Question

Which of the following best describes the nature of a conditioned stimulus?

1) The CS must occur in the same sensory modality (i.e. sound, sight, touch, smell or taste) as the US.
2) For the CS to evoke a response, a contingency must be formed between the CR and US.
3) The CS naturally elicits a response from the body without any training.
4) Prior to training, there would be no automatic response to the CS.

Answer 1

A conditioned stimulus is a previously neutral stimulus that elicits a response after being repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus, only after training and not naturally.

Step-by-step explanation:

The nature of a conditioned stimulus is best described by the fourth option: 'Prior to training, there would be no automatic response to the CS.' A conditioned stimulus (CS) is initially a neutral stimulus that, through association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to elicit a conditioned response (CR) in an organism. This process is evidenced in Pavlov's experiments with dogs, where a neutral stimulus like a tone—which originally did not cause any response by itself—was paired with meat powder (the UCS) which naturally caused the dogs to salivate (the UCR). After several pairings, the previously neutral stimulus became a conditioned stimulus, eliciting salivation (now the CR) even in the absence of the meat powder.