Final answer:
Ryan learned to fear spiders through modeling his mother's behavior, a form of observational learning. This mimicking of fear responses is similar to classical conditioning, as demonstrated in the famous Little Albert experiment by Watson and Rayner, which led to stimulus generalization.
Step-by-step explanation:
Ryan MOST likely acquired his fear of spiders through modeling. This form of learning occurs when an individual observes and imitates another's behavior. Ryan observed his mother's intense fear response to spiders and learned to react similarly when encountering spiders himself. This is an example of the antisocial effects of observational learning, which is significant in the study of how behaviors can be transmitted from one individual to another without direct reinforcement of the behavior.
The case of Watson and Rayner's experiment with Little Albert is a classical example of how fears can be conditioned. The UCS (unconditioned stimulus) was the loud sound, the CS (conditioned stimulus) was the white rat, the UCR (unconditioned response) was fear caused by the loud noise, and the CR (conditioned response) was the fear of the white rat that developed after conditioning. As a direct result of this conditioning, when Little Albert was later presented with other furry objects, such as a rabbit or even a Santa Claus mask, he experienced stimulus generalization, indicating his fear had extended to similar stimuli.
In the case of the cat described in the diagram, the term that best fits the process of the cat exhibiting hiding behavior in response to footsteps is classical conditioning, a method by which a creature associates two stimuli or a behavior and its consequence. These examples illustrate how observational learning and classical conditioning are powerful mechanisms through which humans and animals learn and develop certain behaviors and responses.