PSYC 3520-001 - EXAM 4- CHAPTER 9-11 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSYC 3520-001 - EXAM 4- CHAPTER 9-11 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 Escape behavior (e.g. opening an umbrella in a rain shower/ you are ESCAPING the aversive stimulus in this case, rain). - Answers is behavior that terminates or ends an aversive stimulus Avoidance behavior (e.g. opening an umbrella before stepping out in the rain / you are preventing a aversive stimulus, in this case, the rain). - Answers is behavior that prevents the aversive stimulus from even occurring Shuttle Box Procedure - Answers Experimental investigations of escape and avoidance 1. Rat placed in chamber 2. Light presented 3. Shock presented (Shock is continuous) - Rat can avoid/escape shock by climbing over the barrier (ESCAPE/AVOID SHOCK • Dave notices Ryan has horrible body odor. • Upon smelling Ryan, Dave comes up with an excuse to leave the area so that he doesn't have to smell him anymore. • Dave sees Ryan down a long hallway. Dave ducks out into a nearby office until Ryan leaves the area. - Answers Escape and Avoidance Real World Example escape / avoidance - Answers Generally, ______ behavior is relatively straightforward. Rat moves from an aversive situation to a non-aversive situation. Motivation for __________ behavior is less clear avoidance - Answers In _________the animal moves from one nonaversive situation (no shock) to another (no shock). 1. Classical Conditioning - a fear response is elicited by a CS (light) 2. Operant Conditioning - moving away from the CS is negatively reinforced by a reduction in fear - Answers The two-process theory of avoidance • Avoidance responses are extremely persistent. - Solomon et al. (1953) found that dogs will jump to avoid shock up to 600 times! • If jumping eliminates experiencing the US, why doesn't fear of the CS extinguish? • Anxiety conservation hypothesis - when avoidance responses are made too quickly, there is insufficient exposure to the CS for the conditioned fear to extinguish. • Once animals became adept at making the avoidance response, they showed no evidence of fear. • If animals are no longer afraid of the CS, how can avoiding it be negatively reinforced by a reduction in fear? • It's possible that animals are just less fearful, not completely nonfearful (Levis, 1989). - Answers Problems with the two Process theory of avoidance Anxiety conservation hypothesis - Answers when avoidance responses are made too quickly, there is insufficient exposure to the CS for the conditioned fear to extinguish. avoid / - Answers Rat is put at the Start of the Alley way that is on a conveyor belt (rats are curious and like dark areas) the end of the alley way is a Dark Compartment as you get closer to the dark compartment there are black sidewalks that indicated the Dark compartment is near. The conveyor belt turns on to bring the rat closer. The rat will ________ the shock by running the opposite way once it sees the black sidewalls One-Process Theory of Avoidance - Herrnstein (1969) - Answers the act of avoidance is negatively reinforced simply by the lower rate of aversive stimulation with which it is associated. I.e. The rat climbs over the barrier because this response leads to a decreased rate of shock, not because of decreased feeling of fear. phobias - Answers There is a question if avoidance learning in the laboratory is analogous to real life _________(Meneka, 1985). Laboratory avoidance usually requires a few pairings of the CS and US. However, human phobias often persist following only a single, brief trial Stampfl (1987) - Answers ` Observes What animals do to avoid specific phobia Proposed an experimental analogue would be comparable to human phobia if: 1. the fear response could be established with one trial 2. avoidance responses have to occur on 100% of trials Reasoned that people with phobias make the avoidance response early in the chain of events leading up to the feared stimulus (e.g. avoiding elevators by finding a doctor's office on the first floor). OCD - Answers a disorder that is characterized by persistent thoughts, impulses, or images (obsessions) and repetitive, actions (compulsions) that are carried out in response to the obsessions. Punishment - Answers Involves the weakening of a behavior by the addition of an aversive stimulus or removal of an appetitive stimulus increased / decreased - Answers Applying Mowrer's Two-Process Theory of Avoidance to OCD Obsessions are associated with ______________ anxiety. Compulsions are associated with ___________ anxiety. active / inactive OCD - wash hands (active) to reduce anxiety Phobias - not go (inactive) near dogs to avoid anxiety - Answers The role of avoidance in OCD is similar to its role in phobias. The major difference is that in OCD, an _______ avoidance response is typical whereas in phobias, an _________ avoidance response is typical. Exposure and response prevention (ERP) - Answers involves prolonged exposure to the anxiety-arousing event while not engaging in the compulsive behavior that reduces anxiety. Gradual exposure of germs: • door handles to garbage cans to dead animals Escape and Avoidance Conditioning - Answers Conditioning involves the strengthening of a behavior by the removal of an aversive stimulus (negative reinforcement). Time-out / Response Cost - Answers Two types of Negative