Conditioned Stimulus
Definition
A conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response.
Analogy
Let's say every time you're about to get pizza (unconditioned stimulus), your phone rings with a special ringtone. Over time, you might start feeling hungry just by hearing that specific ringtone. Here, the ringtone has become a conditioned stimulus.
Related terms
Conditioned Response: This is the learned reaction to the conditioned stimulus. In our analogy above, feeling hungry when hearing the special ringtone would be your conditioned response.
Stimulus Generalization: This is when an organism responds in a similar way to different but related stimuli. For example, if you started feeling hungry when hearing any phone ring after conditioning.
Stimulus Discrimination: This is when an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar. For example, only responding (feeling hungry) to your specific pizza-ringtone and not other ringtones.
"Conditioned Stimulus" appears in:
Additional resources (1)
Practice Questions (3)
What was the conditioned stimulus in John Watson’s experiment with Little Albert?
What term describes suddenly exhibiting a forgotten response after a period of no exposure to the conditioned stimulus?
How could one critique the assumption that conditioned responses will always occur immediately after the conditioned stimulus?
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