A farmer is being troubled by coyotes eating his sheep. In an attempt to solve the problem, he kills a sheep and laces its body with a nausea-inducing drug. He leaves the sheep out where he knows the coyotes roam. He hopes they will learn not to eat the sheep after they become sick from the bait he leaves. The farmer is attempting to apply the research of ________ to accomplish this.
A) Bandura
B) Skinner
C) Tolman
D) Garcia

Question

A farmer is being troubled by coyotes eating his sheep. In an attempt to solve the problem, he kills a sheep and laces its body with a nausea-inducing drug. He leaves the sheep out where he knows the coyotes roam. He hopes they will learn not to eat the sheep after they become sick from the bait he leaves. The farmer is attempting to apply the research of ________ to accomplish this.
A) Bandura
B) Skinner 
C) Tolman
D) Garcia

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The farmer is attempting to apply the research of John Garcia, who studied taste aversion in rats and found that animals were more likely to associate nausea with the taste of food rather than other external stimulus. This phenomenon is also known as the Garcia effect and explains why the farmer is using a nausea-inducing drug to teach the coyotes to avoid eating the sheep. Bandura's research focuses on observational learning, Skinner is known for his work on operant conditioning, and Tolman is associated with cognitive maps and latent learning, none of which are directly applicable to the farmer's situation.

A Farmer Is Being Troubled by Coyotes Eating His Sheep