A neutral stimulus is something in our environment that doesn’t produce an automatic response until we learn to associate it with another stimulus.
In behaviorism, a neutral stimulus is any stimulus that initially produces no specific response other than focusing attention. When used in classical conditioning, it becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.
Ivan Pavlov's seminal work on classical conditioning highlighted the neutral stimulus concept. His experiments with dogs demonstrated how a previously neutral stimulus, like a bell, could become associated with food and trigger salivation—a conditioned response.