Question 1

What is the law of effect?

Accepted Answer

Idea that responses that cause positive outcomes are repeated and responses that cause negative outcomes dwindle

(part of operant conditioning)

Question 2

What is the Skinner box?

Accepted Answer

An enclosed device that is used to study operant conditioning in animals

Question 3

What is an operant?

Accepted Answer

A behavior that has some effect on the environment

(part of operant conditioning)

Question 4

What is a reinforcer?

Accepted Answer

A stimulus that increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring

Question 5

What is positive reinforcement?

Accepted Answer

Adding a pleasant stimulus to make a behavior more likely

Question 6

What is negative reinforcement?

Accepted Answer

Removing a negative stimulus to make a behavior more likely

(annoying someone until they do something for you)

Question 7

What is positive punishment?

Accepted Answer

Adding a negative stimulus to make a behavior less likely

(spanking a child for throwing a tantrum)

Question 8

What is negative punishment?

Accepted Answer

Taking a positive stimulus away to make a behavior less likely

(taking away a child's phone for misbehaving)

Question 9

What are the drawbacks of punishment?

Accepted Answer

Behavior is likely to reappear after the punishment stops

(punishment causes temporary behavior change, while rewards cause more permanent change)

Question 10

What is aversive conditioning?

Accepted Answer

The use of punishment to stop an unwanted behavior

Question 11

What is escape conditioning?

Accepted Answer

Conditioning where an individual learns leave the situation to escape a stimulus

(a monkey learns to pull a lever to stop a loud noise)

Question 12

What is avoidance conditioning?

Accepted Answer

Conditioning where an individual learns to take an action to avoid an unpleasant stimulus

(a dog jumping when it hears a buzzer to avoid a shock)

Question 13

What is punishment?

Accepted Answer

Use of a negative stimulus to suppress a behavior

Question 14

What is an antecedent stimulus?

Accepted Answer

The stimulus that cues a behavior

Question 15

What is a discriminative stimulus?

Accepted Answer

A stimulus that signals whether a behavior or response will lead to reinforcement

(if a pigeon is rewarded whenever it pecks a green light, but not a red light, it will learn to peck only when the light is green)

Question 16

What is shaping?

Accepted Answer

Gradually molding behavior to get a final desired response

(done by reinforcing responses that are more and more similar to the desired response)

Question 17

What is a primary reinforcer?

Accepted Answer

A stimulus that is pleasant, often due to being a primitive need

(giving food to dogs)

Question 18

What is a secondary reinforcer?

Accepted Answer

A stimulus that individuals have been conditioned to desire, via a primary reinforcer

(a dog learning to associate a bell with getting food)

Question 19

What is a token economy?

Accepted Answer

A system where tokens are used to give rewards and punishments

(giving a child a star for answering the question correctly)

Question 20

What are schedules of reinforcement?

Accepted Answer

A plan for determining how often behaviors will be reinforced

Question 21

What is the most effective schedule of reinforcement?

Accepted Answer

Variable Ratio

Question 22

What is the partial reinforcement extinction effect?

Accepted Answer

Behaviors learned on a partial reinforcement schedule are harder to extinguish than behaviors learned on a continuous reinforcement schedule

(if you are rewarded every time, your behavior will extinguish faster than if you are only rewarded once and a while)

Question 23

What is behavior modification?

Accepted Answer

Therapy to remove an unwanted behavior

Operant Conditioning, AP Psychology Flashcards