Chapter 6: Learning
Testing your knowledge of idioms and other vocabulary
Here are some more American idioms, words used with figurative meanings, and other vocabulary items that you may not be familiar with. Match each item in column A with the appropriate meaning given in column B. If you are unsure, look at the sentence context given below. Remember that words may have different meanings in different contexts. The meanings given here are appropriate for the contexts from your textbook, but in different contexts the words in question might have different meanings. Answers are given in the answer key on pages 46-47.
COLUMN A COLUMN B a. grisly 1. to get extremely excited, surprised, angry, distressed b. parole 2. disgusting, very distasteful, ghastly c. inborn 3. a manual transmission in a motor vehicle d. to drool 4. present from birth e. objectively 5. to secrete saliva; to make an obvious show of pleasure or appreciation f. to fire 6. to tense muscles involuntarily in anticipation of pain or discomfort g. ageism 7. a fit of anger, usually excessive h. to freak out 8. the trying of one thing or another until something succeeds i. flinch 9. to cause a process to begin; to cause j. trigger 10. without bias; independently k. to win the jackpot 11. discrimination against someone based on their (usually older) age l. stick-shift 12. to make a sudden jolting, bouncing, or thrusting motion m. to hang in there 13. a conditional release of a prisoner serving a longer sentence n. to give in (to) 14. to win a large prize, as in a lottery or some other type of gambling o. temper tantrum 15. to dismiss someone from a job p. to jerk 16. to yield; to surrender q. trial-and-error 17. to spray or shoot
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -40- r. KKK 18. unaware of s. to squirt 19. Ku Klux Klan – a prejudice organization typically found in the South t. oblivious of 20. touched or affected with something bad u. tainted 21. to refuse to be discouraged; to continue doing something despite difficulties
Sentence context a. The three men who committed this grisly murder were quickly captured and brought to justice. (p. 201) b. Two [of the men] were sentenced to death and the third was given life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. (p. 201) c. Before Pavlov’s dogs learned to salivate at something extraneous like the sight of the experimenter, the original salivary reflex was inborn and biological. (p. 203) d. Your ... drooling at the sight of chocolate cake [is] largely the result of classical conditioning. (p. 205) e. Watson criticized this focus on individual mental processes, insisting that they were impossible to study objectively. (p. 205) f. Shortly after the Little Albert experiment, Watson was fired from his academic position and no other university would hire him, despite his international fame and scientific reputation. (p. 205) g. Although we can’t be sure how the hatred and racism that took James Byrd’s life originally started, prejudice of many types (racism, ageism, sexism, homophobia, and religious intolerance) can be classically conditioned. (p. 209) h. Do you know someone who “freaks out” at the sight of a cockroach? (p. 209) i. At some time during childhood, this person probably was conditioned to associate the NS (cockroach) with a UCS (perhaps seeing a parent flinch at the sight of a cockroach) until a CR (fear at the sight of a cockroach) was conditioned. (p. 209-210) j. For example, TV commercials, magazine ads, and business promotions often pair their products or company logo (NS) with pleasant images, such as attractive models and celebrities (CS), which through higher-order conditioning automatically trigger favorable responses (CR) (p. 210-211)
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -41- k. Have you noticed that people spend long hours pushing buttons and pulling levers on slot machines in hopes of winning the jackpot? (pp. 215) l. Skinner believed that shaping explains a wide variety of skills and abilities that each of us possess, from eating with a fork, to playing a musical instrument, to driving a stick-shift car. (p. 217) m. However, the fact that you occasionally win keeps you “hanging in there ”. (p. 218) n. To make matters worse, the parents’ inconsistency (saying “no” and then occasionally giving in) places candy begging on a partial schedule of reinforcement, which is highly resistant to extinction. (p. 222) o. Like a gambler who continues playing despite the odds, the child will continue the begging, screaming, and temper tantrums in hopes of the occasional payoff. (p. 222) p. For example, one pigeon kept turning in counterclockwise circles, and another kept making jerking movements with its head. (p. 224) q. He (Wolfgang Köhler) believed there was more to learning especially learning to solve a complex problem than responding to stimuli in a trial-and-error fashion. (pp. 226) r. Or did he learn his prejudices during his numerous years of active membership with the KKK. (p. 228) s. When disturbed by a large squirt of water, the Aplysia will protectively withdraw its gill. (p. 230) t. Interestingly, the teachers appear oblivious of their teaching methods or the fact that they are teaching at all. (p. 229) u. The researchers began by lacing freshly killed sheep with a chemical that causes extreme nausea and vomiting in coyotes that eat the tainted meat. (p. 233)
Reviewing your knowledge of English grammar
In this chapter, the authors frequently employ a type of sentence pattern known as a “cause-effect” pattern, which we examined in Chapter 5. In other words, the first part of the sentence, (the dependent clause) sets up a type of a condition which causes or brings about a certain result or effect. This effect is stated in the second (or independent) clause. Note that these two clauses are separated by a comma. The words we will focus on here to
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -42- express a “cause-effect” pattern are when, whenever, and as soon as. Study the sentences below:
CAUSE EFFECT
When a gnat flies too close to our eyes, we often blink.
