All AP Psychology Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #262 : Individual Psychology And Behavior
A rat is presented with positive reinforcement for pressing a lever. It is provided a food reward at varying times (e.g. one, two, and three minutes) after a specific lever is depressed. This is an example of which of the following types of conditioning?
Fixed-interval schedule operant conditioning
Fixed-interval schedule classical conditioning
Variable-ratio schedule operant conditioning
Variable-interval schedule operant conditioning
Variable-interval schedule classical conditioning
Variable-interval schedule operant conditioning
This is operant conditioning because behaviors are controlled through reinforcement. In this case, a reward, or positive reinforcement, is being presented. This is a variable-interval schedule because reinforcement is presented after varying intervals of time.
Example Question #263 : Individual Psychology And Behavior
Scott wants his girlfriend, Victoria, to stop swearing. In order to gradually accomplish this, Scott decides that he will pinch Victoria on the arm every time she swears. What kind of operant conditioning technique is Scott slyly employing to curb Victoria's verbal habits?
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
None of these
Positive punishment
Negative punishment
Positive punishment
Scott decides to pinch Victoria every time she utters a swear word. In other words, Scott is administering an aversive stimulus (the painful pinching) in order to decrease the frequency of Victoria's swearing (an unwanted behavior in Scott's opinion). This is an example of positive punishment.
Example Question #21 : Operant Conditioning
A parent rewards their young child with a compliment whenever they correctly pluralize a word by adding "s" to the end of the word. The child begins to pluralize words like "fish" and "man" by adding "s" to the end, and is upset when this does not result in a compliment. What failure of learning is the child demonstrating?
Modeling error
Transference error
Syntax error
Specificity error
Generalization error
Generalization error
Generalization errors occur when a particular reinforced or conditioned behavior leads to a reaction to stimulus (or an attempt at behavior, for operant conditioning) that is superficially close to, but not actually, the desired condition. Examples of this are children overgeneralizing the rules of grammar, dogs learning to bark at (or be friendly to) everyone they meet rather than just the targeted individuals, and a person with a food aversion feeling sick when something smells vaguely like the food they had the reaction to.
Example Question #265 : Individual Psychology And Behavior
Which of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?
A rat which successfully runs a maze is given a saucer of milk.
A person who listens to music at a high volume over many years begins to go deaf.
A teacher awards extra credit to anyone who attends every lecture in a semester without being tardy.
A child who improves their grade in math to an A is exempted from having to wash the dishes after dinner for a month.
A police officer gives a ticket to a driver who is speeding, reducing their available money.
A child who improves their grade in math to an A is exempted from having to wash the dishes after dinner for a month.
Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior is reinforced via the subtraction of something negative or undesirable from the organism's environment. This could mean the removal of pain or unpleasant labor, a reduction in stress, or an end to some ongoing negative experience. Note that, since the effect of this is to increase the likelihood of the behavior, rather than to decrease it, this is not the same as punishment.
Example Question #21 : Operant Conditioning
Which psychologist is considered to be the father of operant conditioning?
John Watson
Edward Thorndike
Freud
B.F. Skinner
Ivan Pavlov
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner based his research off of Thorndike's law of effect and is considered to be the father/founder of operant conditioning (the type of learning in which the effects of an action determine whether it will be repeated in the future). He is most famous for Skinner's box-- a box in which he placed animals to conduct operant conditioning experiments.
Ivan Pavlov is one of the earliest psychologists known for classical conditioning and is particularly famous for his experiments in which he got dogs to associate food with sounds, leading them to salivate when there was a bell even when there was not food present.
John Watson was a classical conditioning psychologist who is most famous for his "Little Albert" experiment in which he trained a young boy to be afraid of a rat (or anything like looked like a white rat) because he made an unpleasant noise while presenting the rat. This research indicated that humans too could be classically conditioned.
Edward Thorndike came up with the law of effect, which states that positive consequences increase the likelihood that an action will be repeated and negative consequences decrease the likelihood that it will.
Sigmund Freud is not a psychologist associated with conditioning at all. Instead, he came up with psychodynamic theories that explained people's actions in terms of conflicts in their unconscious.
Example Question #82 : Learning
Which psychologist based his research off of Edward Thorndike's Law of Effect?
Carl Rogers
John Watson
Sigmund Freud
B.F. Skinner
Ivan Pavlov
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner based his research off of Thorndike's law of effect and is considered to be the founder of operant conditioning (the type of learning in which the effects of an action determine whether it will be repeated in the future). He is most famous for Skinner's box-- a box in which he placed animals to conduct operant conditioning experiments.
