A stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response.

• A. Respondent Conditioning
• B. Response Cost
• C. Response Latency
• D. Repertoire

Answer: (A)

This item assesses classical conditioning, specifically stimulus-stimulus pairing. In this process, a neutral stimulus is presented with an unconditioned stimulus repeatedly until the neutral becomes capable of eliciting the response on its own. The neutral turns into a conditioned stimulus and the response it now elicits is the conditioned response. For example, if food naturally makes a dog salivate, pairing a bell with the food over time makes the dog salivate to the bell alone. That is respondent conditioning.

Other terms don’t fit this scenario: response cost is about punishing a behavior by removing a reinforcer, which is operant conditioning; response latency refers to the time between a stimulus and the response; repertoire is the set of behaviors an individual can perform.