Which of the following is an example of stimulus generalization in classical conditioning?

• A. A dog salivates only when it hears a specific bell tone that was paired with food.
• B. A child who was conditioned to fear a white rabbit also shows fear when seeing a white cat.
• C. A person learns to associate a particular song with a happy memory and only feels happy when hearing that exact song.
• D. A rat presses a lever to receive food after being trained with a specific light cue.

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the concept of stimulus generalization in classical conditioning: it occurs when a conditioned response is elicited by stimuli that are similar, but not identical, to the original conditioned stimulus.
2. Identify the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the conditioned response (CR) in each example to see if the response occurs only to the original stimulus or also to similar stimuli.
3. Evaluate the first example: the dog salivates only to a specific bell tone, which shows stimulus discrimination, not generalization.
4. Evaluate the second example: the child conditioned to fear a white rabbit also fears a white cat, which is a similar stimulus, demonstrating stimulus generalization.
5. Confirm that the other examples involve responses to exact stimuli or learned associations without generalization, reinforcing that the second example best illustrates stimulus generalization.