Graham is a 5-year-old who has a conditioned fear of furry and hairy things. He is fond of a snack of milk and chocolate cookies and associates pleasant feelings with it. Psychologists pair a cat with the snack that Graham enjoys until his fear of the cat goes away. This is an example of ________.
A) counterconditioning
B) stimulus discrimination
C) instinctive drift
D) spontaneous recovery

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario describes counterconditioning, which is the process of replacing an unwanted response (fear of furry things) with a more desirable one (positive association with the snack). The cat is paired with the snack in order to create a new, positive association and counteract the fear response. Stimulus discrimination refers to the ability to distinguish between similar stimuli, instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to instinctual behaviors, and spontaneous recovery refers to the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of time. None of these concepts apply to the given scenario.

Graham Is a 5-Year-Old Who Has a Conditioned Fear of Furry