Fred is afraid of spiders. He won't even watch a nature show on TV about them. When he sees a picture of a spider, he has a panic attack, but when he avoids looking at the image, his panic goes away. Fred's avoidance of spiders is being
A) extinguished because he feels anxious after doing so.
B) recovered spontaneously because he will never get better.
C) positively reinforced because he is rewarded by his anxiety going down.
D) negatively reinforced because he is rewarded by his anxiety going down.
E) positively reinforced because he will lose his fear of spiders in the long run.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Fred's avoidance of spiders is reinforced by the negative removal of his anxiety or fear, which is a negative reinforcement. Fred's behavior of avoiding spiders is therefore being negatively reinforced.

Fred Is Afraid of Spiders