Chapter Concept Check Answers

Concept Check 1

• The UCS was the hammer striking the participant’s knee, and the UCR was the participant’s knee jerk in response to the hammer strike. The CS was the bell ringing, and the CR was the participant’s knee jerk in response to this bell.
• The Little Albert study is an example of using the delayed classical conditioning procedure because the CS (the white rat) was presented before the UCS (the loud, unexpected noise) and remained there until the UCS was presented. If the white rat had been taken away before the unexpected loud noise, then the study would have been an example of using the trace conditioning procedure.
• Generalization and discrimination can be thought of as opposites because generalization is the broadening of the conditioned response to other stimuli, whereas discrimination is the narrowing of the response to only the stimulus followed by the UCS and those stimuli so similar to this stimulus that they cannot be discriminated from it.
• Extinction is used during discrimination training. The responses to all stimuli except the original CS are diminished because the UCS does not follow any of them. However, if a stimulus cannot be discriminated from the CS, the response to it is not extinguished.

Concept Check 2

• “Positive” refers to the presentation of a stimulus. In positive reinforcement, an appetitive stimulus is presented; in positive punishment, an aversive stimulus is presented. “Negative” refers to the removal of a stimulus. In negative reinforcement, an aversive stimulus is removed; in negative punishment, an appetitive stimulus is removed.
• The operant response comes under the control of the discriminative stimulus because it is only given in the presence of the discriminative stimulus. The animal or human learns that the reinforcement is only available in the presence of the discriminative stimulus.
• A cumulative record goes flat when a response is extinguished because no more responses are made; the cumulative total of responses remains the same over time. Thus, the record is flat because this total is not increasing at all. Remember that the cumulative record can never decrease because the total number of responses can only increase.
• The partial-reinforcement effect is greater for variable schedules than fixed schedules because there is no way for the person or animal to know how many responses are necessary (on a ratio schedule) or how much time has to elapse (on an interval schedule) to obtain a reinforcer. Thus, it is very difficult to realize that reinforcement has been withdrawn and so the responding is more resistant to extinction. On fixed schedules, however, you know how many responses have to be made or how much time has to elapse because these are set numbers or amounts of time. Thus, it is easier to detect that the reinforcement has been withdrawn, so fixed schedules are less resistant to extinction.
• The overjustification effect is a cognitive limitation on operant conditioning because it is the result of a person’s cognitive analysis of their true motivation (extrinsic versus intrinsic) for engaging in an activity. In this analysis, the person overemphasizes the importance of the extrinsic reinforcement. For example, the person might now view the extrinsic reinforcement as an attempt at controlling their behavior and stop the behavior to maintain their sense of choice.

Concept Check 3

• Learning taste aversions quickly and easily is adaptive because it increases our chances of survival. If we eat or drink something that makes us terribly sick, it is adaptive to no longer ingest that food or drink because we might die. We have a greater probability of surviving if we learn such aversions easily.
• The rats easily learned (stopped drinking the water) when the normal-tasting water accompanied by clicking noises and flashing lights was paired with immediate electric shock, but they did not when the sweet-tasting water cue was paired with this consequence. In terms of biological preparedness, the former pairing makes biological sense to the rats whereas the latter pairing does not. In a natural environment, audiovisual changes typically signal possible external dangers, but sweet-tasting water typically does not. External cues (noises and flashing lights) paired with an external dangerous consequence (shock) makes more biological sense than an internal cue (taste) paired with an external consequence (shock). For learning to occur, external cues should be paired with external consequences, and internal cues with internal consequences.
• It would be easier to operantly condition a “natural” response because it would lower the probability that instinctual drift will interfere with the conditioning. Because an animal would already be making its natural response to the object, there would be no other response to drift back to. In addition, the natural response to the object would be easier to shape because it would be given sooner and more frequently than an unnatural response.
• Latent learning occurs without direct reinforcement, but such learning is not demonstrated until reinforcement is made available for the learned behavior.
• In Bandura’s work, reinforcing the model increased the probability that the observed behavior would be displayed, and punishing the model decreased the probability that the observed behavior would be displayed. But Bandura demonstrated in both cases that the behavior was learned. The reinforcement or punishment only affected whether it was displayed.