A researcher classically conditioned a dog to salivate every 60 minutes by presenting the dog with food at 60-minute intervals throughout the day. Following this procedure, what is the researcher likely to observe?
A)Because no other signals were used, the dog will fail to develop a conditioned response.
B)It is very likely that the dog will salivate every time it sees the researcher.
C)The dog's desire to eat will diminish, a phenomenon termed sensory-specific satiety.
D)The 60-minute interval will become a conditioned stimulus, triggering the conditioned response of salivation.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Since food is presented every 60 minutes, the 60-minute interval becomes associated with the presentation of food and therefore becomes a conditioned stimulus. As a result, the dog will salivate in anticipation of food every 60 minutes, even if the food is not present at that time. Therefore, option D is the correct answer. Option A is incorrect because the dog was conditioned to salivate every 60 minutes, not in response to any particular signal. Option B is incorrect because there is no indication that the researcher was involved in the conditioning in any way beyond presenting the food at regular intervals. Option C is incorrect because the term "sensory-specific satiety" refers to the phenomenon in which a person's desire to eat a particular food decreases as they consume more of that food; it is not relevant to classical conditioning.

A Researcher Classically Conditioned a Dog to Salivate Every 60