Question

When Anna's old roommate would go to the kitchen first thing in the morning, she would always make coffee. Anna would stay in bed a few extra minutes and grab a cup of coffee as she left for class. Now Anna hears her new roommate go to the kitchen, so she stays in bed a few extra minutes. As she leaves for class, she is surprised that there is no coffee. Anna's mistaken assumption that her roommate would make coffee is based on ________.

Question 17 options:
a)
spontaneous recovery
b)
extinction
c)
generalization
d)
discrimination

Answer 1

Anna's incorrect assumption about her new roommate making coffee is a result of generalization, where she associated the sound of someone in the kitchen with coffee being made, based on her experiences with her former roommate.

Step-by-step explanation:

Anna's mistaken assumption that her new roommate would make coffee is based on generalization. This is a learning process where an organism (including humans) responds to a new stimulus in the same way as to a previously encountered stimulus that has been associated with a certain outcome. Anna has generalized the sound of someone going to the kitchen in the morning with the outcome of coffee being made, due to her past experiences with her old roommate. However, the new roommate does not share the same behavior as the old one, thus Anna's expectation was not met, demonstrating that her learned response was due to generalization.