Conditioned Responses in AP Psychology

Definition

Conditioned responses are learned responses that are acquired through classical conditioning. They occur when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus, leading to a conditioned response that is similar to the original unconditioned response.

Related terms

Generalization:

Generalization refers to when a conditioned response occurs not only to the original conditioned stimulus but also to other similar stimuli. For example, if someone has been conditioned to fear dogs after being bitten by one specific dog, they may generalize their fear response to all dogs.

Extinction:

Extinction is the gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus. If our previous example continued, if someone stopped pairing funny videos with their favorite song, eventually they would stop laughing in response to hearing just that song.

Spontaneous Recovery:

Spontaneous recovery refers to the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after some time has passed since extinction occurred. In our analogy, even if someone had stopped laughing at their favorite song for a while after extinction, they might suddenly start laughing again upon hearing it unexpectedly.