Behavioral Theories of Learning Quiz

Answer: Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) received a doctorate degree from the University of St. Petersburg in 1897, and began to study blood circulation and digestion; it was the study of digestion that led him to his famous work with dogs. He served as the Director of Physiology for forty-five years at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg, and was also a professor at the nearby Military Medical Academy. In 1904 he won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Over his career, Pavlov used thousands of dogs for his experiments. They lived in his lab and were well taken care of as test subjects. They were given names and their roles in his experiments were well documented. Many, however, died from starvation or had to be euthanized as their surgically altered bodies were prone to infection. Some of the procedures performed to divert the flow of saliva so that it could be measured led to the dogs starving to death.

Answer: Classical Conditioning

A neutral stimulus is an event or thing that doesn't trigger a response. In Pavlov's experiment he used a bell or tuning fork as the neutral stimulus because he found that before conditioning the sound had absolutely no effect on the dog.

After conditioning, however, when the sound was made, the dog would begin to salivate because he knew that the sound meant that food was coming. When that behavior was achieved, the bell became a conditioned stimulus.

Answer: Classical Conditioning

An unconditioned stimulus is an occurrence that causes a predictable response. For example, many people will blush when they get embarrassed. It cannot be controlled, as it is created by a physical response which releases adrenaline and causes the blood vessels, typically in the face and neck, to widen. That is why, then, people turn red.

With his dog, Pavlov found the unconditioned stimulus was being given the food. When the dog saw or smelled food, he naturally began salivating and didn't need any training to do so. After the dog was taught to associate sound the with food, however, the stimulus became a conditioned one.

Answer: Classical Conditioning

The unconditioned response is an automatic, untrained response to a stimulus. When the dog began to salivate, chemical reactions in his body began to take place that would aid in the digestion of the food. This is a natural process that cannot be controlled.

After the dog learned to recognize that the sound of the bell meant food, the salivating triggered the digestive process. It then became a conditioned response.

Answer: Classical Conditioning

Generalization is when the response to similar stimuli is the same. For example, after learning to salivate when the hearing the bell or tuning fork, the dog may also have a similar reaction when he hears wind chimes. He will have to be taught not to generalize similar sounds, but to learn discrimination, or how to tell the difference. Otherwise the poor thing might be salivating all the time!

Another example used by Pavlov was that he taught the dog how to salivate when it saw a circle, and found out that it would also salivate when it saw an oval shape. He, therefore, taught the dog to be able to discriminate between the shapes and only salivate when it saw the circle.

Answer: Operant Conditioning

Along with Pavlov, B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) was an early pioneer of Behaviorism. Although he first thought he would be a writer, he was influenced by Pavlov's works, and earned his doctorate from Harvard in 1931 with a degree in psychology. He stayed there to conduct research for five years before taking teaching jobs at other universities, however, by 1945 he had returned to Harvard and stayed there for the remainder of his life.

One of the tools Skinner developed as a graduate student was called the Skinner box, which was used to study the behavior of animals. It was used to show how certain behavior could be strengthened or weakened through a system of rewards and punishment, called reinforcement.

Skinner also invented an air crib for the purpose of keeping his second infant daughter comfortable and safe. It had nothing to do with the Skinner box, and his daughters have both disclaimed rumors that he tried out his experiments on them.

Answer: Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning, the term primary stimulus means it is a natural stimulus that satisfies a basic biological need, such as receiving food when hungry and water when thirsty. The hunger and thirst are the primary stimulus, and the food and water become the natural reinforcers and can be used to make a behavior take place. Tied to survival, they can be compelling motivators for behavior. A lab rat can be taught to press a bar to get food (primary reinforcer) when it is hungry (primary stimulus).

A secondary stimulus is a neutral stimulus that is learned and becomes associated with a primary reinforcer that can also influence behavior. A good example of a secondary stimulus is money, which can be exchanged for food, water, and shelter. School children sometimes can earn tokens in exchange for good behavior, which is a handy way to teach students what is expected in a school setting.

Answer: Operant Conditioning

It is important here to talk about Skinner's view of negative reinforcement, because the term is typically used incorrectly. First of all, an important part of operant conditioning has to do with the system of rewards.

But what should happen if the desired behavior to earn the reward is not observed? Negative reinforcement - which is not punishment - is used. What it does is take away an unpleasant circumstance as a reward. For example, Skinner's boxes sometimes had floors that contained a mild electrical shock. The rat would walk around in the box getting mildly shocked until he pressed the lever. When he did this the shock was taken away. How did Skinner come up with these ideas?!

Answer: Operant Conditioning

Shaping describes a way of rewarding steps in the process that it takes to reach a more complex behavior. How does the rat in the Skinner box learn how to press a level that releases food? Well, when the experiment begins, the rat receives food for just turning toward the lever. He begins to learn that this is the place he wants to be!

After he consistently comes near the lever, the next step would be to drop food when the rat touches the lever, and finally, the only time he receives the reward is when he presses the lever. It is obviously a very slow, step by step process.

Answer: Operant Conditioning

B. F. Skinner outline the pros and cons of two schedules of reinforcement - continuous and partial. Continuous reinforcement is providing a reward every time a specific behavior is apparent. For example, every single time a dog shakes hands, he is given a treat. While continuous reinforcement is viewed as being the fast way to teach a new behavior, once the reinforcement ends, or becomes extinct, the behavior can quickly be forgotten. In addition, providing reinforcement every time a certain behavior is observed, can be pretty expensive to maintain, and might require a lot of attention.

Partial reinforcement provides reinforcement for a behavior that is not given for every response that is observed. It can given on a fixed-ratio schedule; for example, you give the dog a reward after he shakes hands ten times. It can also be given on a variable-ratio schedule, which means the rewards are randomly given. Fixed-interval and variable-interval schedules are set up based on an amount of time passing, either a certain amount of time or variable amount of time, respectively. Using one of these methods of reinforcement can help minimize the extinction of a behavior, although it can take a lot longer to establish the behavior itself.