The phenomenon of spontaneous recovery suggests that
A) classical conditioning can only be used to condition biologically meaningful responses.
B) once a conditioned response has been extinguished, a person will also stop responding to other stimuli that are similar.
C) extinction does not erase a learned association, it only suppresses or interferes with a conditioned response.
D) when a conditioned response is extinguished, higher-order responses replace the original response.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a conditioned response after a period of extinction. This shows that the learned association has not been erased completely, but only suppressed or interfered with. This supports option C. Option A is incorrect because classical conditioning can be used to condition any response, not just biologically meaningful ones. Option B is incorrect because even after extinction, a person may respond to other similar stimuli (referred to as stimulus generalization), and option D is incorrect because there is no evidence to suggest that higher-order responses replace the original response.

The Phenomenon of Spontaneous Recovery Suggests That