1. Which approach to learning seeks to characterize learning exclusively in terms of observable stimuli and responses, without referring to events inside the learner? 
A) the cognitive perspective 
B) the behavioral perspective 
C) the ecological perspective 
D) both a. and b. 
2. Jerome hears a door slam in his dorm room and jumps in reaction to the noise. Then, a few seconds later, it slams again and soon again. As Jerome continues to hear the door slam, he jumps less and less each time. Jerome's response illustrates the principle of: 
A) spontaneous recovery. 
B) discrimination training. 
C) generalization. 
D) habituation. 
3. A mother opens a jar of baby food to feed her infant. The lid, as always, makes a popping sound as it opens, and the hungry baby gets excited. In the classical conditioning model, the baby's response to the popping sound is a(n): 
A) unconditioned response. 
B) conditioned response. 
C) chained response. 
D) operant response. 
4. Because Jordan often drinks coffee while eating bagels and reading the newspaper, the thought of one of these things also makes Jordan think about the others. Aristotle and many others since his time would explain this in terms of the law of: 
A) association by similarity. 
B) association by contiguity. 
C) classical conditioning. 
D) food-preference learning. 
5. Pavlov and his colleagues found that extinction of a conditioned reflex does not return the animal to its unconditioned state. Which of the following phenomena is evidence that this is so? 
A) generalization 
B) inhibition 
C) discrimination 
D) spontaneous recovery 
6. After classical conditioning has taken place, a learner can be trained not to generalize to other stimuli through a procedure known as: 
A) secondary reinforcement. 
B) shaping. 
C) discrimination training. 
D) reward contrast. 
7. The law of effect formulated by Thorndike states that: 
A) a stimulus will elicit a conditioned response if it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus. 
B) responses leading to satisfying results become more likely to be repeated, and those leading to unpleasant results become less likely to be repeated. 
C) the effect of experiencing two events contiguously is that they will tend to be associated in the future. 
D) any response that produces an effect will tend to be repeated in the future. 
8. A consequence of a response that makes the response more likely to occur again is called a(n): 
A) operant. 
B) discriminative stimulus. 
C) reinforcer. 
D) shaper. 
9. The operant conditioning technique used to control physiological responses of which we are not normally aware is called: 
A) imprinting. 
B) extinction. 
C) observational learning. 
D) biofeedback training. 
10. At first a coach praises a basketball player for behaviors that are only remotely like those that will sink a basket. Gradually, the coach restricts praise to behaviors that are closer and closer to the desired behavior. The coach is using a training strategy called: 
A) discrimination training. 
B) biofeedback. 
C) shaping. 
D) fixed-ratio reinforcement. 
11. A mother gives her son two dollars for every day that his room is clean. After several weeks, she decides that her son has learned the value of cleaning up and withdraws the daily reward. He stops cleaning his room. To which of the following is this cessation of cleaning probably attributable? 
A) chaining 
B) generalization 
C) extinction 
D) negative reinforcement 
12. What type of reinforcement schedule produces the greatest resistance to extinction? 
A) continuous reinforcement 
B) partial reinforcement, especially on a variable schedule 
C) partial reinforcement, especially on a fixed schedule 
D) Schedules of reinforcement have no bearing on resistance to extinction. 
13. In discrimination training to modify an operant response, the discriminative stimulus: 
A) reflexively elicits the response. 
B) sets the occasion for the response. 
C) when withdrawn, strengthens the response. 
D) when present, disinhibits the extinction of a response. 
14. A monkey learns to pull a lever to turn on a tone. Once the tone sounds, she can push a key to illuminate a blue light. Once the light is on, she can open a door to receive food. What is the name of the training procedure used to produce such complex sequences of behavior? 
A) shaping 
B) discrimination training 
C) partial reinforcement 
D) chaining 
15. Sometimes when Holli looks in the coin slot of a public telephone, she finds a quarter. The fact that Holli continues to look in telephone coin slots is due to: 
A) positive reinforcement. 
B) negative reinforcement. 
C) positive punishment. 
D) negative punishment. 
16. What is the difference between punishment and reinforcement? 
A) Punishment increases and reinforcement decreases the likelihood that a response will recur. 
B) Punishment decreases and reinforcement increases the likelihood that a response will recur. 
C) Punishment occurs after the response in question and reinforcement occurs prior to the response. 
D) Punishment always involves unpleasant stimuli and reinforcement always depends on pleasant stimuli. 
17. When scores are ranked from highest to lowest, the middle score is the: 
A) mean. 
B) standard deviation. 
C) median. 
D) correlation coefficient. 
18. Which of the following is the mean of the numbers 5, 7, 8, 9, 16? 
A) 4 
B) 8 
C) 9 
D) 45 
19. A basketball coach wants to summarize the amount of difference between each individual player's height and the team's average height. Which statistic would give her this information? 
A) correlation coefficient 
B) median 
C) mean 
D) standard deviation 

 
 
 

Answer Key
 
1. B
2. D
3. B
4. B
5. D
6. C
7. B
8. C
9. D
10. C
11. C
12. B
13. B
14. D
15. A
16. B
17. C
18. C
19. D