Which of the following would best explain a situation in which a small child is afraid of a guinea pig because he had a previously fearful experience with a hamster?



Stimulus discrimination

Second-order conditioning

Stimulus generalization

Sensory preconditioning

Spontaneous recovery

3 answers

This would be Second-order conditioning. The child was conditioned once with a hamster, and because of this experience applied what was learned to a NEW stimulus...the guinea pig.
Nice try, anonymous, but I would disagree. It is stimulus generalization. The response is generalized from one animal to the other.
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