A loud buzzer is paired with a dim light as a signal for a dog to press a lever to gain access to food.The dog quickly learns to respond to the buzzer alone, but does not learn to respond vigorously to the light alone.According to the configural-cue approach, this is because of
A)the type of reinforcer being delivered.
B)the type of response required of the dog.
C)a generalization decrement from training to test trials.
D)the evolutionary configuration of appetitive responding.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The configural-cue approach suggests that animals learn to respond to a configuration of cues (the buzzer and light together) rather than to individual elements. This means that when presented with just one of the cues (the light), the dog may have difficulty generalizing the response because it is not part of the original cue configuration. This is known as a generalization decrement from training to test trials.

A Loud Buzzer Is Paired with a Dim Light as a Signal