Question

Dawn's therapist recommmended that she try cognitive behavioral therapy to cope with her agoraphobia. The therapist hopes that she will become conditioned to these situations with increased exposure, and her fight or flight response will decrease. Which of the following experiments is the therapist hoping to emulate?

(A) B.F. Skinner shaping birds' actions to spin around by gradually reinforcing similar behavior.
(B) A dog trainer using chaining to teach the dog a 3-minute "dance" routine slowly over time
(C) Pavlov's dogs being conditioned to salivate when a bell is rung, since it signals food.
(D) Pavlov's dogs, over time, becoming habituated with the bell ringing and salivating less than when first conditioned.

Answer 1

Dawn's therapist seeks to apply classical conditioning, as seen in Pavlov's experiment with dogs salivating at the sound of a bell due to its association with food, to help her overcome agoraphobia through cognitive behavioral therapy.

Step-by-step explanation:

The therapist working with Dawn is hoping to emulate the concept of classical conditioning, which is a key part of cognitive behavioral therapy to help with agoraphobia. By increasing exposure to anxiety-provoking situations and learning to associate them with non-threatening outcomes, Dawn's fight or flight response should diminish. The experiment that is closest to what the therapist is hoping to achieve is: (C) Pavlov's dogs being conditioned to salivate when a bell is rung, since it signals food.

In this classical conditioning experiment, Pavlov's dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell, which is a neutral stimulus, with food, which is an unconditioned stimulus causing an unconditioned response (salivation). Over time, the bell alone, now a conditioned stimulus, caused the conditioned response (salivation), demonstrating learned association. This parallels the therapeutic approach for Dawn, as she will be conditioned to associate previously feared environments with a non-fearful response.