Sebastian has been smoking cigarettes for years, and particularly enjoys smoking when he goes to a casino to play blackjack. He recently quit smoking and has been cigarette-free for eight months. In that time, he has also had no opportunity to go back to a casino to play cards. Tonight, he and some friends went to play blackjack, and once he sat down at the table he got a sudden and irresistible urge to smoke a cigarette, and ended up smoking a pack in one night. Sebastian's unexpected desire to smoke was a result of __________.
A) classical conditioning
B) operant conditioning
C) latent learning
D) observational learning

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Sebastian's sudden and intense urge to smoke a cigarette when he sat down at the casino blackjack table suggests that his smoking behavior had become classically conditioned to that specific context (playing blackjack at a casino). This means that his brain had associated smoking with the context (cue) and developed a conditioned craving in response. The eight months of abstinence likely weakened his nicotine addiction, but the strong contextual cue reactivated his craving for nicotine, leading to relapse.

Sebastian Has Been Smoking Cigarettes for Years, and Particularly Enjoys