Penny Is Generally an Anxious Person

Essay

Penny is generally an anxious person. But on this particular day, she was feeling fine and was actually in a very relaxed mode. It was a beautiful day and she decided to walk to school rather than take the school bus. On her way, she happened to see a cat by the side of the road. The cat seemed lost and in distress. Penny put her school bag down on the ground and went over to the cat, attempting to pick the animal up to console it. However, the cat was so distressed that it scratched Penny in the face and nearly hit her eye. Penny dropped the cat and ran home. The scratch was painful and disfiguring. In addition, because her parents and neighbors were not able to locate the cat or its owner, Penny had to undergo very painful procedures to detect and protect her from potential rabies. Ever since that day, Penny has been terrified of cats. Using a classical conditioning paradigm, explain how Penny became terrified of cats. Be sure to include the following terms in your answer: neutral stimulus (NS), neutral response (NR), unconditioned
stimulus (UCS) unconditioned response, (UCR), conditioned stimulus (CS), conditioned response
(CR).