Question

Last year, Dr. Moritano cleaned Natacha's skin with rubbing alcohol prior to administering each of a series of painful rabies vaccination shots. Which of the following processes accounts for the fact that Natacha currently becomes fearful every time she smells rubbing alcohol?

A) negative reinforcement
B) classical conditioning
C) latent learning
D) operant conditioning
E) observational learning

Answer 1

Natacha's fear response to the smell of rubbing alcohol after rabies shots is an example of classical conditioning, where she has learned to associate the previously neutral scent with the pain of the shots.

Step-by-step explanation:

The process that accounts for Natacha becoming fearful every time she smells rubbing alcohol after experiencing painful rabies vaccination shots is called classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, an association is formed between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus that naturally produces a response. In Natacha's case, the neutral stimulus is the smell of rubbing alcohol, the unconditioned stimulus is the pain from the shots, the unconditioned response is the fear caused by the pain, and the conditioned response is the fear elicited by the smell of alcohol after the association has been learned.