What term measures how much an animal generalizes from a conditioned stimulus?

• A. Behaviorism
• B. Generalization gradient
• C. Hierarchy of Procedures
• D. Positive reinforcement

Answer: (B)

The generalization gradient is the way we quantify how much an animal generalizes from a conditioned stimulus. After learning to respond to a specific cue, animals often respond to similar cues as well. By testing a range of stimuli that vary in similarity to the conditioned cue and plotting the response strength against that similarity, you get a gradient: strong responses to stimuli close to the CS that gradually diminish as they become more different. The shape of this gradient—how steep or broad it is—tells you how much generalization there is: a broad gradient means the animal generalizes to many similar cues, while a steep gradient means it discriminates narrowly. The other terms don’t capture this measurement of generalized responding: behaviorism is a broad school of thought about observable behavior, positive reinforcement is a mechanism for strengthening behavior, and the hierarchy of procedures isn’t a standard concept for describing generalization.