All Free Psychology MCQs with Answers

• A. trial-and-error learning
• B. a fixed-action pattern
• C. instinctual drift
• D. insight

Explanation: Köhler interpreted the chimpanzee’s sudden use of joined sticks to reach the bananas as insight learning.

• A. higher order conditioning
• B. forward conditioning
• C. backward conditioning
• D. second order conditioning

Explanation: In backward conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus is presented first and the conditioned stimulus follows it.

• A. an aversive stimulus is administered
• B. a pleasing stimulus is removed
• C. response learning is faster than escape training
• D. an aversive stimulus is removed

Explanation: Negative reinforcement increases a behavior by removing an aversive stimulus, such as stopping an unpleasant noise when a person performs…

• A. feedback
• B. repetition
• C. distribution of practice
• D. reflex action

Explanation: Motor-skill learning depends heavily on feedback, repetition, and the distribution of practice.

• A. extinction
• B. discrimination
• C. secondary reinforcement
• D. generalization

Explanation: A frightening crash can condition fear to the original situation, and fear then spreads to similar stimuli such as other cars.

• A. verbal learning
• B. operant conditioning
• C. classical conditioning
• D. motor task learning

Explanation: Verbal learning depends on language, symbolic meaning, and word associations, capacities treated as especially characteristic of human…

• A. Skinner
• B. Pavlov
• C. Atkinson
• D. Thorndike

Explanation: Edward Thorndike placed cats and other animals in puzzle boxes and measured how their escape time changed across trials.

• A. avoidance conditioning
• B. punishment
• C. escape conditioning
• D. successive approximation

Explanation: Avoidance conditioning occurs when a response to a warning cue prevents an unpleasant event, such as pressing a lever after a signal to…

• A. reinforcement
• B. habit strength
• C. contiguity of S and R D. S-R connection
• D. None of these

Explanation: Guthrie explained learning mainly through contiguity: when a stimulus and response occur together, that stimulus becomes connected with…

• A. social learning
• B. latent conditioning
• C. instrumental conditioning
• D. instinctive conditioning

Explanation: Operant conditioning is also called instrumental conditioning because behavior serves as an instrument for producing consequences.

• A. positive reinforcement
• B. negative reinforcement
• C. shaping
• D. punishment

Explanation: Punishment is introduced or applied to reduce the future probability of a response, so it does not increase that response.

• A. shaping
• B. omission training
• C. positive reinforcement
• D. continuous reinforcement

Explanation: In omission training, the reinforcer is withheld when the target response occurs, so the response gradually becomes less likely.

• A. B. F. Skinner
• B. Bandura and Walters
• C. Miller and Dollard
• D. J. B. Watson

Explanation: Miller and Dollard first formulated a social learning approach by explaining imitation through drives, cues, responses, and reinforcement.

• A. backward conditioning
• B. punishment
• C. positive reinforcement
• D. negative reinforcement

Explanation: Biofeedback provides information about a normally automatic bodily response and reinforces attempts to bring that response under control.

• A. John Garcia
• B. B. F. Skinner
• C. Edward Thorndike
• D. Edward Tolman

Explanation: Thorndike formulated the law of effect, which states that behaviours followed by satisfying consequences become more likely, while those…

• A. trial and error
• B. latent learning
• C. insight learning
• D. shaping

Explanation: Köhler's chimpanzee suddenly reorganised the available objects and understood how to reach the banana, which illustrates insight learning.

• A. classical conditioning
• B. shaping
• C. superstitious behavior
• D. none of these

Explanation: Superstitious behavior develops when someone wrongly perceives a connection between an action and a consequence, often because the…

• A. Harlow
• B. Tolman
• C. Hull
• D. Premack

Explanation: Tolman developed a cognitive approach to learning, emphasizing mental representations and cognitive maps rather than simple…

• A. behavioral
• B. behavior genetics
• C. cognitive
• D. evolutionary

Explanation: The behavioral perspective explains behavior through observable responses that are learned from environmental stimuli and consequences.

• A. patterns
• B. consequences of responses
• C. predictability of responses
• D. strength of responses

Explanation: Watson emphasized stimulus-response connections, whereas Skinner argued that operant behavior is shaped by its consequences, such as…