Learning Psychology FINAL EXAM | University of Nebraska at Omaha

Negative reinforcement

Sally has to share her room with her annoying little brother.  Though she’s normally a “C” student, her parents told her that if she got all “A”s the following school year, she could move into the guest room and not have to share with her brother anymore.  She buckled down and managed to get all “A”s the entire year.  With respect to getting “A” grades, the offer to move away from her brother was:

Discrimination Hypothesis

The ______________________________ states that it takes longer for an animal to tell the difference between an intermittent schedule and extinction than it does to tell the difference between a continuous schedule and extinction. 

Reinforce the best approximation available at the time, even if that means your subject skipped a step you thought you would need to reinforce.

What is something that you would definitely want to do in order to ensure a session of shaping will go well?

Fixed time

A monkey in a laboratory receives an automated dose of heroin exactly every 2 hours.  What type of schedule is this?

Monkeys received an extra, unexpected shot of juice

In a study examining neurotransmitter release in monkeys, if monkeys chose the correct picture in a task, they received a shot of juice, which increased neurotransmitter release.  As monkeys became more skilled at the task, neurotransmitter release dropped off, but increased again when ___________________________________________.

The Law of Effect.

Thorndike concluded that behavior is a result of its consequences.  He termed this:

Negative punishment

Eric teased another child at school. When his parents found out about it, they took away his prized portable video game player. He never again teased another child at school.  With regard to teasing behavior, taking away the video game is an example of:

Small, immediate, small

Shaping works best when ________________________ steps are reinforced, there is _______________________ reinforcement, and ___________________________ reinforcers are given so as not to interrupt training.

After having a tone paired with a puff of air to the eye several times, a rabbit will blink when it just hears the tone.

Which of the following is NOT an example of operant conditioning?

Less enjoyable.

Some studies have shown that giving reinforcement (for example money) to a person for doing something that the person naturally likes to do can make the activity:

Ratio strain

A rat was trained to press a lever for food.  At first, the rat got a reward every time it pressed the lever.  Over time, fewer and fewer lever pressing behaviors were reinforced. Once the rat was only receiving reinforcement 1 time for every 1000 lever presses, the behavior broke down, and the rat stopped responding.  The rat is a victim of:

Yawn, scratch themselves

Thorndike could condition cats to pull a string or operate a latch to open a box, but he had difficulty training them to __________________ or ___________________ to open a box.

The behavior will likely get worse at first, since the dog isn't used to not being reinforced for her behavior.

A dog who is now 2 years old started jumping up on members of the family when she was a small puppy.  This was cute when she was still small, and was encouraged by members of the family by giving her attention, pets, and the occasional treat.  Now that she weights 80 pounds, the family had decided this behavior is no longer cute since she could knock people down and hurt someone.  The family decided to put this behavior on extinction by removing any and all reinforcement for the dog (e.g., no treats, and no attention for jumping).  What is likely to happen after the behavior is put on extinction?

The punished behavior often requires a more intense punisher to suppress it than if a stronger punisher had been used from the start.

What happens when an individual starts off receiving a relatively mild punisher, and then its intensity increases?

Superstitious behavior

My friend Karen just got a new pen, and she used it for the first time while taking a difficult chemistry exam.  She did much better on the exam than she was expecting, and now she makes sure to use that pen and only that pen on every exam she takes (even though she doesn’t do well on all exams).  What’s going on here?

It leads to a relatively complete unlearning of a previously-learned behavior

Which of the following is NOT true of extinction in operant conditioning?

Continuous reinforcement.

Every time Carolyn washes her parents’ car, she gets $10.  This is an example of:

Thorndike utilized internal states, claiming that animals were “annoyed” or “satisfied.”

What did B.F. Skinner NOT like about Thorndike’s explanation for operant conditioning?

Positive reinforcement

In order to encourage reading in his fifth grade class, Bill decided to give his students a piece of candy every time one of them finished a book.  He noticed that since instating the candy rule, the number of books his students read increased.  Candy is therefore __________________________ with respect to reading books

Subjects spent more time with the puzzle during trials where they got paid, but they spent less time after payment was removed.

In an experiment we talked about in class, what happened to the amount of time subjects spent playing with a “Soma” puzzle during a free choice period?

Instinctive drift

When animal trainers tried to get a raccoon to put coins in a bank, the raccoon ended up rubbing the coins together, and dipping them in and out of the bank instead.  This behavior is similar to the natural feeding behavior that raccoons would exhibit in the wild.  This return to more instinctive behavior while learning a novel task is called:

Differential reinforcement of low behavior

A parent was trying to teach his child self-control, so he put her toy box on a timer.  She could only open it once every two hours.  If she tried to open it before the time was up, the toy box locked, the timer reset, and she had to wait another 2 hours before she could try again.  What type of schedule is this?

