Wyatt is afraid of spiders. He won't even watch a nature show on TV about them. When he sees a picture of a spider, he has a panic attack, but when he avoids looking at the image, his panic goes away. Wyatt's avoidance of spiders is being __________.
A) extinguished, because he feels anxious after doing so
B) recovered spontaneously, 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

Wyatt's avoidance of spiders is negatively reinforced because he is rewarded by his anxiety going down when he avoids looking at pictures of spiders. Negative reinforcement involves removing or avoiding a negative stimulus in order to increase the likelihood of a behavior. In this case, by avoiding the image of spiders, Wyatt's anxiety is removed, which increases the likelihood that he will continue to avoid looking at spiders in the future.

Wyatt Is Afraid of Spiders