AP PSYCHOLOGY

LEARNING

HOW WE LEARN AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
A rat is placed in an environment where the floor gives the rat small electric shocks. The only way to get rid of the shocks is to press a lever in the corner of the box. The rat quickly learns to press the lever. This is an example of
A
negative punishment
B
negative reinforcement
C
positive reinforcement
D
positive punishment
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -A rat is placed in an environment where the floor gives the rat small electric shocks. The only way to get rid of the shocks is to press a lever in the corner of the box. Hence the given condition is an example of negative reinforcement.

Detailed explanation-2: -For example, when a rat is receiving an electric shock and presses a bar that stops the shock, the shock is a negative reinforcer-it is an aversive stimulus that reinforces the bar-pressing behavior. The application of negative reinforcement may be divided into two types: escape and avoidance conditioning.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Skinner box. To show how reinforcement works in a controlled environment, Skinner placed a hungry rat into a box that contained a lever. As the rat scurried around inside the box, it would accidentally press the lever, causing a food pellet to drop into the box.

Detailed explanation-4: -Rats were trained to fear an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) by pairing it with a mild electric shock (the unconditioned stimulus, or US) delivered to one eyelid. After training, the CS elicited two different conditioned fear responses from rats: a passive freezing response, and an active turning response.

Detailed explanation-5: -In Operant Conditioning Theory, there are essentially four quadrants: Positive Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, Negative Reinforcement, and Negative Punishment.

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