Learning Gpt

Question 1

What key idea did Bandura’s Social Learning Theory challenge regarding the origins of human social behavior?

Answer 1

That human social behavior is not innate but learned through experience.

Question 2

What are the two types of experience emphasized in Bandura’s theory of learning?

Answer 2

Direct experience and vicarious experience.

Question 3

How does direct experience contribute to learning according to Social Learning Theory?

Answer 3

By reinforcing behavior through personal rewards or punishments.

Question 4

What does vicarious experience involve in the context of social learning?

Answer 4

Observing others being rewarded or punished and imitating their behavior.

Question 5

What classic experiment is associated with modelling aggressive behavior in children?

Answer 5

The Bobo Doll experiment by Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963).

Question 6

What were the three variations in Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment involving the model?

Answer 6

Live model, recorded video, and a model in a cat costume (cartoon-like).

Question 7

What did the Bobo Doll results indicate about the medium of aggression modeling?

Answer 7

Live models led to highest imitation, but video and cartoons still promoted aggression.
Strong evidence for social learning theory. If the children were rewarded they would imitate more, but also at a high rate if nothing happened.

Question 8

What role does reinforcement play in how much a child imitates a model?

Answer 8

Children imitate more when they see the model being rewarded.

Question 9

What did Bandura’s 1965 study show about the impact of punishment on imitation?

Answer 9

Punishment significantly reduced children’s imitation of aggressive behavior.

Question 10

What did Bandura conclude about the effect of no consequence versus reinforcement?

Answer 10

There was no significant difference; vicarious reinforcement alone was not highly effective.

Question 11

Which group showed the least aggression in Bandura’s 1965 follow-up study?

Answer 11

The group that observed the model being punished.

Question 12

How can vicarious reinforcement promote prosocial behavior, according to Hornstein et al. (1970)?

Answer 12

Observing a model being positively reinforced for helping increased prosocial imitation.

Question 13

What happened when participants saw a model return a wallet with a pleased reaction?

Answer 13

They were most likely to return a wallet themselves—demonstrating vicarious reinforcement of prosocial behavior.

Question 14

What behavior did Group 2 show in Hornstein et al.’s wallet study?

Answer 14

Least likely to return the wallet when the model appeared annoyed—demonstrating vicarious punishment.

Question 15

What do the terms “modelling” and “imitation” refer to in social learning?

Answer 15

Modelling is observing behavior; imitation is reproducing it.

Question 16

Why did Bandura still acknowledge biological factors in aggression despite his learning theory?

Answer 16

He recognized biology’s role but emphasized experience as the primary influence.

Question 17

What differentiates Social Learning Theory from simple behaviorism?

Answer 17

It includes internal cognitive processes like beliefs and motives in explaining behavior.

Question 18

What theoretical perspective opposes the idea that learning is only stimulus-response based?

Answer 18

Social Learning Theory, which includes cognitive mediators and observational learning.

Question 19

What does the term “vicarious” imply in psychological learning theories?

Answer 19

Learning occurs through observation rather than direct experience.

Question 20

How did the children’s behavior in Bandura’s experiment support the idea of observational learning?

Answer 20

They mimicked aggressive acts despite having no direct reinforcement themselves.

Question 21

How does Social Learning Theory explain the impact of media violence?

Answer 21

Exposure to aggressive models in media can lead to imitation of that aggression.

Question 22

What does Social Learning Theory suggest about the potential to learn prosocial behavior?

Answer 22

That prosocial behavior, like aggression, can be learned by observing others being rewarded.

Question 23

What cognitive factor is necessary for vicarious learning to take place?

Answer 23

The observer must mentally process and evaluate the consequences experienced by the model.

Question 24

What concept explains why vicarious punishment reduces imitation?

Answer 24

Observing negative consequences discourages repetition of the modeled behavior.

Question 25

Why is there concern over children’s exposure to aggressive models in cartoons?

Answer 25

Even fantastical or humorous portrayals of aggression can increase aggressive behavior.

Question 26

What concept explains why behavior learned in one context may not appear in another, such as during holidays?

Answer 26

Contextual stimuli differ, preventing generalization of the learned behavior—highlighting the importance of context in instrumental conditioning.

