Question

Pederson’s teacher blows a whistle when it is time for his class to come in from recess. Pederson is afraid of being left on the playground alone, so he starts to go inside any time he hears a sound like the teacher’s whistle, such as the school bell ringing. Pederson’s behavior is an example of

Group of answer choices

spontaneous recovery.

second-order conditioning.

stimulus generalization.

stimulus discrimination.

Answer 1

Pederson’s behavior is an example of **stimulus generalization**. This occurs when a response that has been conditioned to one specific stimulus (in this case, the teacher's whistle) occurs in response to other, similar stimuli (like the school bell ringing). Pederson is generalizing his learned response of going inside from the whistle to other similar sounds.