Learning theory looks mechanical from a distance and turns out to be one of the most conceptually demanding courses in the psychology major. The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7th Edition by Michael Domjan is built on carefully specified procedures, and its questions depend on details that are easy to blur: which stimulus was present, what the contingency actually was, whether a response was strengthened or a stimulus signaled. Students who translate the terminology into everyday language almost always lose the distinction the item was testing.
Why this test bank helps
Getting the phenomenon right depends on reading the procedure correctly, and that is a trainable skill. Every item in this set is followed by a written rationale that restates the procedure in the book’s terms before giving the answer — naming the conditioned stimulus, the contingency, the schedule — and then explains why each alternative describes a different arrangement. Working through those explanations is the fastest way to stop confusing negative reinforcement with punishment, or extinction with forgetting.
What’s inside
- Questions organized chapter by chapter, so each week of reading corresponds to a defined block of practice.
- Multiple choice, true/false and short-answer items, including procedure-identification and applied questions.
- A written rationale under every question, restating the procedure and naming the principle involved.
- Coverage of the comparative cognition and biological-constraints chapters as well as the core conditioning chapters.
- One organized PDF, downloadable as soon as checkout completes.
Topics covered
- Elicited behavior — reflexes, habituation and sensitization, and the dual-process account of changes in responding.
- Classical conditioning — excitatory and inhibitory procedures, CS-US relations, blocking and the Rescorla-Wagner model.
- Extinction — spontaneous recovery, renewal, reinstatement and why extinction is not unlearning.
- Instrumental conditioning — Thorndike’s law of effect, shaping, contiguity and contingency, and the response-outcome relation.
- Schedules of reinforcement and choice — ratio and interval schedules, their response patterns, concurrent schedules and the matching law.
- Aversive control — punishment parameters, avoidance learning, two-process theory and learned helplessness.
- Stimulus control — generalization gradients, discrimination training, peak shift and conceptual categorization.
- Biological constraints and animal cognition — taste-aversion learning, preparedness, memory, timing and serial learning.
Who it’s for
Undergraduates in a learning and behavior, principles of learning or conditioning and learning course using this edition — psychology majors, students in behavior analysis and neuroscience sequences, and anyone preparing for graduate work where learning theory is assumed knowledge.
How to use it (the right way)
Read the chapter and diagram each procedure before testing yourself; nearly every error in this subject comes from misreading the arrangement rather than from not knowing the term. Attempt a block closed-book, then read all the rationales, paying particular attention to items you answered correctly by intuition. This is a study aid. Use it in line with your institution’s academic-integrity policy — as preparation and self-testing, never as a substitute for the coursework or as material taken into a graded assessment.
Sample question (shows the format — your download contains the full set)
Q. A tone is paired with food until it reliably elicits salivation. A light is then presented together with that tone, and the compound is paired with food. When the light is tested alone, it produces little responding. This outcome demonstrates:
- A. Latent inhibition
- B. Blocking
- C. Stimulus generalization
- D. Spontaneous recovery
Answer: B. Blocking occurs when a previously conditioned stimulus already predicts the outcome, so the added stimulus provides no new information and acquires little associative strength — the result that motivated models based on surprise. A requires the light to have been presented repeatedly without any outcome before conditioning, which did not happen here. C would mean responding to a stimulus resembling the trained one, but the light is a different modality and was trained in compound. D refers to the return of an extinguished response after a rest interval, and no extinction was carried out.
Edition & format
- Matches: The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7th Edition, by Michael Domjan (ISBN 9781285088563).
- Format: Digital PDF, delivered instantly after checkout.
- Access: Lifetime — re-download from your account whenever you need it.
Chapter order and numbering change between editions. Please confirm the edition and ISBN above match the book your course assigned before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the current edition? This set is prepared against the 7th Edition specifically. If your syllabus names a different edition, choose that listing instead, because chapter coverage shifts between editions.
How do I receive it? The download appears on your order confirmation page and in your account as soon as checkout completes. Nothing is shipped and there is no waiting period.
Do all the questions include rationales? Yes. Every item carries a written explanation of the reasoning behind the answer, which is the part that turns checking into studying.
Is using a test bank allowed? As a study aid it works like any other practice resource. Follow your institution’s academic-integrity policy, and never take the material into a graded assessment.
More titles for this course are in Psychology Test Banks.
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