Question 27

In Reynolds’ (1961) study, what did differential responding between two pigeons demonstrate?

Answer 27

Stimulus discrimination—each pigeon responded more to a different element of a compound stimulus (red background vs. white triangle).

Question 28

What is stimulus generalization and how does it relate to Pavlov’s early work?

Answer 28

The tendency to respond similarly to similar stimuli; Pavlov observed dogs responding to tones similar to the original CS.

Question 29

What does a generalization gradient indicate in stimulus generalization studies?

Answer 29

It shows how response strength decreases as test stimuli become less similar to the training stimulus.

Question 30

Why can some stimuli control behavior better than others even when sensory capacity is present?

Answer 30

Because of overshadowing—stronger stimuli dominate learning, reducing conditioning to weaker ones.

Question 31

How did Foree & LoLordo (1973) show that type of reinforcement affects stimulus control?

Answer 31

Food reinforcement led pigeons to respond more to visual cues; shock avoidance led them to respond more to auditory cues.

Question 32

What does the stimulus-element approach propose?

Answer 32

Compound stimuli are seen as separate elements, each potentially influencing behavior differently.

Question 33

What’s the configural-cue approach to compound stimuli?

Answer 33

Organisms respond to the whole configuration, not individual elements (e.g., hearing an orchestra instead of each instrument).

Question 34

What procedure is used to bring behavior under the control of a stimulus using reinforcement?

Answer 34

Stimulus discrimination training.

Question 35

What was the finding of Jenkins & Harrison (1962) on auditory discrimination in pigeons?

Answer 35

More precise S- discrimination led to steeper generalization gradients, showing greater stimulus control.

Question 36

How is extinction defined in classical and instrumental conditioning?

Answer 36

Classical: CS no longer followed by US; Instrumental: response no longer followed by reinforcement.

Question 37

Why is extinction not considered forgetting?

Answer 37

It is an active learning process—subjects learn that expected outcomes no longer follow certain behaviors.

Question 38

What are the two behavioral effects of extinction?

Answer 38

Reduced responding and increased response variability.

Question 39

What did Neuringer et al. (2001) show about response variability during extinction?

Answer 39

Both trained and untrained variability groups showed increased variability and decreased responding during extinction.

Question 40

What emotional effect can extinction cause, as shown by Azrin et al. (1966)?

Answer 40

Frustration leading to aggression, e.g., pigeons attacking another pigeon during extinction.

Question 41

What is spontaneous recovery in extinction?

Answer 41

The return of a conditioned response after a delay without additional training.

Question 42

What does the renewal effect demonstrate?

Answer 42

That extinction is context-specific; conditioned responses return when the context changes.

Question 43

How does reinstatement differ from spontaneous recovery and renewal?

Answer 43

Reinstatement occurs when the US is presented again after extinction, restoring the CR.

Question 44

What did the sugar water and food pellet study show about reinforcer memory during extinction?

Answer 44

S-O associations remain intact; specific reinforcers still activate related responses even after extinction.

Question 45

What strategies can enhance extinction and prevent recovery?

Answer 45

More trials, closer spacing, repeating extinction, and using multiple contexts.

Question 46

What distinguishes avoidance from punishment procedures?

Answer 46

Avoidance prevents an aversive event; punishment introduces an aversive event after a response.

Question 47

What happens early in avoidance training versus later on?

Answer 47

Early: escape behavior dominates; later: avoidance responses increase and dominate.

Question 48

What does the Escape from Fear (EFF) paradigm demonstrate?

Answer 48

Animals will perform instrumental responses to turn off fear-inducing CS, reducing fear.

Question 49

Why is avoidance behavior hard to extinguish even when fear decreases?

Answer 49

Because avoidance becomes habitual, and the reduction in fear does not stop the behavior.

Question 50

What is flooding in behavioral therapy, and how does it relate to extinction?

Answer 50

Blocking avoidance responses and exposing subjects to CS without US until fear extinguishes.

Question 51

What distinguishes instrumental conditioning from classical conditioning in terms of response control?

Answer 51

In instrumental conditioning, the behavior causes the stimulus (outcome), whereas in classical conditioning, the stimulus occurs regardless of the organism’s actions.

