After a fear-provoking biking accident, Alex extinguished his conditioned fear of bikes by cycling on a safe biking trail every day for a week. The reappearance of his previously extinguished fear when Alex rode a bike on the same trail two weeks later best illustrates

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Spontaneous recovery refers to the reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a period of time has passed. In this case, Alex had extinguished his fear of bikes by cycling on the safe biking trail every day for a week, but two weeks later, his fear resurfaced when he rode a bike on the same trail. Therefore, D is the best choice. Latent learning is unrelated because it refers to learning that occurs without any obvious reinforcement, while intermittent reinforcement refers to a reinforcement schedule where a behavior is only reinforced some of the time. Instinctive drift refers to the tendency for learned behaviors to drift back towards innate, instinctual behaviors over time. None of these are relevant to the scenario presented.

After a Fear-Provoking Biking Accident, Alex Extinguished His Conditioned Fear