Training a poodle to salivate to a toy horn, but the car horn also elicits salivation, demonstrates which phenomenon?

Training a poodle to salivate to a toy horn, but the car horn also elicits salivation, demonstrates which phenomenon?

• A. Stimulus discrimination
• B. Extinction
• C. Experimental neurosis
• D. Stimulus generalization

Answer: (D)

This demonstrates stimulus generalization. After the poodle learns to salivate to the toy horn, it begins to respond to other horn sounds that are similar. The car horn shares enough auditory features with the toy horn that the dog treats it as the same cue predicting food, so the conditioned salivation response appears to generalize to that stimulus as well. If it were stimulus discrimination, the dog would differentiate between the toy horn and the car horn and would not salivate to the car horn. Extinction would involve repeatedly presenting the horn without giving food, leading the salivation to fade. Experimental neurosis would show a stressed, erratic response pattern from conflicting stimuli, which isn’t the case here.

This demonstrates stimulus generalization. After the poodle learns to salivate to the toy horn, it begins to respond to other horn sounds that are similar. The car horn shares enough auditory features with the toy horn that the dog treats it as the same cue predicting food, so the conditioned salivation response appears to generalize to that stimulus as well.

If it were stimulus discrimination, the dog would differentiate between the toy horn and the car horn and would not salivate to the car horn. Extinction would involve repeatedly presenting the horn without giving food, leading the salivation to fade. Experimental neurosis would show a stressed, erratic response pattern from conflicting stimuli, which isn’t the case here.