Question

I wasn't very fond of my cat meowing at me every morning when my alarm clock would go off, so I stopped feeding him in the morning (when my alarm clock goes off). It took a few weeks, but gradually his learned association between the alarm and breakfast became _______, and he stopped meowing when he heard the alarm.

a) Extinct
b) Generalized
c) Reinforced
d) Conditioned

Answer 1

The process described in the scenario is extinction, where the association between the alarm and breakfast is gradually weakened.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer is a) Extinct. In the given scenario, the student describes the process of extinction. Extinction is the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus. By not feeding the cat in the morning when the alarm goes off, the association between the alarm and breakfast is gradually weakened, leading to the cat no longer meowing when it hears the alarm.