Whenever we touch a hot pan, we reflexively pull our hand away.
As soon as infants feel a light touch on the cheek, they turn their head toward the touch and search for their mother’s nipple.
Using the two pieces of information in each item below, write a sentence that expresses the cause-effect relationship. Use when, whenever, or as soon as to introduce the cause-effect relationship. When you are finished, you may check your answers in the answer key section. Be careful! The information may not be given in the correct order. You will have to decide which piece of information is the cause and which is the effect.
1. Your mouth starts to water / you see a large slice of chocolate cake
______
2. Nancy hears a loud noise / she thinks that an earthquake is occurring
______
3. You cry out in pain / you are stung by a bee
______
4. People see attractive models in an advertisement / they have a favorable reaction to the product being advertised.
______
5. People eat too much of a certain food / they develop an aversion
______
Finding key information
In describing a psychological experiment which has been carried out, the authors often present a chain of events that have occurred, one after the other. In other words, each event creates a condition which allows the next event to occur. To examine a chain of events,
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -43- reread the section in this chapter called “Watson’s Contribution to Classical Conditioning”, on page 205, in which the authors describe the Watson and Rayner experiment with Albert. Compare what the authors have written with the following representation of the chain of events:
CHAIN OF EVENTS
Watson and Rayner wanted to demonstrate experimentally how fear could be classically conditioned.
A child, Albert, was brought to Watson’s lab.
The investigators let Albert play with a white lab rat to find out if he was afraid of rats.
Albert was curious and not afraid, and reached for the rat.
Next, Watson stood behind Albert and put the rat near him.
When Albert reached for the rat, Watson banged a steel bar of Albert’s crib with a hammer.
The loud noise frightened Albert and made him cry.
Watson and Rayner paired the noise with the rat seven times.
After the seven pairings, Albert began to show fear when he saw the rat, even without the noise.
Watson and Rayner’s hypothesis that fears are classically conditioned was confirmed.
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -44- Now look at the paragraph on pages 232-233 which describes the experiment that conditioned coyotes not to eat sheep. Determine the chain of events, and write it in the space provided below. When you are finished, you can compare your answer with the one in the answer key section.
Examining structural clues
In this chapter and in Chapter 5, we have examined the way in which cause-effect relationships are expressed. Remember from our work in Chapter 5 that you can recognize when authors are discussing cause and effect by examining the verbs and transition words which are used to introduce these relationships. Again, here are some of the more common indicators of cause-effect: because, because of, to bring about, to bring on, to induce, to cause, a cause, to lead to, to be due to, on account of, as a consequence of, in consequence, for, for this reason, in this way, so that, in order to, and as a result.
Here are some examples for you:
Seeing food causes the salivary glands to produce saliva.
In Pavlov’s experiment, meat powder caused the dogs to salivate.
Due to the pairing of the bell with the meat powder, the dogs salivated when they heard the bell ring.
In this way, the dogs were conditioned to salivate to the bell.
Pavlov’s dogs were conditioned so that they would salivate at the sound of the bell.
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -45- In order to train the dogs to salivate at the sound of the bell, Pavlov had to pair the ringing of the bell with the sight of meat powder.
Locate 5 sentences in this chapter which contain a clear cause/effect relationship and write the sentences in the spaces below. Study your sentences to see if they contain the types of signals discussed above.
1. ______
______
2. ______
______
3. ______
______
4. ______
______
5. ______
______
Answer key
Testing your knowledge of idioms and other vocabulary a. 2; b. 13; c. 4; d. 5; e. 10; f. 15; g. 11; h. 1; i. 6; j. 9; k. 14; l. 3; m. 21; n. 16; o. 7; p. 12; q. 8; r. 19; s. 17; t. 18; u. 20
Reviewing your knowledge of English grammar
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -46- 1. Whenever you see a large slice of chocolate cake, your mouth starts to water.
2. As soon as Nancy hears a loud noise, she thinks that an earthquake is occurring.
3. When you are stung by a bee, you cry out in pain.
4. Whenever people see attractive models in an advertisement, they have a favorable reaction to the product being advertised.
5. Whenever people eat too much of a certain food, they develop an aversion.
Finding key information
Coyotes were killing sheep.
Gustavson and his colleagues decided to use aversion therapy to solve the problem.
They laced the bodies of dead sheep with chemicals.
The coyotes ate the tainted meat.
The coyotes got sick.
They developed an aversion to the taste of sheep meat.
They ran away from the mere sight and smell of sheep.
The problem was solved.
Examining structural clues
Answers will vary.
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -47-