Braking your car after you observe a child's ball rolling into the street from between parked vehicles
is instinctive
requires a conscious decision
is a reflex
is instinctice and requires a conscious decision. (my choice)
am I right here?
The braking itself (pushing the brake) is a conditioned reflex. It was not not and instinct when you first drove. You might have wanted to stop, but you had to think about how to push the brake.
requires a conscious decision and is a reflex that is learned from experience.
You are partially correct. The act of pushing the brake pedal in response to a child's ball rolling into the street from between parked vehicles can involve both instinctive and conscious decision-making processes.
Instinctively, the natural inclination for many people is to protect the safety of others, especially when they perceive potential danger. This instinct might lead someone to immediately recognize the potential hazard of a child's ball rolling into the street and feel the urge to take action.
However, braking your car requires a conscious decision. While the instinct might prompt you to stop, the specific action of pushing the brake pedal is not an instinct but a learned behavior. When you first learned to drive, you had to consciously think about how to push the brake pedal in order to slow down or stop the car. Over time, this action becomes more automatic and conditioned, but it still involves cognitive processing and conscious decision-making.
So, considering both the instinctive reaction to protect the child's safety and the conscious decision to push the brake pedal, your choice of "is instinctive and requires a conscious decision" is an accurate description of the process involved in braking your car in this situation.