Final answer:
The daughter's newfound fear of spiders after observing her parent's fear is an example of classical conditioning, a learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a significant stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to elicit a similar response.
Step-by-step explanation:
The situation described where a young daughter develops a fear of spiders after observing her parent's fearful reaction is an example of classical conditioning. This form of learning occurs when a neutral stimulus (spiders) becomes associated with a significant stimulus (parent's fear), causing the neutral stimulus to elicit a similar response (the daughter's fear) even without the original fear-inducing situation. The initial reaction of the parent functions as the unconditioned response to the unconditioned stimulus, which upon repeated association, makes the sight of spiders a conditioned stimulus eliciting the conditioned response of fear in the daughter.
The famous experiment conducted by Watson and Rayner with Little Albert serves as a well-known example of classical conditioning, where Little Albert was conditioned to fear a white rat by associating it with a loud, frightening noise. Similarly, in the example given of Angelina and the formula canister, Angelina's excitement is the conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus of the formula canister, previously associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food.