Kamin's blocking effect
Rats first learn that a tone predicts shock. Next, the tone and a light are presented together before shock. When the light is later tested alone, the rats show little fear. This is:
Answer C: explanation for every choice
Overshadowing is a more salient stimulus gaining most of the conditioning when two new stimuli are paired together. Here the tone was trained first.
Latent inhibition is slower conditioning to a stimulus that was previously presented alone many times.
Correct. The tone already fully predicts the shock, so the light adds no new information and is not conditioned.
Extinction is the weakening of a response when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus. The light was never conditioned.
Reviewed 2026-11-05 by a medical student. Spot an error? Report it with question ID ps148.