One Day as Your Professor Is Driving to Work, Another

question 96

Essay

One day as your professor is driving to work, another driver runs through a red light and hits his car. The professor is shaken up but survives the incident. However, the next time he starts to enter the intersection, he becomes nervous and fearful. Soon, he starts going to work via another route to avoid the intersection even though this route adds twenty minutes to his commute in each direction.
According to the principles of classical conditioning, why does the professor become scared of the previously harmless intersection? What can he do about this, as going via the other route is very time consuming? Be specific. Break down the situation into its parts, and show how the principles of learning apply.

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Definitions:

Doughnut Chart

A graphical representation similar to a pie chart but with a blank center, enabling the display of multiple series of data in a compact and visually appealing format.

Bubble Chart

A type of data visualization that displays multiple circles (bubbles) in a two-dimensional plot, where the size and color of bubbles can represent additional data dimensions.

Doughnut Chart

A variant of the pie chart, with a blank center, used to display categorical statistics.

Pie Chart

A circular graph divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportion. Each slice's size is proportional to the quantity it represents.