Over many school days, an end-of-day bell is repeatedly followed by dismissal.…
2026
Over many school days, an end-of-day bell is repeatedly followed by dismissal. Eventually, the bell itself evokes an automatic anticipatory response in students, and they begin preparing to leave even while the teacher continues the lesson. Which associative-learning process best explains the bell’s ability to elicit this response?
Answer: D. Classical Conditioning — ConceptLearning by association occurs when a previously neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an event that naturally produces a response. After repeated…
- A.
Operant Conditioning
- B.
Cognitive Mapping
- C.
Trial and Error Learning
- D.
Classical Conditioning
Attempted by 11 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept
Learning by association occurs when a previously neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an event that naturally produces a response. After repeated pairings, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and can evoke a conditioned response on its own.
Application
Before learning, dismissal naturally prompts students to pack up and leave, while the bell is merely a neutral cue.
Across school days, the bell repeatedly occurs just before dismissal, so students associate its sound with leaving.
After this association forms, the bell alone triggers anticipatory preparation even when teaching continues; this is a conditioned response.
Contrast
Operant conditioning changes voluntary behaviour through reinforcement or punishment, rather than through cue-event pairing.
Cognitive mapping concerns mental representations of places and routes, not an automatic response to a learned cue.
Trial-and-error learning relies on trying alternatives and retaining a successful response, not on a cue acquiring predictive meaning.
Result
Therefore, the behaviour is explained by classical conditioning.