Every Friday, Dr. Cruz would give a quiz in his psychology class. Students quickly learned to be nervous on Friday mornings, just before each quiz. Halfway through the semester, Dr. Cruz stopped giving quizzes on Fridays and the students' anxiety began to diminish with each passing week in which there was no quiz. The decrease in the students' anxiety may be attributed to the process of:
A) spontaneous recovery.
B) extinction.
C) stimulus generalization.
D) latent learning.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The decrease in anxiety can be attributed to extinction, as the previous behavior (anxiety before Friday quizzes) is no longer being reinforced by the absence of quizzes on Fridays. Spontaneous recovery refers to the sudden reappearance of a behavior that had previously been extinguished, which is not the case here. Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency for stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response, which is not relevant to this situation. Latent learning refers to learning that occurs without reinforcement and may not be immediately apparent, which is also not relevant to this situation.