Design a missile that would be guided toward a target by trained pigeons.

B.F. Skinner received government grant money to:

Mice that had been newly released vs. mice that had time to learn their way around the environment.

In a study in a semi-naturalistic environment with white-footed mice and a screech owl, the owl was more likely to capture and kill:

Spontaneous recovery

Skinner noticed that operant conditioning had many things in common with Pavlovian conditioning, including the fact that a previously extinguished behavior will return if there is a break in training.  This is called:

Negative contrast

When working for his parent's company, Albie was used to making $20 per hour.  Times are tough, and his parents had to decrease Albie's hourly wage to $15 in order to avoid further layoffs among the other employees.  Even though he continued with the same job, Albie found himself working less hard, and leaving work early without telling his parents.  The decrease in the amount of work he performs is likely due to:

In order to get him to study, a father locks his son in his room for an entire evening.

Which of the following is not actually operant conditioning?

Positive punishment

On his first day of junior high, George got out of his mother’s car at school, and had walked several yards when he realized he had forgotten his lunch in the car.  When he returned to get it, his mom insisted on giving him a big kiss in front of all his friends.  George was so embarrassed by this that he didn’t forget his lunch in the car for the rest of the year.  With respect to lunch forgetting behavior, the kiss from mom was:

75%

A rat has access to 2 concurrent schedules.  On schedule A (a FI 20” schedule), the rat can be reinforced once every 20 seconds.  On schedule B (a FI 60” schedule), the rat can be reinforced once every minute.  What percentage of time do you predict the rat would spend pressing the lever associated with schedule A?

Pavlovian, Pavlovian, Operant

_______________________conditioning involves presentation of stimuli regardless of what the individual does.  _________________________ conditioning usually involves reflexive behavior.  ________________________ conditioning is a function of what follows the behavior.

Money

Which of the following is a secondary reinforcer?

Free operant procedure

A __________________________ is the type of operant conditioning procedure that Skinner often used, where the behavior of the participant can be repeated many times, and the dependent variable is how many times a behavior occurs per unit of time.

Practice with live prey

Meerkat pups that have had the opportunity to ______________________________ are better able to catch and hold on to prey.

Variable interval

At least once a week, a particular department store offers discounts on their web site.  The actual day(s) of the sale is(are) unknown, and could occur at any time.  Though some shoppers check often, they are only reinforced when they receive a discount.  What type of schedule of reinforcement is this?

Chaining

_________________________ is training an individual to perform a sequence of behaviors in the correct order

Intrinsic reinforcement

The type of reinforcement where the reinforcement is provided by the mere act of performing the behavior, for example reading because you find the subject matter interesting, is called:

A rat that is trained to press a lever for food no longer receives food for lever pressing. As a result, the rat temporarily presses the lever more than it did previously.

Which of the following represents an extinction burst?

a VR 50 schedule, where the shortest possible ratio is 40

Which schedule of reinforcement will lead to the LONGEST postreinforcement pause for a rat pressing a lever?

Primary

A __________________ punisher is a punisher that is naturally disliked, and it therefore does not need to be learned.

Stretching the ratio.

When training her dog to “sit,” Sally started off giving the dog a treat every time she sat.  Over time, she gradually started reinforcing fewer and fewer correct responses to the “sit” command.  The dog continued to happily oblige.  This reinforcement of fewer and fewer correct responses over time is called:

A variable ratio schedule.

The schedule of reinforcement that is associated with gambling (i.e. each win takes place after an average number of gambles) is:

Discrete trial procedure.

The type of operant conditioning procedure that Thorndike preferred where the behavior of the participant ends the trial is called a:

Variable duration

At a progressive company, workers get paid immediately after completing work for the day.  Due to varying demand of their product, some days workers are required to work 3 continuous hours, while others they are required to work 14 continuous hours.  What type of schedule is this?

Parents were actually more likely to be late after the fine than before.

In a study examining an Israeli day care, the workers attempted to punish parents by making them pay a fine if they were more than 10 minutes late picking up their child.  What effect did this have?

Individuals do something that they perceive to feel good.

Dopamine is released in the brain when:

Fixed time

The schedule of reinforcement that can lead to superstitious behavior is:

Matching Law

The ________________________ states that when more than one schedule is available, the proportion of responses emitted on a particular schedule will be roughly equal to the proportion of reinforcers available on that schedule.

