There was a case of an 11-year-old girl who was suffering from a disease in which her own immune system attacked her body. To treat her, researchers first paired cod liver oil with an immune-suppressant drug. Later, when she only received pure cod liver oil (without the drug), her immune system still showed the intended impairment. In this instance, the conditioned stimulus would be the
A)immune system impairment triggered by the cod liver oil
B)immune system impairment triggered by the drug
C)cod liver oil
D)immune-suppressant drug

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The conditioned stimulus is the cod liver oil because it was initially paired with the immune-suppressant drug (the unconditioned stimulus) to create a learned association. When the girl later received only the cod liver oil, her immune system responded as if the drug were still present, indicating that the cod liver oil had become a conditioned stimulus triggering the immune response.

There Was a Case of an 11-Year-Old Girl Who Was