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 boy's fear of the rat is the ________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The boy initially had no fear of the rat, so it was not an unconditioned stimulus. Likewise, the boy's initial lack of fear was not an unconditioned response. However, after the scientist repeatedly paired the scary noise with the presence of the rat, the boy learned to associate the rat with fear and began crying when it was near him. Thus, the rat became a conditioned stimulus (since it was associated with the scary noise) and the boy's fear was a conditioned response.

A Little Boy Is Allowed to Play with a Laboratory