Free MCAT-style practice, 7C
MCAT Classical and Operant Conditioning Practice Questions
Ten free MCAT-style practice questions on classical conditioning, extinction, generalization, reinforcement and punishment, schedules, shaping and avoidance, with full explanations.
Quick concept primer
Classical conditioning, first studied by Pavlov, pairs a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that already triggers an unconditioned response (UCR). After pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that evokes a conditioned response (CR). Presenting the CS alone produces extinction, but the CR can return after a rest (spontaneous recovery), which shows extinction is new learning rather than erasure. Generalization is responding to stimuli similar to the CS, and discrimination is responding only to the trained one. Garcia showed that some associations, like taste with illness, form far more easily than others.
Operant conditioning, developed by Thorndike and Skinner, changes voluntary behavior through consequences. Reinforcement increases behavior and punishment decreases it. Positive means a stimulus is added and negative means one is removed. Ratio schedules depend on the number of responses and interval schedules on elapsed time, and either can be fixed or variable. Variable ratio schedules give high, steady responding that resists extinction, while fixed interval schedules give a scalloped pattern. Shaping reinforces successive approximations. Escape ends an aversive stimulus and avoidance prevents it, and both are negative reinforcement.
Traps: negative reinforcement is not punishment. The CS is the trained signal, not the response.
10 practice questions
Question 1
In an eyeblink study, a researcher repeatedly sounds a soft tone half a second before a puff of air reaches a volunteer's eye. After many pairings, the volunteer blinks when the tone sounds alone. In this procedure, the tone and the blink to the tone are, respectively, the
- unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response
- conditioned stimulus and unconditioned response
- conditioned stimulus and conditioned response
- unconditioned stimulus and conditioned response
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. conditioned stimulus and conditioned response
The air puff naturally triggers blinking, so it is the unconditioned stimulus and blinking to it is the unconditioned response. The tone gains its effect only through pairing, so it is the conditioned stimulus, and the learned blink it evokes is the conditioned response. Choices B and D mix up which stimulus and response were learned.
Question 2
A dog was conditioned to salivate to a buzzer. Salivation (drops per trial) was then measured across days.
| Phase | Day | Drops of saliva to buzzer alone |
|---|---|---|
| End of acquisition | 1 | 12 |
| Buzzer presented alone, many trials | 2 | 1 |
| Buzzer presented alone, first trial after 24 hours of rest | 3 | 6 |
What best describes the response on day 3?
- Spontaneous recovery, showing that the original association was not erased
- Stimulus generalization to a new buzzer
- Reacquisition caused by a new pairing with food
- Higher-order conditioning
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Spontaneous recovery, showing that the original association was not erased
After extinction on day 2, the CR partly returned on day 3 following rest, with no food given, which is spontaneous recovery. It is weaker than the original 12 drops and shows that extinction suppresses rather than erases the learning. No new pairing occurred, the same buzzer was used, and no second CS was introduced.
Question 3
A child who was frightened by a loud noise while petting a large white dog later shows fear of other large, light-colored dogs, some fear of small white dogs and little fear of small black cats. This pattern best illustrates
- stimulus discrimination
- latent learning
- negative reinforcement
- stimulus generalization
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. stimulus generalization
The conditioned fear spreads to stimuli that resemble the original CS, and fear declines as similarity declines, which is a generalization gradient. Discrimination would mean responding only to the original dog. Latent learning concerns learning without reinforcement, and negative reinforcement concerns removing an aversive stimulus to increase a behavior.
Question 4
All of the following are examples of negative reinforcement EXCEPT
- a driver fastens her seat belt to stop a car's warning chime
- a toddler's tablet is taken away each time she throws food, and food throwing decreases
- a man takes an antacid to relieve heartburn and uses antacids more often afterward
- a student moves to the quiet library whenever the cafeteria gets noisy, and does so more and more often
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. a toddler's tablet is taken away each time she throws food, and food throwing decreases
Negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant stimulus and makes a behavior more likely, as with stopping the chime, relieving heartburn and escaping the noise. Taking away the tablet removes a pleasant stimulus and decreases food throwing, which is negative punishment. The word negative refers to removal, not to an unpleasant outcome.
