A child who has learned, through classical conditioning, to fear sitting in a dentist's chair becomes frightened when he is placed in a barber's chair.This illustrates the concepts of
A)stimulus generalization.
B)spontaneous recovery.
C)higher-order discrimination.
D)vicarious conditioning.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario describes stimulus generalization, as the fear response is being applied to a similar stimulus (the barber's chair) as the one originally associated with fear (the dentist's chair). Spontaneous recovery refers to the reappearance of a conditioned response after a rest period without further conditioning. Higher-order discrimination involves learning to distinguish between similar stimuli based on a previously learned association. Vicarious conditioning involves learning through observing someone else's experiences.

A Child Who Has Learned, Through Classical Conditioning, to Fear