Passage
On the way home from a routine visit to the pediatrician, Sarah stops with her infant son at the local convenience store. As she is waiting in line, a man squeezes in closely behind them and sneezes. As Sarah walks home, she finds that her heart is racing, she feels nauseous, and she is terrified that her child will become severely ill.Soon after, she becomes obsessed with disease and contamination. She begins to take extensive measures to "decontaminate" herself and her home, including washing her hands dozens of times daily. These cleaning rituals have the immediate effect of lessening Sarah's anxiety, so she soon spends most of her day performing them. She seeks treatment from a therapist, who instructs her to gradually expose herself to "contamination" but refrain from her cleaning rituals. The therapist also teaches Sarah how to recognize and modify her maladaptive thoughts about illness prevention. Within several weeks, Sarah finds that she can manage her thoughts about disease and contamination without resorting to ritualistic cleaning.A researcher hypothesized that individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), such as Sarah, would show a more generalized fear response to safe stimuli compared to controls. Generalized conditioned fear responses occur when individuals react with fear to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus (eg, someone injured in an accident with a red truck fears all red vehicles). The researcher conditioned 100 individuals (50 with OCD and 50 controls) to associate a shock with a visual stimulus. In phase 1, participants viewed a computer screen that alternated between images of a small ring (1 cm) and a large ring (20 cm). The small ring and large ring were displayed for 1 second each, with a blank screen in between for 5 seconds. A mild electric shock was paired with the large ring, and no shock was paired with the small ring. This was repeated for 10 trials. In phase 2, shocks were discontinued, and three intermediate-sized rings were added to the series and presented in increasing size (ie, 1 cm, 5 cm, 10 cm, 15 cm, 20 cm) while the participants' startle response to each ring was measured. This was repeated for 10 trials.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3932061/
-A researcher replicates the study but continues to occasionally pair the 20-cm ring with an electric shock in phase 2. Which phenomenon is the researcher most likely trying to avoid?

Question

Passage
On the way home from a routine visit to the pediatrician, Sarah stops with her infant son at the local convenience store.  As she is waiting in line, a man squeezes in closely behind them and sneezes.  As Sarah walks home, she finds that her heart is racing, she feels nauseous, and she is terrified that her child will become severely ill.Soon after, she becomes obsessed with disease and contamination.  She begins to take extensive measures to "decontaminate" herself and her home, including washing her hands dozens of times daily.  These cleaning rituals have the immediate effect of lessening Sarah's anxiety, so she soon spends most of her day performing them.  She seeks treatment from a therapist, who instructs her to gradually expose herself to "contamination" but refrain from her cleaning rituals.  The therapist also teaches Sarah how to recognize and modify her maladaptive thoughts about illness prevention.  Within several weeks, Sarah finds that she can manage her thoughts about disease and contamination without resorting to ritualistic cleaning.A researcher hypothesized that individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), such as Sarah, would show a more generalized fear response to safe stimuli compared to controls.  Generalized conditioned fear responses occur when individuals react with fear to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus (eg, someone injured in an accident with a red truck fears all red vehicles).  The researcher conditioned 100 individuals (50 with OCD and 50 controls) to associate a shock with a visual stimulus.  In phase 1, participants viewed a computer screen that alternated between images of a small ring (1 cm) and a large ring (20 cm).  The small ring and large ring were displayed for 1 second each, with a blank screen in between for 5 seconds.  A mild electric shock was paired with the large ring, and no shock was paired with the small ring.  This was repeated for 10 trials.  In phase 2, shocks were discontinued, and three intermediate-sized rings were added to the series and presented in increasing size (ie, 1 cm, 5 cm, 10 cm, 15 cm, 20 cm) while the participants' startle response to each ring was measured.  This was repeated for 10 trials.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3932061/
-A researcher replicates the study but continues to occasionally pair the 20-cm ring with an electric shock in phase 2.  Which phenomenon is the researcher most likely trying to avoid?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

11ecba2d_0d8a_af43_a3bf_3fe428d17173_MD0008_00 In classical conditioning, the strength of the conditioned response tends to follow a characteristic pattern over time: Acquisition refers to the learning that takes place as an association is formed between the unconditioned stimulus (eg, food) and the neutral stimulus (eg, bell). Extinction occurs when a conditioned response gradually stops occurring in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus. For example, a dog that has been conditioned to salivate in response to the sound of a bell will gradually stop salivating if the bell is repeatedly presented without food. Spontaneous recovery occurs when an extinct response reappears after a period of time (eg, a dog will salivate again upon hearing a bell a few days after extinction has occurred). If the 20-cm ring (conditioned stimulus) was repeatedly presented in the absence of the electric shock (unconditioned stimulus), this would eventually extinguish the startle (conditioned response). However, if an electric shock were occasionally paired with the 20-cm ring, this would maintain the conditioned fear response, thereby avoiding extinction. (Choice B) Phase 1 of the study, when the electric shock was repeatedly paired with the 20-cm ring, was the acquisition phase. Occasionally administering the electric shock with the 20-cm ring during phase 2 would not avoid acquisition, which has already occurred. (Choice C) Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of the conditioned response after it has already been extinguished. Occasionally administering the electric shock during phase 2 would not avoid spontaneous recovery, which only occurs after a conditioned response has become extinct. (Choice D) Stimulus discrimination occurs when an organism distinguishes between two similar stimuli (eg, a dog that has been conditioned to salivate in response to a bell salivates only to the sound of that bell, not in response to other similar sounds). This concept does not apply to administering the electric shock during phase 2. Educational objective: In classical conditioning, extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus alone no longer produces the conditioned response.

Passage on the Way Home from a Routine Visit to the the Pediatrician