Question

programmed unit on classical and operant conditioning
directions: this worksheet exercise is an illustration of the use of “shaping,” or the teaching of a skill or concept in small steps or approximations. skinner noted that when he broke any learning task into small units, he could teach his animal subjects—rats and pigeons—incredibly complex behaviors! he made major efforts to convince those in the field of education that shaping might have some superb applications in our schools—especially for the learning of confusing or difficult material. educators didn’t quite understand and, as a result, we have many students who never learn certain skills well, as with writing and math. such academic areas are very complicated and need to be taught very systematically and in small chunks—a process that involves much time preparation and an insight into the learning process from the learners’ perspective.
with this linear program exercise on learning principles, you need to choose which of the answer choices provided best completes each sentence. for example, for the first sentence you are provided two possible answers—experience or instinct—to place in the blank. you need to choose which answer is the best one and then write that answer in the blank to complete the sentence.
when you have completed the paper, please transfer your answers to the table below the assignment.
using successive approximation or shaping to teach learning principles

1. conditioning is a term for learning. learning is any change in behavior that is not “inborn”, but instead is acquired through ______________. (a) experience or (b)instinct
2. two types of conditioning are classical conditioning and operant conditioning. when a person has been “conditioned”, that simply means that they have ______________ something as a result of some experience. (a) learned or (b) not learned)
3. pavlov conditioned his dogs to automatically salivate to a bell by pairing the bell with food. this means that the dogs ______________ to salivate to a bell. (a) learned or (b) not learned)
4. however, dogs have an inborn salivation response to food. they do not need to learn to salivate to food as this reflex is wired into their brains from birth. we often refer to a reflex that we have from birth as innate. therefore, is a dog’s salivation reflex to food (a) an unconditioned response or (b) a conditioned response? ________
5. since the salivation reflex to food is an inborn or innate reflex, the food is referred to as ______________ stimulus. (a) an unconditioned stimulus or (b) a conditioned stimulus)
6. the dog’s salivation reflex to a bell was conditioned or learned. so the salivation response to the bell is a ______________ response. (a) unconditioned or (b) conditioned
7. just as the salivation response to the bell is called called a conditioned response, the bell is referred to as a ______________ stimulus
8. with classical conditioning, a reflex is being conditioned to automatically respond to a new stimulus—but a new behavior is not being learned. for example, dogs were born with the ability to salivate and pavlov certainly didn’t teach the dogs how to ______________.

Explanation:

1. Learning is an acquired - through - experience behavior as opposed to instinct.
2. Being conditioned means having learned something from an experience.
3. Pavlov's dogs learned to salivate to the bell through conditioning.
4. The in - born salivation response to food in dogs is an unconditioned response.
5. The food that elicits an in - born salivation response is an unconditioned stimulus.
6. The salivation response to the bell, which is learned, is a conditioned response.
7. The bell that elicits a conditioned response is a conditioned stimulus.
8. Dogs already had the in - born ability to salivate, so Pavlov didn't teach them how to salivate.

Answer:

1. a. experience
2. a. learned
3. a. learned
4. a. an unconditioned response
5. a. an unconditioned stimulus
6. b. conditioned
7. b. conditioned
8. salivate