Question

Mikaya loves to swim in the river near her house. After swimming in the river one afternoon, she saw two alligators by the dock. When she saw them swimming towards her, Mikaya's heart began pounding with fear. Now when she goes near the dock she shakes with fear. Identify the elements of classical conditioning below. UCS
a. alligators UCR
b. dock (before the conditioning) CS
c. dock (after the conditioning) CR
d. shake with fear NS E) heart pounding in fear

Answer 1

The correct answer is d) shake with fear. Classical conditioning is a learning process in which a stimulus that has biological significance (meaning it concerns survival) is associated with a stimulus that had been previously neutral of biological significance. For example, food is a biologically potent stimulus because we inherently want and need food. On the other hand, a bell is a neutral stimulus, because by itself it means nothing to us (we have no need for it). However, once we learn that the dinner bell ringing means food is being served, we associate the bell (a previously neutral stimulus) with food (a biologically potent stimulus). So, in the case of this question, Mikaya is associating the dock (a previously neutral stimulus) with the alligators that she saw (a biologically potent stimulus). Although this is a more negative example, in which the biologically potent stimulus is something that threatens survival, it still demonstrates classical conditioning.

Answer 2

The answer is:  

a) The alligators are the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the alligators are the stimulus in the environment that produced a behavior (fear).  

b) The dock, before the conditioning is the neutral stimulus (NS) because it had no effect on Mikaya before the conditioning happened.  

c) The dock after the conditioning is the conditioned stimulus (CS) because after the conditioning it is associated with the unconditioned stimulus, in this case the alligators, and now produces the same response, in this case, fear.  

d) Shake with fear is the conditioned response (CR) is the response that is produced when the conditioned stimulus (the dock) is associated with the unconditioned stimulus (the alligators).

e) Heart pounding with fear is the unconditioned response (UCR), that is the response that Mikaya experimented before the conditioning, when she first saw the alligators.