US High School Psychology Practice Exam 2026 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

Classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations, where a previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a response. This concept was famously illustrated through the experiments of Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, who demonstrated that dogs could learn to salivate at the sound of a bell when it was paired with the presentation of food. Over time, the dogs associated the sound of the bell with the imminent arrival of food, leading to a conditioned response of salivation even when no food was presented.

This foundational concept plays a crucial role in understanding how behaviors can be learned and modified through association. Pavlov’s work laid the groundwork for behaviorism and influenced numerous fields, including psychology, education, and animal training.