Diego is afraid of caterpillars. He won't even watch a nature show on TV about them. When he sees a picture of a caterpillar, he has a panic attack, but when he avoids looking at the image, his panic goes away. Diego's avoidance of caterpillars is being __________.
A) extinguished, because he feels anxious after doing so
B) enhanced, because he will never get better
C) positively reinforced, because he is rewarded by his anxiety going down
D) negatively reinforced, because he is rewarded by his anxiety going down

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Diego's avoidance of caterpillars is being negatively reinforced because he is being rewarded by his anxiety going down when he avoids looking at the image. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an unpleasant stimulus in order to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring again in the future. In this case, Diego's behavior of avoiding caterpillar images is being reinforced by the removal of his anxiety when he does so.

Diego Is Afraid of Caterpillars