Chapter 7 Questions for Discussion

1. Classical conditioning occurs when a CS helps us predict the occurrence of a US. Name a CS that would help you predict each of the following: a fire, the loud noise of an explosion, the burn of a slap across your face. Given these examples, what might be the evolutionary adaptiveness of classical conditioning? [Comprehend, Apply, Analyze]

2. Have you ever noticed that beer advertisements rarely make reference to qualities of the beer itself? Instead, they use classical conditioning to make you feel positively about their products. Explain how the ads do this by identifying the US, UR, CS, and CR for a typical beer ad (or come up with one of your own). [Comprehend, Apply]

3. Imagine that, as a child, you had been attacked by a Rottweiler so that you now have a classically conditioned fear of all Rottweilers (alternately, if you have had a similar experience, think about it). To what other stimuli might you generalize this fear? What might be adaptive about this generalization? What would cause your fear to become extinct? What might be adaptive about this extinction? [Comprehend, Apply]

4. The Garcia effect occurs when we come to associate a food with sickness, so that we never want to eat that food again. But why must the food be unusual? Why can’t it be some food for which we have many existing experiences? [Analyze]

5. In your own words, what distinguishes classical from operant conditioning? [Analyze]

6. Recall that in Maier and Seligman’s (1976) research on learned helplessness, one group of dogs quickly learned to avoid electric shock by jumping from one side of a box to another, whereas the other group had earlier learned they were helpless to avoid the shock and so did nothing. For the non-helpless group of dogs, specify the US, UR, CS, and CR. [Comprehend, Analyze]

7. People often confuse the terms negative reinforcement and punishment. What can you do to avoid this confusion? What examples can you draw on for help? [Comprehend, Analyze]

8. Identify two discriminative stimuli you have experienced so far today. What behavior-reinforcement contingencies did they signal? Did they work? (What does “work” mean in this context?) [Comprehend, Apply]

9. In this chapter, you’ve learned about three processes through which individuals learn: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Of these three, is there one in particular that can best explain your particular music preferences? Is some combination of the three useful? Explain. [Apply, Analyze, Evaluate]