A bear at a national park has discovered that if it can open the lid of the trash cans, it is likely to find tasty food inside. Soon it is trying to open the trash cans all over the park. What mechanism of learning has occurred?

Question

A.  classical (Pavlovian) conditioning
B.  habituation
C.  operant conditioning
D.  air conditioning


Clarify question:
What is the key concept addressed by the question?

What type of thinking is required?

Gather Content:
What do you already know about different learning mechanisms? What other information is related to the question? 

Choose Answer:
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?

Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

C.  operant conditioning


Clarify question:
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
The learning process that is used by the bear.

What type of thinking is required?
This is an apply question. You need to take what you know about the different learning mechanisms and apply it to the situation of the bear raiding garbage cans.

Gather Content:
What do you already know about different learning mechanisms? What other information is related to the question? 
This question comes from the section of the textbook that discusses the different types of learning. Habitation involves no reward or punishment, classical conditioning involves the association between a passive behavior and stimulus. Operant condition involves the learning of new behaviors using reward and punishment. Air conditioning makes the research lab a comfortable place to work.

Choose Answer:
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
This is an example of operant conditioning; the bear learns to tear open garbage cans because it gets rewarded with food.

Reflection on Process:
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
Did you get the correct answer? You needed to take what you know about the different types of learning and apply it to the situation of the bear and the garbage.