Punishment Positive Punishment - Answers A child talks back to his mother. Mom issues a spanking. The child does not talk back anymore. Negative Punishment - Answers A child plays with her food. As a result, Mom takes away dessert. The child does not play with her food anymore. reinforcers / decrease - Answers Both Negative Punishment and Extinction involve the removal of ________ and result in the ____________ in strength of behavior. Time-out Sending a child to their room Having a child sit in the corner - Answers • loss of positive reinforcers for a brief period of time following a problem behavior. Examples? The time-out setting could actually be reinforcing if: child is not a fan of the current activity (e.g. dinner) the location of the time-out is reinforcing (e.g. games) Time-out periods are often too long - Parents often treat these periods as a way to get their kids "out of their hair" Miss out on reinforcing appropriate behavior - Answers Problems with time out Response cost Forced to pay a fine - (losing money) Prohibiting playing video games - Answers removal of a specific reinforcer following the occurrence of a problem behavior. Examples? - Severity of the punishment can be adjusted to suit the behavior being punished ($$$$ for higher speeds). - Requires a careful analysis of the removed reinforcer to verify its impact. - Answers Attributes of response cost: Intrinsic Punishment (Example: Doing sit ups.) - Answers the activity itself is punishing, such that the person performing the behavior is less likely to repeat it Extinction (Example: : Jason used to receive cookies as a result of whining, but he no longer receives cookies when he whines and now he stops whining.) - Answers behavior is weakened because performing the behavior no longer leads to something Negative Punishment (Example: Jason has a bunch of cookies and starts to whine for a soda. Each time he whines, he loses a cookie and eventually stops whining.) - Answers behavior is weakened because performing the behavior leads to the removal of something that is already possessed. Extrinsic Punishment (Example: Scolded for smoking) - Answers has no inherent aspect of the behavior being punished Secondary Punisher (Example: tone paired with shock) - Answers a stimulus that has been associated with another punisher Primary Punisher (Example: intense heat, shock, loud noise) - Answers innately punishing Generalized Punishers (Example: disapproving look by a partner) - Answers associated with MANY punishers Premack Approach to Punishment - Answers a low probability behavior (LPB) can be used to punish a high probability behavior (HPB). Punishing bad behavior doesn't strengthen good behavior. Punishing bad behavior may result in generalized suppression of other behaviors. The punisher could be viewed as an SD. (the child may learn that they can do the bad behavior just not in front of the distinctive stimulus (mom and dad) Punishment may teach individual to avoid the punisher. (avoid parents) Punishment may elicit a strong emotional response. (strong emotional response makes it hard to do behavior you want them to do) Punishment can elicit an aggressive reaction. (tantrum) The one being punished may model the punisher. (When Baylee Spanks Brieanna because she models the punishment that she has received herself) Punishment itself is reinforcing. - Answers What are some Problems with the use of punishment Punishment may lead to an increase in social behavior. Punishment sometimes results in a mood improvement. Punishment can increase vigilance to the environment. - Answers What are 3 Benefits of punishment? immediate / consistent / sufficiently intense / greater than / explanation / positive reinforcement - Answers Effective use of punishment Punishment should be _________. Punishment should be _________. Punishment should be __________ __________. Negative punishment ___ positive punishment. Punishment should be accompanied with an ________. Punishment of bad behavior should be accompanied with __________ __________ of good behavior. Conditioned Suppression Theory Example: Ryan's teasing of Christine stops because he is too upset after being scolded. - Answers • states that punishment does not actually weaken behavior, but rather produces such an emotional response that interferes with the occurrence of the behavior. Avoidance Theory of Punishment - Answers consists of ANY behavior other than the behavior being punished Follows - Answers In general, when we are confronted with an aversive situation, the development of avoidance behavior _____ the development of escape behavior. removed / prevent / control - Answers In escape and avoidance conditioning, the aversive stimulus can be ________. In punishment procedures, a lack of response will _________ an aversive stimulus from occurring. In these three procedures, the animal has some "__________" over consequences. Learned Helplessness Seligman and Maier (1967) - Answers Phase 1 -one group received inescapable shocks -one group received escapable shocks (button) -one group received no shocks Phase 2 -All placed in shuttle box -Light warned of shock on one side -Escape shock by moving to other side • Dogs that were exposed to escapable shock and no shock jumped to safety (i.e. learned to escape) • Dogs that were exposed to inescapable shock laid down and whimpered. -- learned helplessness - Answers