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Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning — HS Psychology practice questions

12 multiple-choice questions and 9 flashcards on Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning, about 8% of the HS Psychology bank. Every one carries a written rationale.

Written and maintained by the CoStudy team · last updated 2026-10-12 · how we write and review questions

What this chapter covers

Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning is one of 13 chapters in CoStudy's HS Psychology bank, and it holds 12 of the bank's 150 multiple-choice questions — roughly 8% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.

Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.

Free Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning practice questions

3 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.

Children who watched an adult hit a Bobo doll later hit it too. Bandura's study demonstrated:

  1. classical conditioning
  2. operant conditioning
  3. observational learning
  4. insight learning

Answer: C — observational learning

C) Correct — Behavior can be learned by watching a model, without direct reinforcement. A) No stimulus pairing was involved. B) The children weren't reinforced for hitting. D) Is a sudden solution to a problem.

Taking away a child's phone to stop rude talk is:

  1. negative reinforcement
  2. positive punishment
  3. extinction
  4. negative punishment

Answer: D — negative punishment

D) Correct — A pleasant thing is removed to make a behavior less likely. A) Increases a behavior; this aims to decrease one. B) Adds something unpleasant rather than removing something good. C) Stops reinforcing a behavior; it doesn't take away a privilege.

In Pavlov's experiment, food that naturally makes a dog salivate is the:

  1. conditioned stimulus
  2. unconditioned response
  3. unconditioned stimulus
  4. neutral stimulus

Answer: C — unconditioned stimulus

C) Correct — It triggers the response with no learning needed. A) Is the bell after pairing. B) Is the salivation to food. D) Is the bell before pairing.

Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning flashcards

4 cards from the 9 in this chapter.

Pavlov's dogs?

Bell (NS) + food (US) → salivation (UR). Eventually bell alone causes salivation (CR).

Shaping?

Reinforcing successive approximations, each step closer to a target behavior, to teach a behavior the animal or person wouldn't produce on its own.

Operant conditioning?

Skinner. Behavior modified by consequences (reinforcement/punishment).

Positive vs negative reinforcement?

Both increase behavior. Positive: add good. Negative: remove bad.

Practise the full chapter

These are a sample. The full Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning chapter runs 21 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.

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