SD206 - BBB - Tutorial 1
More questions on Book 1: Chapters 6 - 10
1. A puff of air directed at one eye will
elicit a blink of the eyelids - the blink reflex. In a classical
(Pavlovian) conditioning experiment, a buzzer was used to signal
that a puff of air will occur within 0.5 seconds. After 10 such
trials it was found that the buzzer alone produced an eye blink.
For each of the items (A - E) listed below, decide whether it
is the: (a) conditional stimulus (CS), (b) unconditional stimulus
(UCS), (c) Conditional response (CR), (d) unconditional response
(UCR), or (e) none of these.
A. buzzer
B. extinction
C. puff or air
D. salivation
E. eye blink.
Check answer
2. For the following statements about learning,
identify those that are true and those that are false:
A. Habituation is due to extinction of a conditional response.
B. A child who is about to step in front of a car is pulled to
safety and smacked by an adult. In this case, smacking is an example
of negative reinforcement.
C. A dog salivating in response to a bell is an example of an
unconditioned response.
D. In classical conditioning of salivation, the best results are
obtained when the conditional stimulus follows the UCS within
about half a second.
E. A response was obtained by training using operant conditioning
is, in general, more resistant to extinction than a response obtained
using classical conditioning.
F. While rats will associate characteristic tastes with subsequent
illness, they tend to associate visual stimuli more readily with
electric shocks.
G. Through instinctive drift, it is possible, given enough time
and effort, to train an animal to perform any task within its
capability.
Check answer
3. It is sometimes claimed that animals maintain
the amount of body water constant by means of a mechanism that
detects present body water level, compares this to an ideal standard
level (the set point) and takes corrective action in response
to any deviation from the set point level. Such a mechanism would
be characterised by which of the following terms?
A. Mutation
B. Extinction
C. Positive feedback
D. Negative feedback
E. Feed-forward control
F. Positive reinforcement
G. Homeostasis.
Check answer
4. Refer to Figure 8.3 in Book 1 (page 198).
Suppose that one of Tolman's rats had learned the route to the
goal box in apparatus shown in part (a) of the figure. The rat
was re-tested in a modified maze (b) in which the path corresponding
to route CD was blocked. Which arm of the 'sunburst' would the
rat be expected to follow, (a) if it had learned procedural rules
and (b) it had learned declarative rules to locate the goal?
A. Arm 1
B. Arm 3
C. Arm 6
D. Arm 9
E. Arm 12
F. Arm 15
G. Arm 18.
Check answer
5. Monkey A emits an eagle alarm whenever
an eagle appears and at no other time. Monkey B also give eagle
alarms whenever it sees an eagle, but also make these calls at
numerous other times when there are no eagles around. These monkeys
are then exposed to a leopard to which they both respond with
a different alarm call. Which two of the following observations
of the behaviour of a third monkey C would provide evidence that
C has made a cognitive assessment that A is reliable and B is
unreliable?
A. C responds to the eagle alarm when A makes it but not when
B makes it.
B. C responds to the eagle alarm when either A or B makes it.
C. C responds to B's leopard alarm call by scanning the environment
but taking no evasive action.
D. C responds to the leopard alarm call made by B but not to its
eagle alarm call.
E. C responds to neither A's nor B's eagle alarm call.
F. C responds to neither A's nor B's eagle or leopard alarm calls.
Check answer
6. A male bird is observed to defend a territory
containing 2 females and 2 nests, each with a brood of eggs. The
male shows some parental care towards each nest. Select one of
the following items which best defines this behaviour:
A. Bigamy
B. Pleiotropy
C. Polyandry
D. Polygyny
E. Polytypy
F. Polyfilla.
Check answer
7. Tadpoles of the spadefoot toad, when fed
on whole-animal prey, become cannibals, i.e. they eat members
of their own species. Spadefoot tadpoles not fed on whole-animal
prey become omnivores, and eat more or less anything but not conspecifics.
Cannibal spadefoots do not, however, eat close relatives. This
could be an example of:
A. Genetic drift
B. Kin selection
C. Altruism
D. Disruptive selection
E. Species-specific behaviour
F. Dominance hierarchy.
Check answer
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