Question 5
A rat is trained on a variable interval 30 second schedule (VI 30 s) for a 20 minute session and presses the lever steadily throughout. About how many reinforcers should it earn?
- 20
- 40
- 600
- It cannot be estimated, because the number depends mainly on how fast the rat presses
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. 40
On a variable interval schedule, the first response after an average of 30 seconds is reinforced, so a steadily responding rat earns about one reinforcer per 30 seconds. A 20 minute session is 1200 seconds, and 1200 / 30 = 40. On interval schedules, pressing faster adds little, which is why choice D describes a ratio schedule rather than an interval one.
Question 6
A pigeon's cumulative record shows almost no pecking right after each reinforcer, then a gradually accelerating rate that peaks just before the next reinforcer becomes available, giving a scalloped curve. Which schedule most likely produced this record?
- Fixed ratio
- Variable ratio
- Variable interval
- Fixed interval
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Fixed interval
A fixed interval schedule reinforces the first response after a set time, so animals learn that early responses are never rewarded and speed up as the interval ends, producing a scallop. Fixed ratio produces a pause followed by a burst at a high steady rate, variable ratio produces high steady responding, and variable interval produces moderate steady responding.
Question 7
Rats drank flavored water while a bright light flashed and a clicking sound played, and hours later they were made mildly ill by a toxin. Afterward the rats avoided the flavor but not the light and sound, even though both had preceded the illness. This finding most directly demonstrates
- biological preparedness that limits which associations are easily learned
- that classical conditioning requires the CS and UCS to be seconds apart
- higher-order conditioning
- the partial reinforcement effect
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. biological preparedness that limits which associations are easily learned
Garcia and Koelling showed that animals readily link taste with illness, even across long delays, but not audiovisual cues with illness, which shows that evolution prepares organisms to learn some associations more easily than others. The long delay contradicts choice B. No second-order CS or partial reinforcement schedule was involved.
Question 8
In a maze study, Group 1 rats found food in the goal box every day. Group 2 rats explored the maze with no food for 10 days, then found food from day 11 on. Mean errors per run are shown.
| Day | Group 1 errors | Group 2 errors |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 3 | 9 |
| 12 | 3 | 3 |
Which conclusion is best supported?
- Group 2 learned nothing until food was provided.
- Group 2 learned the maze layout without reinforcement and showed it once food made performance worthwhile.
- Food rewards slow learning of maze layouts.
- Group 1 rats were simply more intelligent than Group 2 rats.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Group 2 learned the maze layout without reinforcement and showed it once food made performance worthwhile.
Group 2 matched Group 1 within two days of the first reward, far faster than learning from scratch would allow, so they must have learned the layout while exploring. This is Tolman's latent learning, which separates learning from performance. Choice A cannot explain the sudden drop, and nothing suggests rewards slow learning or that the groups differed in ability.
Question 9
A trainer wants a parrot to ring a bell on command, a behavior the parrot never performs on its own. She first rewards the parrot for looking at the bell, then for moving toward it, then for touching it, and finally only for ringing it. This procedure is called
- chaining
- stimulus discrimination
- shaping
- spontaneous recovery
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. shaping
Shaping reinforces successive approximations of a target behavior, and earlier steps stop earning rewards once the next step is reliable. Chaining links a series of already learned behaviors in sequence, with each one cueing the next. Discrimination concerns responding to one stimulus but not another, and spontaneous recovery concerns return of an extinguished response.
Question 10
A man who was once trapped in an elevator now takes the stairs whenever he sees an elevator, and his fear of elevators has not faded over several years. Mowrer's two-factor theory best explains why the fear persists by noting that
- taking the stairs is positively punished each time it occurs
- the elevator has become an unconditioned stimulus for fear
- the fear generalizes to stairs, which strengthens it
- avoiding elevators is negatively reinforced by relief from anxiety, so he never learns elevators are now safe
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. avoiding elevators is negatively reinforced by relief from anxiety, so he never learns elevators are now safe
In Mowrer's theory, fear of the elevator is acquired through classical conditioning, and avoidance is maintained by operant negative reinforcement because it reduces anxiety. Since he always avoids, he never experiences the elevator without harm, so extinction cannot occur. The elevator is a conditioned, not unconditioned, stimulus, and taking the stairs is reinforced rather than punished.