A conditioned stimulus is a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually triggers a conditioned response.
Let's go back to the dog training example. The command "sit" was initially just a word (neutral) but after being paired with the treat (unconditioned stimulus), it becomes a conditioned stimulus that makes your dog sit down.
Neutral Stimulus (NS): This is something that does not trigger a response on its own, but can become a conditioned stimulus when paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): This is something that naturally and automatically triggers an unlearned response without previous conditioning.
Stimulus Generalization: This refers to the tendency for the conditioned response to be evoked by stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.
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