Counselor Education Comprehensive Exam (CECE) Practice Exam

In Pavlov's experiments, which was the conditional stimulus?

1. Salivation

2. Meat powder

3. The bell, buzzer, or tone

4. None of the above

The correct answer is: The bell, buzzer, or tone

In Pavlov's experiments, the conditional stimulus is the bell, buzzer, or tone. This stimulus is initially neutral and does not elicit a response by itself. However, through repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus, such as meat powder, it becomes associated with the unconditioned response of salivation. After conditioning, the previously neutral stimulus now triggers a response even in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus. This transformation is a fundamental principle of classical conditioning, illustrating how organisms learn to associate stimuli with predictable outcomes. The bell or tone effectively serves as the conditional stimulus, demonstrating how environmental cues can influence behavior through learned associations.