As a child, Blaine was attacked by a goose and subsequently developed a severe fear of waterfowl. As he got older, the fear gradually faded until it was all but forgotten. Blaine is now in his early-twenties and recently went strolling through a park by the river where he came across a flock of geese. The geese gave him a stare and he felt slightly fearful, though not as afraid as he had been as a child. Blaine's fear response is an example of __________
A) stimulus discrimination.
B) stimulus generalization.
C) higher-order conditioning.
D) spontaneous recovery.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Blaine's fear response is an example of spontaneous recovery, which is the reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a period of no exposure to the conditioned stimulus. In this case, Blaine's fear of geese had faded over time but reappeared when he encountered geese again.

As a Child, Blaine Was Attacked by a Goose and Subsequently