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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. How to avoid something undesirable






2. Individuals are motivated by what brings most pleasure and least pain






3. Opposite of stimulus discrimination; make same response to a group of similar stimuli (e.g. fire alarms may sound different but same response)






4. Preparedness - that certain associations are learned more easily than others; animals programmed to make certain connections; Garcia effect - nausea associated with food






5. The failure to generalize a stimulus






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






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






8. Previous CS now a UCS (e.g.*bell > [ light > food > ] salivation)






9. Performance = Drive x Habit; will do what has worked in the past to satisfy drive






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






11. Animals strongly and automatically connect nausea and food - especially strong in children; preparedness






12. Theory of association






13. Reappearance of an extinguished response - even without further conditioning - after the child'S tantrum behaviour has been extinguished - the child may suddenly throw a tantrum again






14. Primary/instinctual (hunger or thirst) - secondary/ acquired (money or other learned reinforcers) - exploratory (seek novelty or explore) - We are primarily motivated to maintain physiological or psychological homeostasis.






15. 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






16. Links together chains of stimuli and responses - learns what to do in response to particular triggers (leaving a building in response to fire alarm)






17. Decreasing responsiveness to a stimulus due to increasing familiarity






18. CS presented after UCS (e.g. food - then light); proven ineffective; accomplishes only inhibitory conditioning - harder time pairing CS with UCS later even with forward conditioning






19. Learning and behaving by imitation; Albert Bandura'S Bobo doll (children watching adults with blow up dolls)






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






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






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






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






24. Learning curve






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






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






27. Skinner - instrumental conditioning; behaviour primarily influenced by reinforcement strategies - do what rewards - not what doesn'T






28. Performance = Expectation x Value; expectancy-value theory; goals they expect they can meet and how important goal is






29. 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






30. Set of characteristics indicative of one'S ability to learn






31. 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






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






33. John Garcia - Certain associations are learned more easily than others - Nausea & food can be paired easily - but light and nausea cannot be paired






34. Reversal of conditioning - dissociating behaviour from a cue - Repeatedly withholding reinforcement or disassociating the behavior from a cue






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






36. Pavlovian conditioning; teaching a response (relationship) to neutral stimulus by pairing with not-so-neutral stimulus






37. 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)






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






39. Previous learning makes learning a new task more difficult






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






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






42. Learn 3-20 - constant 20-50 - drops 50+






43. 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






44. Operant conditioning






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






46. Previous learning helps learning of another task later






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






48. Drive to reduce cognitive dissonance - holding conflicting ideas simultaneously whether beliefs - attitudes - or actions


49. School of behaviourism






50. Natural reinforcement - without requirement of learning; food and water