Question
Emily naturally blinks whenever her sister pretends she’s going to poke her in the eye. Her sister, a psychology major, then decides to have a little fun. She pairs the word “psychology” (conditioned stimulus) with pretending to poke Emily in the eye (unconditioned stimulus). Soon, Emily blinks as soon as she hears the word “psychology.” According to the concept of blocking, what would happen in this scenario if Emily’s sister also started snapping her fingers when she said the word psychology?
A Snapping her fingers will become a second conditioned stimulus causing Emily to blink
B Emily will blink twice, one for each conditioned stimulus that causes the conditioned response
C Emily will stop blinking because she is getting too many conditioned stimuli than classical conditioning can account for
D Snapping her fingers will not have any additional effects because it is not adding any surprise to predict the unconditioned stimulus
This question is taken from Psychology 150 – Introduction to Psychology » Spring 2020 » Exam 2
