When Peter was three years old, he was clawed very badly by the neighbor's cat.Today, Peter is afraid of all small animals, including rabbits and puppies.Peter's fear of all small animals illustrates the classical conditioning process referred to as:
A)stimulus discrimination
B)stimulus generalization
C)aversive conditioning
D)conditioned inhibition

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Peter's fear of all small animals indicates that he has associated the fear response (conditioned response) with a broad range of stimuli (small animals), beyond just the specific stimulus (cat) that caused the original fear. This is an example of stimulus generalization in classical conditioning. Aversive conditioning (C) involves pairing an unpleasant stimulus with a behavior in order to decrease that behavior, and conditioned inhibition (D) occurs when a neutral stimulus is conditioned to signal the absence of an unconditioned stimulus. Stimulus discrimination (A) is the opposite of stimulus generalization, where the individual learns to respond differently to similar stimuli based on contextual cues.

When Peter Was Three Years Old, He Was Clawed Very