Question 52

What principle did Thorndike propose to explain learning from consequences?

Answer 52

The Law of Effect: behaviors followed by positive outcomes are more likely to be repeated, while those followed by negative outcomes are less likely.

Question 53

What type of procedure allows continuous behavior and repeated responses in instrumental conditioning?

Answer 53

Free-operant procedure, developed by B.F. Skinner.

Question 54

What is 'response shaping' in operant conditioning?

Answer 54

Gradual reinforcement of successive approximations to a desired behavior until the full behavior is learned.

Question 55

What are the four types of outcomes in instrumental conditioning?

Answer 55

Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

Question 56

What is necessary for a behavior to be reinforced in instrumental conditioning?

Answer 56

The behavior must be naturally linked to the reinforcer (e.g., cats cannot be trained to yawn to escape a box).

Question 57

What is the behavioral contrast effect?

Answer 57

The value of a reinforcer changes depending on previous reinforcement history—large rewards feel better after small ones, and small ones feel worse after large ones.

Question 58

What is 'credit assignment' and how does it affect learning?

Answer 58

The process of attributing a reinforcer to the correct behavior; delayed reinforcement confuses credit assignment and weakens learning.

Question 59

What did Skinner’s superstition experiment demonstrate?

Answer 59

That contiguity (timing) can be more important than contingency—random behaviors became associated with reinforcement due to timing.

Question 60

What is learned helplessness and how is it induced in experiments?

Answer 60

A condition where organisms fail to learn escape behaviors due to prior exposure to uncontrollable aversive stimuli (e.g., yoked group in shock studies).

Question 61

How does the quality and magnitude of a reinforcer affect responding?

Answer 61

Stronger and higher-quality reinforcers lead to more persistent and intense instrumental behavior.

Question 62

What are ratio schedules in reinforcement, and how do they affect behavior?

Answer 62

Reinforcement is based on the number of responses; higher ratios can increase responding but risk ratio strain.

Question 63

What is ratio strain?

Answer 63

When response requirements are too high, the subject stops responding entirely due to excessive effort.

Question 64

How do variable-ratio schedules affect behavior compared to fixed-ratio?

Answer 64

They produce steadier and more persistent responding, with fewer post-reinforcement pauses.

Question 65

What distinguishes fixed-interval schedules from variable-interval schedules?

Answer 65

Fixed-interval has predictable timing between reinforcers, while variable-interval is unpredictable, leading to more steady but moderate response rates.

Question 66

What is the matching law in concurrent schedules?

Answer 66

Organisms match their response rates to the rates of reinforcement from each alternative.

Question 67

In the matching law, what does a relative rate of responding of 0.75 mean?

Answer 67

75% of responses are allocated to one alternative, likely because it provides 75% of the reinforcers.

Question 68

What are the three components of the associative structure in instrumental conditioning?

Answer 68

Stimulus (S), response (R), and outcome (O).

Question 69

What does the two-process theory of Rescorla & Solomon propose?

Answer 69

Instrumental behavior is motivated by emotional states elicited through Pavlovian associations (S-O), which then influence the R.

Question 70

What is the Premack Principle?

Answer 70

A high-probability behavior can reinforce a low-probability behavior if access to the high-probability behavior is made contingent on the low one.

Question 71

How does the response-deprivation hypothesis differ from the Premack principle?

Answer 71

Reinforcement depends on restricting access to a behavior below baseline levels, not its natural frequency.

Question 72

What is the behavioral bliss point?

Answer 72

The optimal distribution of activities that an organism prefers if unconstrained by contingencies.

Question 73

In behavioral economics, what does elasticity of demand mean?

Answer 73

The degree to which consumption of a reinforcer changes as its 'price' (response requirement) increases.

Question 74

What factor reduces the effect of high response cost on instrumental behavior?

Answer 74

More time or effort resources (income level or session duration) buffer the impact of high-cost reinforcers.

Question 75

How do variable reinforcement and intermittent reinforcement differ?

Answer 75

Variable reinforcement is a type of intermittent reinforcement with unpredictable timing, while intermittent includes both predictable and unpredictable patterns.