Rachel's dog loves meat and salivates when he sees it.Rachel repeatedly shows her dog a picture of a circle before showing him a piece of meat.Soon,the dog salivates to the picture of the circle.When Rachel shows her dog a picture of an oval without then showing him a piece of meat,the dog does not salivate,which is best explained by _______.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dog's ability to distinguish between the circle and oval shows stimulus discrimination. The dog has learned to associate the circle with the meat, but not the oval. Stimulus generalization would be if the dog salivated to all shapes similar to the circle, not just the circle itself. Spontaneous recovery refers to the reappearance of a conditioned response after a period of extinction, which is not described in the scenario. Second-order conditioning describes a situation where a neutral stimulus is associated with a conditioned stimulus, resulting in the neutral stimulus eliciting the conditioned response. This is not evident in the scenario.

Rachel's Dog Loves Meat and Salivates When He Sees It