Learning

Name _____________________________

1. The diagram below illustrates an example of aversion therapy used to treat alcoholism.

Before Conditioning During Conditioning After Conditioning

drug nausea drug nausea alcoholic drink nausea

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alcoholic drink

(a) Identify the neutral stimulus (NS), the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the unconditioned response
(UCR), the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the conditioned response (CR).

NS ____________________________________________________________________________

UCS ___________________________________________________________________________

UCR __________________________________________________________________________

CS ____________________________________________________________________________

CR ____________________________________________________________________________
(5 marks)

(b) Provide one reason why this type of treatment is very effective for treating alcoholism.

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(c) Describe one ethical concern with this treatment for alcoholism.

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2. Define the term stimulus generalisation, and give one example.

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3. Explain how classical conditioning can be used to help people unlearn anxiety or fear.

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4. Advertisers use principles of learning to manipulate a person into buying their products. They often pair
their products with a person who is glamorous, attractive, admired or knowledgeable.
(a) Explain how advertisers are using the principle of learning to sell their product.

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 (b) Often people are exposed to these principles of learning without even being aware. Describe two
potentially ethical problems in advertising.

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5. Mr Smith was having difficulty keeping order in his Year 9 Maths class. He decided to run a “get
tough” policy in this class, and started issuing detentions for misbehaviours. Initially, this seemed to
cause quite some improvement in the behaviour of some students. Eventually, however, he found he
was giving more frequent and longer detentions to misbehaving students and found he was spending
most of his lunchtimes supervising detention. By this stage the behaviour of his students was not
improving; in fact, some students seemed to be amused at being given detention.

(a) Name the type of learning demonstrated in the students when Mr Smith first started issuing
detentions.

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(b) Identify the type of consequence applied by Mr Smith.

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(c) Suggest why the students stopped responding to the threat of detentions.

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6. For each of the following, identify whether positive reinforcement (PR), negative reinforcement (NR) or
punishment (PUN) is being illustrated.

(a) police pulling drivers over and giving prizes for wearing seat belts __________________________

(b) suspending a football player for punching another player _________________________________

(c) a prisoner loses his privileges for one week for a rule violation _____________________________

(d) a parent nagging a child to clean up his room ___________________________________________

(4 marks)

7. Refer to the scene below.

20 minutes later,
3 months later,
while watching TV,
and many similar
his mother enters Oh, Johnny, events happening Johnny, how come
his room.
Johnny is you’re such a you watch TV so
picking up his good boy! much?
toys.

Suggest how Johnny’s mother could be responsible for her son watching so much TV.

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8. Identify the reinforcement schedule illustrated in the following examples by placing the appropriate
abbreviation in the space provided. Use the following code: fixed ratio (FR), variable ratio (VR), fixed
interval (FI), variable interval (VI).

(a) slot machines at gambling casinos ___________________________________________________

(b) a salesperson who gets paid on commission ____________________________________________

(c) watching for shooting stars _________________________________________________________

(d) getting a pay check every other week _________________________________________________

(4 marks)

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9. Extended Response Question

Behaviour is influenced by a number of factors – associations, consequences and observations of the

behaviours of others.
(a) Use the learning presented in this topic to explain how children's behaviour could be influenced by
the content of TV movies they see.
(b) Devise a behavioural modification program for behavioural change, explaining the theory of
learning your program is based on.
(20 marks)

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