Positive contrast

Your dog is used to performing a “sit” for a small piece of hot dog.  When you switch to giving her an entire hot dog for performing a “sit,” she sits much more quickly.  This increased responding for a larger reward than she is used to getting is called:

Negative reinforcement

I tend to get really dry skin in the winter.  My friend recently told me about a certain kind of lotion that he said worked really well with his dry skin, so I gave it a try.  Turns out it works really well for me too, and now I use it every day.  With respect to using that lotion, getting rid of my dry skin has been:

Variable ratio

Of the four "main" types of schedules, which one is the most likely to lead to a high and steady rate of responding with few or no post-reinforcement pauses?

Operant conditioning

A procedure in which behavior becomes stronger or weaker depending on its consquences

Behavior, Consequences & Environmental Context

Operant conditioning has 3 Elements…

Elicited/Involuntary

Pavlovian Responses are…

Emitted/Voluntary

Operant responses are…

Extinction

Behavior that weakens when the desired consequence stops

Spontaneous Recovery

A previously stopped behavior can return after a break

Trial-termination procedure

When participants behavior ends the trial (chicks in mazes/cats in puzzle box) with dependent variables like time taken to perform a behavior and the number of errors made

Response-contigent procedure

When particpants can repeat a behavior many times with the dependent variable being the number of times the behavior occurs per unit of time

Reinforcement

Behavior is strengthened when a reinforcer is present or removed

Punishment

Behavior is weakened when something is presented or removed

Positive Reinforcement

Strengthens behavior when it is followed by the appearance of something positive, often involves giving things to the individual that they value

Negative Reinforcement

Strengthens behavior when it is followed by the removal or reduction of a disliked stimulus, often called escape-avoidance learning, where the individual tries to avoid or escape

Positive Punishment

Weakens the behavior when it is followed by the appearance or increase of a disliked stimulus, typically involving the application of something unpleasant to reduce behavior

Negative Punishment

Weakens behavior when it is followed by the removal of something valued, also called omission training and only works if taking it away reduces the behavior

Reinforcement

Increases behavior strength

Punishment

Decreases behavior strength

Positive

Something added

Negative

Something taken away

“Strength”

A behavior that refers to its rate, intensity, frequency, duration, persistence, shape and or form

What are positive reinforcers?

Things that individuals seek out like praise, food, water, activities, but what counts as a reinforcer depends on the person

Establishing Operations

A procedure that produces a change in an individual’s environment that alters how effectively something functions as a reinforcer

Primary/Unconditioned Reinforcers

Things that naturally reinforce behavior without learning but can lose effectiveness quickly when a person has had enough

Secondary/Conditioned Reinforcers

Things that become reinforcing through learning and association without primary reinforcers but lose power if not paired with rewards anymore

Shaping

Reinforcing small steps toward a new behavior

Shaping in Children

Is used to teach new skills like writing by rewarding better attempts over time, but can accidentally encourage tantrums

What makes shaping successful?

It reinforces small, successful steps, uses immediate reinforcements, and adjusts when necessary to get the best available approximate behavio.r

First Step of Chaining

To break the task into individual elements called task analysis and then reinforce the behavior in the correct sequence

Forward chaining

The first task is reinforced until its reliably performed

Backward Chaining

The last element is trained first

Intrinsic Reinforcement

Reinforcement that comes from simply performing the behavior itself (enjoyment)

Extrinsic Reinforcement

Reinforcement provided by an external consquence

Contrafreeloading

Animals usually prefer to work for food instead of getting it for free

• Except cats

Contrast Effect

Increased/decreased response for a large/small reward because of prior experience with a small/large reward

Keller & Marion Breland

Used operant procedures to train animals for movies and TV

• Trained pigs and raccoons

• Prefered positive reinforcement

Instinctive Drift

Animals natural instincts interfere with learned behavior

• Racoons/Pigs and coins

“Robot Rats”

Experimenters were more able to precisely control movements

Dopamine

The brain’s reward system

• Natural high

• Feel good

• Addictive drugs produce

Orgasm releases but not as much as drug use

Norepinephrine

Dopamine is a precursor for..

Extinction

Happens when a behavior weakens because the reward is removed

Extinction Burst

Sudden increase in the behavior when the reward is taken away

• Behavior can be worse at first

Extinction Induced Aggression

Pigeons/Rats attacking each other for food

Spontaneous Recovery

When a behavior that was reinforced in the past suddenly reappears is called resurgence which can sometimes lead to more infertile responses

Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior

Reinforcing any behavior except for the one being extinguished

Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior

Reinforcing a behavior that can’t happen at the same time as the target behavior

Clark Hull

Animal and people act based on drives

Relative Value Theory

Behaviors can serve as reinforcers with more prefered behaviors having higher value and influencing which behaviors are more likely to occur in a given situation

Response Deprivation Theory

Blocking a behavior makes it more wanted

Relative Value

Compares behaviors to each other

Response Deprivation

Compares a behavior to normal level

Behavioral Bliss Point Theory

Animals balance their behaviors to get the most reward and happiness