A person attacked by a fierce dog develops a fear of all dogs. This best illustrates which concept in classical conditioning?

• A. Stimulus generalization
• B. Extinction
• C. Discrimination
• D. Spontaneous recovery

Answer: (A)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Identify the key elements of the scenario: a person is attacked by a fierce dog and then develops a fear of all dogs, not just the one that attacked them.
2. Recall the concept of classical conditioning, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response.
3. Understand that 'stimulus generalization' occurs when a conditioned response is triggered by stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus.
4. Compare the other options: 'extinction' refers to the weakening of a conditioned response, 'discrimination' is the ability to distinguish between different stimuli, and 'spontaneous recovery' is the reappearance of a conditioned response after a rest period.
5. Conclude that the fear of all dogs after being attacked by one dog best illustrates 'stimulus generalization' because the fear response has generalized to all similar stimuli (all dogs).