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Chapter 5

Julia Esteban, first-grade teacher at Tanner Elementary School, calls on her students when they do not raise their hands, a practice that goes against the established rule in the class. Which of the following types of conditioning can Ms. Esteban use to teach her students about appropriate hand-raising behavior?
ANSWER: b) Operant conditioning employs reinforcement to increase the likelihood that a desired behavior, like raising one's hand, will be repeated.
Which of the following explanations best summarizes Julia Esteban's problem with her students' failure to raise their hands before speaking?
ANSWER: d) Ms. Esteban is experiencing a common problem among new instructors; she is losing control of a class by failing to apply the principles of operant conditioning appropriately. Instead of rewarding appropriate behaviors, she is unknowingly rewarding inappropriate behavior, the exact behavior she desires to curb.
According to the research on behavioral learning theories, which strategy might Ms. Esteban use to get her students to raise their hands before speaking?
ANSWER: a) The best strategy is to reward students who follow the rules.

Imagine that Ms. Esteban's students have a difficult time breaking their habit of speaking out of turn. Which of the following techniques might she use to reinforce close approximations of the behaviors she wants her students to exhibit?
ANSWER: c) Shaping occurs when learners are reinforced for successive approximations of desired behaviors.

Which type of reinforcement schedule is Ms. Esteban using if she reinforces her students' appropriate behavior after so many behaviors, but the students do not know when the reinforcement will be applied?
ANSWER: d) Ms. Esteban would be using a variable ratio schedule for which only she knows the average number of correct responses preceding reinforcement.

Explain how classical conditioning and operant conditioning are alike and different. Give at least one example of each.
QUESTION 1: Explain how classical conditioning and operant conditioning are alike and different.
POSSIBLE ANSWER: Classical conditioning and operant conditioning refer to forms of learning that require experience to initiate. Once learned, both forms are subject to stimulus generalization and discrimination, as well as extinction. Both forms of learning are also predictive, so that their formation implies that some environmental stimulus or behavior indicates impending reward. Therefore, they persist as long as rewards are predictable and degrade only when reward is no longer predictable. They differ, however, in that operant conditioning relies on behavioral consequences, whereas classical conditioning relies on stimulus pairing.
QUESTION 2: Give at least one example of each.
POSSIBLE ANSWER: Phobias are examples of classically conditioned responses that generalize. Studying to get high marks is an example of the power of operant conditioning to elicit desirable behavior.

Describe Albert Bandura's social learning theory. Bandura's analysis of observational learning involves four phases-describe each phase.
QUESTION 1: Describe Albert Bandura's social learning theory.
POSSIBLE ANSWER: Albert Bandura hypothesized that learning does not require occurrence of direct reinforcement. Rather, people can learn vicariously, observing the consequences of behaviors to models. Furthermore, just because a behavior is learned does not necessarily foretell its enactment; motivation is required for a behavior learned vicariously to be enacted. If negative consequences are observed, the behavioral enactment is not as likely as when positive consequences are observed. Even if positive consequences are observed, and the individual is motivated to enact the behavior, the observer must feel efficacious that the behavior can be enacted successfully. Therefore, according to Bandura, the time between learning and behavioral enactment depends on a variety of personal factors.
QUESTION 2: Bandura's analysis of observational learning involves four phases-describe each phase.
POSSIBLE ANSWER: The four phases involved are:

Attention: Observational learning cannot occur without adequate attention paid to the model. Attention is facilitated by factors like attractiveness, similarity, and popularity of the model to the observer.
Retention: Behavioral reproduction is facilitated by retention of modeled behavior. Retention occurs when teachers give students a chance to rehearse learned material and when material is presented in a form conducive to retention.
Reproduction: Reproduction refers to the learner's ability to reproduce the modeled behavior. Reproduction increases the possibility of reward. Failure to reproduce decreases possibility of reward.
Motivation: Behaviors are reproduced only when students are motivated to do so. Motivation increases when a modeled behavior is rewarded sufficiently to peak the learner's interest.

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