What term describes the tendencies of some species to acquire some forms of conditioning less readily than others?

• A. Biological preparedness
• B. Biological contra preparedness
• C. Cognitive bias
• D. Evolutionary predisposition

Answer: (B)

Biological constraints on conditioning show that an animal’s biology shapes which associations are easy or hard to learn. The term for the tendency of some species to acquire certain forms of conditioning less readily than others is contra-preparedness. It pins down the idea that evolution can bias learning in particular directions, making certain stimulus–outcome pairings harder to form than others. This is different from biological preparedness, which describes cases where learning is especially easy for specific pairings, and it’s broader than simply an evolutionary predisposition. Cognitive bias isn’t about conditioning tendencies at all, but about thinking patterns. So the statement describes contra-preparedness as the bias that reduces the ease of conditioning for some forms, given the species’ biology and ecological history.