AP Psychology : Learning

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Psychology

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Example Questions

Example Question #48 : Operant Conditioning

A parent stops yelling when the child goes to clean his room. This is indicative of which of the following types of operant conditioning?

Possible Answers:

Positive punishment 

Positive reinforcement

Negative punishment 

Negative reinforcement

Correct answer:

Negative reinforcement

Explanation:

This is an example of negative reinforcement because when the child is cleaning his room, he removes the unpleasant stimulus: his yelling of his parent.

Example Question #111 : Learning

Which of the following choices best defines negative reinforcement?

Possible Answers:

Discouraging a behavior by adding a negative stimulus

Strengthening a behavior by taking away a negative stimulus

Strengthening a behavior by providing a positive stimulus

Strengthening a behavior by repeating reinforcement every time the behavior occurs

Discouraging a behavior by adding a positive stimulus

Correct answer:

Strengthening a behavior by taking away a negative stimulus

Explanation:

"Strengthening a behavior by taking away a negative stimulus" is the correct answer. Often confused with punishment, negative reinforcement strengthens behavior while punishment discourages it. For example, hitting the snooze button on an alarm clock takes away a negative stimulus (i.e. the horrible noise) and makes you more likely to hit the snooze button again. 

The other choices are incorrect. "Strengthening a behavior by providing a positive stimulus" is positive reinforcement, while "discouraging a behavior by adding a negative stimulus" is considered to be a punishment. "Strengthening a behavior by repeating reinforcement every time the behavior occurs" is continuous reinforcement. Last, "discouraging a behavior by adding a positive stimulus" is incorrect. Providing a positive stimulus promotes a behavior and does not discourage it For example, if a child is crying and you give her a chocolate to stop crying, then she is likely to cry again because she knows she has been given chocolate in the past for the same action, which promotes the crying behavior.

Example Question #111 : Learning

Karen's boss gives her a holiday bonus each year. Karen's boss is using __________ conditioning and a __________ schedule of reinforcement.

Possible Answers:

operant. . . fixed interval

operant. . . fixed ratio

operant. . . variable interval

classical. . . variable ratio

classical. . . fixed interval

Correct answer:

operant. . . fixed interval

Explanation:

Karen's boss is providing rewards for her performance, which is an example of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning uses reinforcement and punishment to increase desirable behaviors and decrease undesirable behaviors. On the contrary, classical conditioning involves forming associations between stimuli. Karen's boss is also providing reinforcement on a fixed interval schedule because the reinforcement is given after a set (i.e. fixed) period of time (i.e. interval). 

Example Question #111 : Learning

Which of the following is the process through which a stimulus slowly stops producing a learned behavioral response?

Possible Answers:

Extinction

Generalization

Discrimination

Reverse modeling

Correct answer:

Extinction

Explanation:

The correct answer here is "extinction," which refers to the decreased in a learned behavior as (i.e. if the behavior was learned via operant conditioning) the behavior is unpaired with reinforcement that encourages the behavior or when the conditioned stimulus is unpaired with the unconditioned stimulus that originally produced the behavior (i.e. if the behavior was learned via classical conditioning). "Discrimination" refers to the ability to distinguish between a particular stimulus associated with a learned response and similar stimuli. "Generalization" refers to the ability to transfer a conditioned response from the originally presented stimulus to other similar stimuli. Last, "reverse modeling" is not a real concept, but modeling refers to learning a behavior by observing another individual experience the consequences of classical or operant conditioning.

Example Question #112 : Learning

Alan is tired of hearing his mother ask him to take out the trash, so he finally gets up and does it. Which process of operant conditioning prompted this behavior (i.e. taking out the trash)?

Possible Answers:

Positive reinforcement

Negative reinforcement

Negative punishment

Positive punishment

Correct answer:

Negative reinforcement

Explanation:

In operant conditioning, “negative” and “positive” refer to whether an unpleasant stimulus is taken away or a pleasant stimulus is added, respectively. “Reinforcement” increases the likelihood a behavior will occur, while “punishment” decreases the likelihood a behavior will occur. Since Alan’s trash-taking behavior increased, we know that this situation involved reinforcement. Since this behavior was motivated by the promise of a negative stimulus (e.g. Alan’s mother’s lecturing) being taken away, the label negative is most appropriate. Alan taking out the trash in order to prompt his mother to stop lecturing him is an example of negative reinforcement.

Example Question #54 : Operant Conditioning

Ben's older sister, Kelly, always teases her. In order to make her less likely to tease him in the future, Ben ignores her whenever she is mean to him. Which of the following terms describes Ben's behavioral strategy?

Possible Answers:

Negative reinforcement

Negative punishment

Juvenile dependency

Classical conditioning

Shaping

Correct answer:

Negative punishment

Explanation:

"Negative punishment" involves taking away a certain desired item after the undesired behavior happens in order to decrease future responses. In the example above, ignoring Kelly functions as negative punishment, in that Ben is removing his attention to reduce Kelly's teasing behavior. 

Example Question #113 : Learning

Lena puts off studying for a test and only studies 1 hour. This results in a score of 59 percent on that test. For the next test, she studies 3 hours, but she only gets a 63 percent. She becomes very frustrated, feeling that there is no point in studying anymore. This is an example of which of the following?

Possible Answers:

Social desirability bias

Modeling

Habituation

Learned helplessness

Correct answer:

Learned helplessness

Explanation:

Lena is experiencing "learned helplessness"—she has apparently learned that studying is unrelated to positive test performance. She has started to feel that there is no amount of studying that will stop the undesirable grades. Learned helplessness is also seen in lab animals. If shocks are randomly administered to the animal, with no regard to what the animal is or is not doing at the time, then the animal will learn that there is no behavior that will stop the aversive stimulus (i.e. the shock). At this point, the animal will simply stop responding.

Example Question #117 : Learning

The most effective use of punishment to eliminate an undesired behavior occurs during which of the following? 

Possible Answers:

Right after an undesired behavior has been expressed

When it is severe

When it involves both physical and mental punishment

When it is delivered by an authority

Correct answer:

Right after an undesired behavior has been expressed

Explanation:

The association of the punishment to the undesired behavior becomes stronger if punishment is delivered in a proximal time frame to the behavior. Repeated use of this kind of treatment will create an operant conditioning dynamic that will produce a consequence to a preceding action. The severity and form of delivery do not matter as much as the close association of punishment to behavior. 

Example Question #111 : Learning

What is context-dependent memory?

Possible Answers:

Information is best remembered when it is taught by a dominant figure to subordinates

Information is best remembered when the weather matches the mood of the information being learned

Information is best remembered if it is encoded and recalled in the same location

Information is best remembered when it is included on a list with other meaningless terms

Information is best remembered when the context is indistinct from other contexts

Correct answer:

Information is best remembered if it is encoded and recalled in the same location

Explanation:

Context-dependent memory is a theory that suggests that information is optimally remembered when it is recalled in the same place in which it was initially learned. So, this theory suggests that you will do best on an exam when you take it in the same classroom where you learned that information! 

Example Question #113 : Learning

Why do we tend to remember information better when it is presented at the end of a list?

Possible Answers:

Most people pay more attention to the end of a list

This recency effect is only true if a list is longer than 30 words

More memorable words are usually placed at the end of a list

Our brains are only equipped to remember a couple things about each topic

There is a shorter amount of time to forget the words

Correct answer:

There is a shorter amount of time to forget the words

Explanation:

The recency effect occurs because there is less time to forget the words at the end of a list, as opposed to words at the beginning or in the middle of a list.

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