Skinner once placed some pigeons in Skinner boxes and

reinforced them with food randomly no matter what they were doing. Despite the fact that there was no real connection between their behavior and its consequences, each pigeon acted as if there were with one bird flapping its left wing, another hopping on one foot, and a third turning in complete circles. Skinner used which of the following terms to describe such behaviors that are repeated because they appear to produce reinforcement when really the behaviors are unnecessary?
a. modeling
b. latent learning
c. positive transfer
d. superstitious behavior

ANSWER: d

Psychology

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The preoperational thought stage occurs when

a. infants become toddlers. b. children learn a language. c. children can understand abstract concepts. d. children become adolescents.

Psychology

The appreciation of humor has been hypothesized to be a function of children's level of cognitive development—specifically, their ability to deal with

a. puns. b. theory of mind. c. symbols. d. scaffolding.

Psychology