A little boy is allowed to play with a laboratory rat and shows no fear of it.Then,a scientist makes a scary noise by banging an iron bar whenever the little boy reaches for the rat.Soon,the boy begins crying whenever the rat comes near him.In this study,the rat is the ________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The rat initially did not evoke any fear response from the little boy, so it cannot be the unconditioned stimulus (A) nor the unconditioned response (B). However, after being paired with the scary noise from the iron bar, the rat became the conditioned stimulus (C) that elicited a conditioned response (D) of crying from the little boy.

A Little Boy Is Allowed to Play with a Laboratory