Questions on Lectures

If you can answer the following questions, you will probably do well on the lecture questions in the exam:

Week #5:

What are three assumptions of Darwin’s original theory of evolution?

What does the word “teleological” mean?

According to evolutionary theory, when is a trait or behavior adaptive? What is the definition of the word, “adaptation”?

What is the modern “gene-centered” view of evolution? Define the concepts of “kin selection” and “inclusive fitness.”

What is “natural selection,” and what is “artificial selection”?

Describe the evolutionary war between moths and bats? How do bats locate objects when they fly? What is the frequency range of moths’ hearing? What do moths do when they hear bat chirps?

What’s the evolutionary function of moths’ ears and frogs’ eyes? What are some of the evolutionary “purposes” of humans’ ears and eyes?

Describe the evolutionary notion that perception is the “selective reduction of information.”

What is “learning,” and how does it differ from “maturation”?

What was Ivan Pavlov’s original observation that led to his experiments on classical conditioning?

What leads to classical conditioning (hint: think of the relation between the US and CS)?

What kinds of responses can be classically conditioned?

Give at least three examples of important classically conditioned responses in human beings.

Describe some of the basic concepts of classical conditioning: conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (i.e., the CS and US), conditioned and unconditioned responses (the CR and UR), generalization, semantic generalization, extinction.

Weeks #6 and #7:

What leads a classically conditioned response to undergo extinction?

What is spontaneous recovery, and what does it imply about the extinction of classically conditioned responses?

Describe forward, trace, simultaneous, and backward conditioning. Which arrangements of CS and US produce the best conditioning? Which arrangements produce the worst conditioning?

Define and contrast the contiguity and contingency theories of classical conditioning? What does the word contiguous mean? What does the word contingent mean?

Give three kinds of evidence that support the contingency over the contiguity view of classical conditioning.

What is the “blocking effect,” and what does it demonstrate about classical conditioning?

What is the “response-prevention paradigm” in classical conditioning, and what does it demonstrate about classical conditioning?

What is the “US devaluation paradigm,” and what does it demonstrate about classical conditioning?

Describe two ways in which taste aversions represent an unusual kind of classical conditioning.

What does “biological preparedness” mean, and how does it show itself in terms of the ease with which various animals can be classically conditioned to various conditioned stimuli?

Describe Edward Thorndike’s cat puzzle box experiment. In terms of Thorndike’s graphs of the time (latency) it took cats to get out of the puzzle box over trials, what is difference between gradual strengthening of rewarded responses versus sudden “insight learning”?

Define Thorndike’s “law of effect.”

What was Edward Tolman’s concept of “latent learning”? Can rats learn information about mazes without being rewarded?

What is B. F. Skinner’s definition of “reinforcement”?

What’s a “Skinner box,” and how is it used to study operant conditioning in animals?

What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement?

What is punishment?

Why did Skinner have doubts about the effectiveness of punishment?

When is punishment most effective in reducing or eliminating responses?

What is the difference between primary and secondary reinforcers?

Define each of the following schedules of reinforcement: fixed interval, variable interval, fixed ratio, variable ratio? What is the schedule of reinforcement used in Las Vegas slot machines? …in Psych. 101 exams? …in commission sales where you get a commission for each item you sell? …in children’s behavior, when they have to “be good” in order to get holiday presents in December?

What is the difference between partial and continuous reinforcement? What is the “partial reinforcement effect”?

Describe ways in which operant conditioning and classical conditioning apply to language learning.

Describe some features of language learning that are hard to explain in terms of simple conditioning theories.

How do animal communication systems differ from human languages? Use examples from the communication systems found in honeybees, jackdaws, and primates.

Describe research that has attempted to teach chimps and gorillas to speak and to use signs. How does chimpanzees’ use of sign language compare with humans’ use of language?

List six important characteristics of human language and define each of them.

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (also know as the Whorfian hypothesis, or the linguistic relativity hypothesis)? Describe the “lexical” versus the “grammatical” form of the hypothesis. What is research evidence, either for or against the hypothesis?