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After being bitten by Fido, the neighbor's dog, Jimmy is fearful of all dogs. This is best explained by the concept of...

a) Classical conditioning
b) Operant conditioning
c) Vicarious conditioning
d) Extinction

User Oleksandra
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

Jimmy's fear of all dogs after being bitten by one is an example of classical conditioning, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unpleasant experience, eliciting a conditioned response of fear.

Step-by-step explanation:

The best explanation for Jimmy's fear of all dogs after being bitten by one is classical conditioning. This type of learning occurs when a neutral stimulus (in this case, the presence of any dog) becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus (the painful bite) that naturally and reflexively elicits an unconditioned response (fear and pain). After the association is made, the previously neutral stimulus now triggers a conditioned response (fear of dogs).

In the famous experiments by Ivan Pavlov, dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) with the presence of food (unconditioned stimulus) and began to salivate (conditioned response) when only the bell was rung. Similarly, Jimmy has associated the presence of dogs with the fear and pain he experienced from the bite. This is not operant conditioning, which involves consequences that influence the likelihood of a behavior being repeated; nor is it vicarious conditioning, which occurs through observing someone else; and it's not extinction, which is the diminishing of a conditioned response.

User Pratik Butani
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