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GRE Psychology: Learning

Subjects : gre, psychology
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Higher arousal for simple tasks (motivation) - lower arousal for complex tasks (concentration); optimal arousal is an inverted U on a graph - Y-axis: performance - X-axis: arousal - Difficult task --> upside-down U shape - Simple task --> reaches pea






2. Reinforcement delivered after a consistent number of responses; vulnerable to extinction






3. Disassociate car from vet by taking dog on frequent car trip to the park






4. How to avoid something undesirable






5. Operant conditioning






6. Rewards delivered after differing time periods; second most effective strategy in maintaining behaviour






7. Differential reinforcement of successive approximations; Skinner rewarded rats first for being near lever then for touching it - reward for behaviours that brought them closer to the desired one (e.g. pressing lever)






8. Neutral stimulus once paired with UCS; no naturally occurring response - only with UCS pairing (e.g. light (CS) eventually produces salivation)






9. Teach to performance a desired behaviour to get away from a negative stimulus






10. By having an apparatus (e.g. lever) - an animal controls its reinforcements (e.g. food) through behaviours (e.g. pressing) - shaping its own behaviour






11. Learned reinforce - often through society; money - prestige - rewards






12. Continuous motions easier to learn - once started continues naturally - bike; discrete divided into parts and do not facilitate recall of each other - setting up chessboard






13. Not all correct responses met with reinforcement; slower but more resistant; fixed ratio - variable ratio - fixed interval - variable interval; variable is best because it is unexpected - ratio gives better response since based on # of correct behavi






14. Type of forward conditioning; CS presented and terminated before UCS presentation






15. Naturally occurring response (e.g. salivation to food)






16. Those who set realistic goals with intermediate risk feel pride with accomplishment - and want to succeed more than they fear failure - however less likely to set unrealistic or risky goals or to persist when success is unlikely






17. Thorndike - precursor of operant conditioning - Cause-and-effect chain of behaviour; continue what rewards - stop what doesn'T






18. Applied expectancy-value theory to individual behaviour in large organizations (e.g. those lowest on totem pole have least motivation since little incentives)






19. Experiment shows that there is electrical stimulation of pleasure centers in the brain used as positive reinforcement - this is evidence against drive-reduction theory






20. Law of effect






21. Theory of association






22. Pairing of the CS and the UCS in which the CS is presented before the UCS - delayed conditioning and trace conditioning






23. Motivated to do what they do not want to do by rewarding themselves afterwards with something they like to do - Eat dessert after eating unwanted vegetable






24. Students working on a project in small groups






25. Relatively permanent or stable change in behaviour as the result of experience






26. Increased sensitivity to environment after exposure to a strong stimulus - Rubbing arm after pain?






27. How people learn in educational settings such as student and teacher attributes






28. later proved experimentally - Classical conditioning






29. Accidental learning - unrelated items grouped together; opposite of intentional learning (e.g. dog associates car with vet)






30. Motivation to reduce internal tension - once satisfied - back to homeostasis/ relaxation; against M.E. Olds electrical stimulation of pleasure centres






31. Need for achievement (nAch); need to pursue success or to avoid failure - goal is to feel successful






32. People learn through their culture. They learn acceptable and unacceptable behaviours through culture






33. Response that CS elicits after conditioning; UCR and CR will be the same (e.g. salivation)






34. Type of forward conditioning; CS begins before UCS - lasts until the UCS is presented






35. The failure to generalize a stimulus






36. Medium amount of arousal best for performance






37. Empty box (with a rat and a lever) - later proved the influence of reinforcement






38. UCS and CS presented at the same time






39. Ebbinghaus - when learning something new - rate of learning usually changes over time; can be positively or negatively accelerated






40. Promotes extinction of undesirable behaviour - negative stimulus presented after behaviour to decrease likelihood of reoccurrence - Skinner thinks it is not effective in long run






41. Shaping; Skinner rewarded rats first for being near lever then for touching it - reward for behaviours that brought them closer to the desired one (e.g. pressing lever)






42. Punishment to decrease likelihood of a behaviour - ex: drug Antabuse to treat alcoholism






43. Learning by watching






44. In classical conditioning - the inability to infer a relationship between a stimulus and response due to the presence of a more prominent stimulus






45. Does not produce a specific response on its own (e.g. light or bell)






46. Linking a series of behaviours that result in reinforcement - one behaviour triggers the next (e.g. learning the alphabet)






47. Previous learning makes learning a new task more difficult






48. Not-so-neutral stimulus - elicits response without conditioning (e.g. salivation)






49. 'learning' that a specific action causes an event - when in reality the two are unrelated






50. Watson - everything can be explained by stimulus-response chains - chains are developed by conditioning; only objective and observable elements important