1) Marie receives chemotherapy for her cancer, and the chemotherapy makes her very nauseous. During her third visit, just the sight of the treatment room made her nauseous. She tried to relax, but she could not help feeling ill even though the nurse has not yet started her treatment that day. In this case, the unconditioned stimulus is the:
a. chemotherapy
b. nausea
c. sight of the room
d. uncomfortable feeling that Marie had.
I know that the answer is not b. I think that it is either a or c but I am confused. Can someone please explain this to me!! Thank you!
If she were blindfolded, she wouldn't get sick until after the chemo started. So the nausea is being caused by....
The stimulus must be the sight of the room because she felt nauseous as soon as she saw the room.
In this scenario, the sight of the treatment room can be considered the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). An unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus that naturally triggers a response without any prior learning or conditioning.
In this case, the chemotherapy can be seen as the conditioned stimulus (CS) because it is the stimulus that is paired with the UCS (sight of the treatment room) to elicit a conditioned response (nausea). The discomfort that Marie feels can be considered the conditioned response (CR) because it is a learned response to the pairing of the UCS and the CS.
So, in summary, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is the sight of the room, while the conditioned stimulus (CS) is the chemotherapy, and the conditioned response (CR) is the feeling of nausea. Therefore, the correct answer would be c. sight of the room.
In this scenario, you are asked to identify the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). To understand this term, we need to first define classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a stimulus that naturally triggers a response (known as the unconditioned response or UCR) is paired with a neutral stimulus, eventually leading the neutral stimulus to elicit the same response. The previously-neutral stimulus is then referred to as the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the response it elicits is called the conditioned response (CR).
In the given scenario, Marie experiences nausea due to the chemotherapy (UCS). This means that the chemotherapy is the natural stimulus that directly and naturally induces the feeling of nausea, without any prior associations.
On her third visit to the treatment room, Marie feels nauseous even before the nurse has started her treatment. This suggests that a new stimulus, the sight of the room, has become linked to the feeling of nausea. However, the sight of the room had no previous association with nausea, making it a neutral stimulus.
Since the sight of the room is not the natural cause of nausea and did not elicit nausea before, it cannot be considered the unconditioned stimulus. Therefore, the correct answer is a. chemotherapy. The chemotherapy naturally induces nausea and is the unconditioned stimulus in this scenario.