A baby is bitten by a dog and then is afraid of all small animals. This is an example of _____.

Question

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The baby's fear of all small animals after being bitten by a dog is an example of stimulus generalization. The fear response has generalized from one specific stimulus (the dog) to other similar stimuli (all small animals). Stimulus discrimination would be the opposite, where the individual learns to differentiate between similar stimuli and only responds to specific ones. Extinction refers to the gradual disappearance of a learned behavior due to lack of reinforcement. Reinforcement refers to the process of strengthening a behavior through rewards or punishments, which is not relevant to the example given.

A Baby Is Bitten by a Dog and Then Is