Question

emily was scratched several times by the family’s cat when visiting her friend’s house. she reflexively pulled back in pain and surprise when it happened. now, when she visits that house, she backs away at the sight of the cat, even if it is in another room far from her.

2 mark for review
in this scenario, emily’s behavior when she was first scratched is best labeled as which of the following?
a unconditioned stimulus (ucs)
b conditioned stimulus (cs)
c unconditioned response (ucr)
d conditioned response (cr)

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze classical conditioning terms:

• Unconditioned Response (UCR) is an automatic reaction to an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) without prior learning. When Emily was scratched (UCS), her pulling back in pain/surprise is an innate, unlearned response, so it's a UCR.
• UCS is the stimulus that triggers UCR (e.g., the scratch). CS is a learned stimulus, and CR is a learned response (later behavior to the cat). So Emily's initial reaction to being scratched is a UCR.

Answer:

C. Unconditioned response (UCR)