conditioned stimulus
1
7.2
- noun
- /kənˈdɪʃənd ˈstɪmjələs/
- Specialized
:
estímulo condicionado
- Suppose a particular sound—say, of a gong—be established as a conditioned stimulus for the salivary response of a dog.
- conditioned stimulus (CS)
Examples
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Fear conditioning paradigms test the ability to associate a conditioned stimulus (CS; in this case, a context) with an unconditioned stimulus (US), such as a mild foot shock.
Academic text (2016) -
This study was designed to assess how the hedonic value of a conditioned stimulus (CS) might mediate the strength of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA).
Academic text (1994) -
When the product is actually available, that acts as a conditioned stimulus and elicits a response.
Blog text (26) -
So you have ACSA condition stimulus that came on the tone or a buzzer and then a few seconds later a shock.
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The images and even text could become a conditioned stimulus and produce the same response, but they have not been set up in the brain to trigger the same response as the actual item.
Blog text (26) -
However, research directly assessing the effects that conditioned stimuli have on subsequent CTAs is less frequent.
Academic text (1994) -
If, for example, during the presentation of a conditioned stimulus, a strange new stimulus of sufficient strength is simultaneously presented, the conditioned response will not occur; it will be inhibited.
Blog text (32) -
Once a conditioned reflex is established, in order to maintain it, it becomes necessary from time to time to "reinforce" the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned or absolute stimulus.
Blog text (32) -
The growing inhibition is inhibited, and the response now reappears with its previous intensity, which, however, again gradually diminishes if the conditioned stimulus continues to be presented without reinforcement.
Blog text (32) -
When a bell rings just before feeding a dog, the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus that triggers salivation.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'conditioned' (established through repeated association) modifies 'stimulus' (something that triggers a response), so a learner who knows both words can infer it means a stimulus that has been associated with something and now elicits a response. This is a technical but non-idiomatic, cross-linguistically common construction, making the meaning predictable from its parts.
Etymology
The term conditioned stimulus comes from Pavlov's dog experiments: a bell, at first a neutral sound, was rung when the dogs got food, and after a while the bell alone made them salivate. So a conditioned stimulus is something that, after being linked with a natural event like food, makes a 'learned' 'response' by itself. The name joins conditioned, meaning 'learned', and stimulus, meaning something that causes a reaction.