The response to the conditioned stimulus is called

• A. Neutral stimulus (NS)
• B. Reinforcement
• C. Conditioned response (CR)
• D. Law of effect

Answer: (C)

In classical conditioning, the response produced by the conditioned stimulus is called the conditioned response. Once a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a conditioned stimulus, and the reaction it triggers is learned rather than reflexive. For example, a bell paired with food leads the dog to salivate when hearing the bell alone—the salivation is the conditioned response. The unconditioned response is the natural reflex to the unconditioned stimulus (salivating to food). The neutral stimulus is the bell before conditioning. The other terms belong to different ideas: reinforcement relates to increasing behavior through consequences, and the Law of Effect is about how outcomes shape behavior in operant conditioning.