BTEC Applied Psychology Practice Test 2025 – Complete Exam Preparation

In classical conditioning, the term that refers to a stimulus that initially does not produce a target response but can become associated with an unconditioned stimulus through repeated pairings is known as a neutral stimulus. When the neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, it can eventually evoke a conditioned response.

For example, if a dog hears a bell (the neutral stimulus) before receiving food (the unconditioned stimulus), the dog will begin to associate the sound of the bell with the arrival of food. Over time, the bell alone can elicit salivation in the dog, which is now considered a conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus (the bell has become conditioned through association with the food). This illustrates the transformation of a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus as it gains the ability to affect behavior due to its association with the unconditioned stimulus.