) A response that, after conditioning, follows a previously neutral stimulus is called the __________ response. A. Paired B. Neutral C. Unconditioned D. Conditioned?

A response that after conditioning follows a previously neutral stimulus is called a conditioned stimulus.

• How does a stimulus become conditioned?

In order to understand what a conditioned stimulus is, you first need to comprehend how a conditioned stimulus was produced. In this case, the process must begin with a neutral stimulus. The function of a neutral stimulus is to not make any significant responses other than focus on one job at hand.

Once the process of classical conditioning takes place then a neutral stimulus becomes conditioned. During classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is fused together with an unconditioned stimulus.

• What is a conditioned stimulus?

A conditioned stimulus refers to a stimulus that can slowly be trained into developing into an unconditioned stimulus. You may have heard these terms used in psychological studies. For example, the most famous study would probably be Pavlov's dog. In this study, the researcher managed to train the dog to eat once a bell was chimed. This demonstrates that the conditioned stimulus, which is the bell soon becomes associated with food over constant repeats. The food then becomes the unconditioned stimulus.

• What is the response to a conditioned stimulus?

The natural response to a conditioned stimulus can differ depending on the circumstance. If we take the example of Pavlov's dog again, it was found that the dog would firstly start to salivate when the bell chimed, because it associated it with the food.

This is the conditioned stimulus. However, when the dog could see the food in its sights, which is the unconditioned stimulus, then it would begin to salivate more compared to the response to the conditioned stimulus. This shows that despite the conditioned stimulus initiating a response from the subject, it does not override the initial effects of an unconditioned stimulus.