Edward Thorndike came up with the law of effect, which states that positive consequences increase the likelihood that an action will be repeated and negative consequences decrease the likelihood that it will.
Ivan Pavlov is one of the earliest psychologists known for classical conditioning and is particularly famous for his experiments in which he got dogs to associate food with sounds, leading them to salivate when there was a bell even when there was not food present.
John Watson was a classical conditioning psychologist who is most famous for his "Little Albert" experiment in which he trained a young boy to be afraid of a rat (or anything like looked like a white rat) because he made an unpleasant noise while presenting the rat. This research indicated that humans too could be classically conditioned.
Sigmund Freud is not a psychologist associated with conditioning at all. Instead, he came up with psychodynamic theories that explained people's actions in terms of conflicts in their unconscious.
Carl Rogers is also not a psychologist associated with conditioning. He developed a person-centered method of therapy.
Example Question #84 : Learning
Which psychologist is most famous for his Law of Effect?
Freud
Edward Thorndike
John Watson
B.F. Skinner
Ivan Pavlov
Edward Thorndike
Edward Thorndike came up with the law of effect, which states that positive consequences increase the likelihood that an action will be repeated and negative consequences decrease the likelihood that it will.
Ivan Pavlov is one of the earliest psychologists known for classical conditioning and is particularly famous for his experiments in which he got dogs to associate food with sounds, leading them to salivate when there was a bell even when there was not food present.
John Watson was a classical conditioning psychologist who is most famous for his "Little Albert" experiment in which he trained a young boy to be afraid of a rat (or anything like looked like a white rat) because he made an unpleasant noise while presenting the rat. This research indicated that humans too could be classically conditioned.
B.F. Skinner based his research off of Thorndike's law of effect and is considered to be the founder of operant conditioning (the type of learning in which the effects of an action determine whether it will be repeated in the future). He is most famous for Skinner's box-- a box in which he placed animals to conduct operant conditioning experiments.
Sigmund Freud is not a psychologist associated with conditioning at all. Instead, he came up with psychodynamic theories that explained people's actions in terms of conflicts in their unconscious.
Example Question #21 : Operant Conditioning
With which type of conditioning is Skinner's box associated?
Punishment Conditioning
Negative Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Positive Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner is considered to be the founder of operant conditioning (the type of learning in which the effects of an action determine whether it will be repeated in the future). He is most famous for Skinner's box-- a box in which he placed animals to conduct operant conditioning experiments.
Classical conditioning can be thought of as learning through association and operant conditioning as learning through effect. Positive, negative, and punishment conditioning as methods do not exist.
Example Question #21 : Operant Conditioning
Which of the following best describes the difference between a reinforcer and a punishment in operant conditioning?
A reinforcer is a consequence that makes it more likely that the subject will repeat their action in the future; a punishment is a consequence that makes it less likely that the subject will repeat their action in the future.
Punishments and reinforcers both increase the likelihood that the subject will repeat their action in the future.
Punishments and reinforcers both decrease the likelihood that the subject will repeat their action in the future.
A punishment is a consequence that makes it more likely that the subject will repeat their action in the future; a reinforcer is a consequence that makes it less likely that the subject will repeat their action in the future.
A reinforcer is an association made between an unconditioned and a conditioned stimulus; a punishment is the cessation of the association between an unconditioned and a conditioned stimulus.
A reinforcer is a consequence that makes it more likely that the subject will repeat their action in the future; a punishment is a consequence that makes it less likely that the subject will repeat their action in the future.
This question is purely definitional. Operant conditioning is learning by consequence, and a reinforcer is a good consequence that increases the possibility that the action will be repeated and a punishment is a bad consequence that decreases the possibility that the action will be repeated. It is important to note that if any of the answer choices use the term “association” with operant conditioning, then it is wrong because “association” is a term tied specifically to classical conditioning.
Example Question #91 : Learning
Sarah's dad increases Sarah's chores after she fails a test for the first time. The chores best represent which of the following types of operant conditioning consequences?
Negative punishment
Negative reinforcer
Positive reinforcer
Negative association
Positive punishment
Positive punishment
Operant conditioning is learning by consequence, and a reinforcer is a good consequence that increases the possibility that the action will be repeated and a punishment is a bad consequence that decreases the possibility that the action will be repeated. Sarah's dad is trying to get Sarah to not repeat her action in the future and is using chores as punishment. Positive punishment is when a bad thing is added and negative punishment is when a good thing is taken away. Since a bad thing is added to decrease the likelihood that she will repeat her action, adding more chores is a positive punishment.
Certified Tutor