aware C) made him vulnerable D) sensitized him Answer: D 2 15) The role of ________ is to conserve energy so that an organism can attend to other more important stimuli, whereas ________ helps increase the responsiveness of an organism to potentially dangerous stimuli. A) extinction; latent learning B) latent learning; extinction C) sensitization; habituation D) habituation; sensitization Answer: D 16) An increase in the strength of a response to a repeated stimulus is known as: A) reinforcement B) habituation C) classical conditioning D) sensitization Answer: D 17) With repeated presentation of a loud tone, the startle response increases in intensity. This is an example of: A) sensitization B) classical conditioning C) reinforcement D) habitation Answer: A 18) A learning process in which the organism learns to associate two stimuli such that a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response is called: A) shaping B) operant conditioning C) classical conditioning D) modeling Answer: C 19) Advertisers often develop commercials for alcohol that include young, attractive individuals having a good time so that consumers will learn to associate their product with having a pleasant experience. This would be an example of: A) classical conditioning B) sensitization C) latent learning D) operant conditioning Answer: A 20) In a research study, a dog learned to salivate in response to a tone presented alone. In this case, the salivation would technically be considered a(n): A) conditioned stimulus B) conditioned response C) unconditioned response D) unconditioned stimulus Answer: B 21) Pavlov is known as the one who discovered ________, which has been described as one of the most important discoveries in the history of psychology. A) sensitization B) operant conditioning C) latent learning D) classical conditioning Answer: D 3 22) Which type of learning alerts organisms to stimuli that signal the impending arrival of an important event? A) operant conditioning B) classical conditioning C) sensitization D) latent learning Answer: B 23) Imagine that you wish to condition a dog to salivate in response to a particular song that you play on your CD player. Prior to beginning the learning trials, the song would be considered a(n) ________ stimulus. A) conditioned B) discriminative C) unconditioned D) neutral Answer: D 24) When Pavlov was conditioning his dogs to salivate in response to a tone, he first paired the tone with the presentation of food until the tone alone could induce salivation. In his experiments, which of the following was considered to be the unconditioned stimulus? A) salivation in response to the food B) salivation in response to the tone C) the food D) the tone Answer: C 25) You are conducting an experiment in which you are trying to manipulate the immune response of rats by using the principles of classical conditioning. First, for several days of an experiment, you give rats artificially sweetened water with an immune system-enhancing drug in it. You later remove the drug and notice that the immune systems of rats are boosted when they consume the sweetened water. In your experiment, what is the unconditioned response (UCR)? A) the drug B) the enhanced immune system functioning in response to the sweetened water C) the enhanced immune system functioning in response to the drug D) the sweetened water Answer: C 26) You are conducting an experiment in which you are trying to manipulate the immune response of rats by using the principles of classical conditioning. First for several days of an experiment, you give rats artificially sweetened water with an immune system-enhancing drug in it. You later remove the drug and notice that the immune systems of rats are boosted when they consume the sweetened water. In your experiment, what is the conditioned stimulus (CS)? A) the sweetened water B) the enhanced immune system functioning in response to the drug C) the drug D) the enhanced immune system functioning in response to the sweetened water