Free Learning and Motivation MCQs with Answers

• A. conditioned response
• B. unconditioned response
• C. unconditioned stimulus
• D. conditioned stimulus

Explanation: Salivation caused by the bell is learned after the bell has been paired with food, making it a conditioned response.

• A. an avoidance response
• B. generalization
• C. extinction
• D. negative reinforcement

Explanation: Extinction occurs when a previously reinforced operant response weakens and stops because reinforcement is discontinued.

• A. classical conditioning
• B. operant conditioning
• C. observational learning
• D. insight learning

Explanation: Skinner viewed operant conditioning as the major way behaviour is learned because consequences strengthen or weaken voluntary responses.

• A. classical conditioning
• B. habituation
• C. positive reinforcement
• D. b and c

Explanation: The unexpectedly good grade is a rewarding consequence that increases the student's studying, so it is positive reinforcement.

• A. reinforcement
• B. punishment
• C. discrimination
• D. chaining

Explanation: Reinforcement is any process or consequence that increases the future likelihood of an operant response.

• A. mating behavior in dogs
• B. operant behaviors in dogs
• C. digestive reflexes in dogs
• D. neurological damage in dogs

Explanation: Pavlov discovered classical conditioning while studying dogs' digestive reflexes, especially salivation in response to food.

• A. shaping
• B. partial reinforcement
• C. secondary reinforcement
• D. modeling

Explanation: Shaping reinforces successive approximations, rewarding steps that gradually become closer to the target behaviour.

• A. conditioned response
• B. unconditioned stimulus
• C. unconditioned response
• D. conditioned stimulus

Explanation: Food naturally triggers salivation without prior learning, so food is the unconditioned stimulus and the resulting salivation is the…

• A. operant conditioning
• B. observational learning
• C. place learning
• D. habituation

Explanation: Operant conditioning changes habits by arranging consequences, such as reinforcement for healthy behavior or penalties for smoking and…

• A. its consequences
• B. free will
• C. knowledge
• D. instinct

Explanation: In operant conditioning, behaviors become more or less likely according to their consequences, especially reinforcement and punishment.

• A. shaping
• B. acquisition
• C. discrimination
• D. generalization

Explanation: Stimulus discrimination is the ability to respond differently to a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that are not paired with the…

• A. maturation
• B. animal cognition
• C. operant conditioning
• D. classical conditioning

Explanation: Pavlov studied classical conditioning, demonstrating that dogs could learn to salivate to a previously neutral stimulus such as a bell…

• A. Watson
• B. Bandura
• C. Skinner
• D. Pavlov

Explanation: Bandura emphasized observational learning, showing that people can acquire behavior by watching models without directly experiencing…

• A. continuous
• B. fixed ratio
• C. variable ratio
• D. fixed interval

Explanation: A variable-ratio schedule reinforces behavior after an unpredictable number of responses, as in gambling, and produces very persistent…

• A. biological predispositions
• B. external influences
• C. emotions
• D. unconscious motives

Explanation: Skinner’s radical behaviorism explained human behavior mainly through environmental influences and its history of reinforcement and…

• A. partial reinforcement
• B. observational learning
• C. extinction
• D. None of these

Explanation: Partial, or intermittent, reinforcement means that only some correct responses are reinforced rather than every response.

• A. attention process
• B. motivation process
• C. reproduction process
• D. chaining process

Explanation: Bandura and Walters identified attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation as key processes in observational learning.

• A. Hull
• B. Thorndike
• C. Skinner
• D. Watson

Explanation: Edward L. Thorndike wrote Animal Intelligence, based on experiments with animals and his law of effect.

• A. fixed-ration schedule
• B. variable-interval schedule
• C. fixed-interval schedule
• D. verbal-interval-schedule

Explanation: Fixed-interval schedules usually produce the lowest and most uneven response rate, with responding increasing as the expected…

• A. E. L. Thorndike
• B. B. F. Skinner
• C. A. Bandura
• D. I. Pavlov

Explanation: B. F. Skinner gave operant conditioning its systematic experimental treatment in 1938, especially through his work with rats and pigeons.