Question

21 mark for review
which dog is demonstrating stimulus discrimination in the following scenarios?
a princess used to sit on command, but since her owner stopped giving her a treat for it, she no longer does.
b chug, a fearful dog after growing up without a home, gradually became more trusting of people after being exposed to them. then, chug suddenly returns to his fearful behavior.
c cookie cowers when she hears the pop of fireworks, but not when she hears the pop of lightning.
d brodie associates the sound of the doorbell with guests and excitedly goes to the door when he hears it, but he also does so when he hears a game show contestant ring a bell to answer a question.

Explanation:

Stimulus discrimination is the ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar, non-conditioned stimuli, responding differently to each.

• Option A shows extinction of a learned behavior, not discrimination.
• Option B shows spontaneous recovery of a fear response, not discrimination.
• Option C shows Cookie responding fearfully to fireworks (a specific stimulus) but not to the similar sound of lightning, demonstrating she can discriminate between the two stimuli.
• Option D shows stimulus generalization (responding the same to similar sounds), the opposite of discrimination.

Answer:

C. Cookie cowers when she hears the pop of fireworks, but not when she hears the pop of lightning.