Johnny was playing on his swing set when a semi truck blasted its horn on the street directly in front of him.Johnny was so startled that he fell off the swing and skinned his knee.Now Johnny gets scared every time he hears a truck.This is an example of:
A) punishment.
B) classical conditioning.
C) negative reinforcement.
D) operant conditioning.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of classical conditioning, where a neutral stimulus (the sound of the truck horn) becomes associated with an unconditioned response (being startled) due to its pairing with a conditioned stimulus (the swing set). As a result, Johnny now exhibits a conditioned response (fear) whenever he hears a similar sound. Punishment, negative reinforcement, and operant conditioning do not adequately explain this scenario.

Johnny Was Playing on His Swing Set When a Semi