Learned Helplessness Results from Seligman and Maier (1967) Learned Helplessness (Real World Examples: • Children attempting to answer unsolvable problems had difficulty answering solvable problems later. • People suffering a series of uncontrollable aversive events (e.g. unemployment, divorce, deaths) may become passive and despondent) - Answers an impaired ability to learn resulting from repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive events - If attention is a problem, then calling to mind their responses should help. A ringing bell tied to a successful escape would aid dogs in overcoming L.H. (Maier, Jackson, & Tomie, 1987) - "Forcing" an animal to escape the aversive stimulus can help it recover the ability to escape. (Selgiman, Rosellini, & Kozak, 1975) - Answers What are ways to overcome Learned Helplessness Prior exposure to escapable shock immunizes an animal against becoming helpless when later exposed to inescapable shock (Seligman et al., 1975). Real world example: • A history of successfully overcoming minor adversities might immunize a person against depression due to more serious difficulties (small victories). - Answers Prevention of Learned Helplessness Masserman's Experimental Neurosis - Answers Pavlov first described this in discrimination experiments (oval to circle). Masserman (1943) picked up on this and used aversive stimuli as opposed to appetitive ones. While eating cats received a shock or air puff to the face (Aversive stimulus) As a result of the aversive stimuli while eating, cats developed neurotic-like symptoms. Calm cats became restless, agitated traumatic symptoms (PTSD) (Example: Traumatic symptoms are more likely to develop when an aversive event happens in a "safe" environment.) (Real world example: • Symptoms of PTSD are more likely to arise when a person is attacked at home than in a dangerous part of town.) - Answers As a result, experimental neurosis has become a useful tool to study the development of __________ predictable / uncontrollable / unpredictable - Answers How does Masserman's experimental neurosis procedure differ from learned helplessness? - Learned helplessness involves _________and ______________ aversive stimuli. - Experimental neurosis involves ____________ aversive stimuli Classically conditioned fear response - Answers According to the two-process theory of avoidance, the first step in the development of an avoidance response is the creation of a(n): Time-out; response cost - Answers Making a child sit in a corner for being too noisy is an attempted _____ procedure, while turning off the television for being too noisy is an attempted _____ procedure The recipient may develop OCD - Answers Which of the following is NOT a problem associated with the use of punishment? More readily - Answers In the research study on learned helplessness conducted by Seligman and Maier, dogs that were first exposed to the escapable-shock condition later learned to avoid shocks _____ than dogs that were first exposed to the inescapable-shock condition. is too brief for extinction to take place. - Answers Robert has a spider phobia. According to the anxiety conservation hypothesis, his fear of spiders does not extinguish because any exposure to bugs: d) None of these are correct. - Answers According to Mineka, phobias in humans and experimental avoidance in rats differ in that rats avoid the CS. b) experimental avoidance require a single, brief conditioning trail to produce avoidance that is strong. c) human phobias typically require several conditioning trials to produce avoidance that is persistent. d) None of these are correct. Extinctions - Answers When the frequency of a behavior declines because performing the behavior no longer leads to something, the process involved is called: learned helplessness - Answers The term _____ refers to a decrement in learning ability that results from repeated exposure to uncontrollable aversive events. Concurrent Schedules of reinforcement - Answers Involves the simultaneous presentation of two or more independent schedules, each leading to a reinforcer. operant conditioning / choice - Answers In the real world, _________ ________ rarely occurs with only one source of reinforcement offered. People usually make a ___________ between alternative sources of reinforcement. • Should I watch TV or listen to music? Bias from Matching - Answers One response alternative attracts a higher proportion of responses than would be predicted by matching, regardless of whether that alternative contains the richer or poorer schedule of reinforcement. systematic - Answers Herrnstein (1961) addressed these questions and reported that pigeon's behavior was very _________ The Matching Law (Example:. If a pigeon earns 10% of its reinforcers on an alternative, then it will emit 10% of its responses on that alternative. (Real world: Basketball 2 vs. 3 point shots) - Answers States that the proportion of responses emitted on a schedule matches the proportion of reinforcers obtained on that schedule The law predicts a consistent relationship between the proportion of reinforcers on a certain alternative and the proportion of responses emitted on that alternative. The Matching Law - Answers Occurs in naturalistic settings (Houston, 1986): Birds distribute their foraging behavior between two separate patches of food: 1) along the banks of a river