Answer:
Answer is option D (Stimulus generalization).
Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency people have to react to stimuli similar to an original stimulus in a classical conditioning situation in much the same way they responded to the original stimulus.
Explanation:
Classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning) is a learning process through association where two stimuli are connected together to generate a new learned response in an animal or an individual. It has three stages: before conditioning, during conditioning, and after conditioning.
When food is presented to a dog before conditioning, it salivates but does not produce a response to the ringing of the bell alone. Here, the food is an unconditioned stimulus (a stimulus that produces a reflexive response), salivation is an unconditioned response (a natural, unlearned reaction to a given stimulus) and the bell is a neutral stimulus (a stimulus that does not naturally produce a response).
During conditioning, food (unconditioned stimulus) is given to the dog immediately after ringing a bell (neutral stimulus). The repeated process of ringing a bell and then presenting the dog with food began to elicit salivation from the dog. Thus after conditioning, the dogs began to salivate to the ringing of the bell alone in anticipation of food. Here, the bell (neutral stimulus) became the conditioned stimulus (a stimulus that produces a response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus) and the behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus-i.e., salivation became the conditioned response.
After the conditioning had taken place when the process of the ringing of the bell (conditioned stimulus) is presented alone, the dog started to salivate less and less, and finally, the sound did not elicit salivation at all. When a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented alone (without the unconditioned stimulus), a reduction in response occurs and it is referred to as extinction. When the ringing of the bell (conditioned stimulus) is again presented alone following a pause after extinction, the behavior or response of salivation occurs again and it is referred to as spontaneous recovery. When the process is repeated, the behavior again showed extinction.
When a new stimulus (like scratching before the food arrives) that was similar, not identical to the original conditioned stimulus is presented to the dog, it started salivating. This is referred to as stimulus generalization, the tendency to react to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus. Stimulus discrimination refers to the tendency of an organism to respond differently to a stimulus that is similar but not identical to the original conditioned stimulus. Here, the organism learns to differentiate between the conditioned stimulus and other similar stimuli.
