Title: classical conditioning
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - classical conditioning
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11687
Status: current

Definition
Learning in which a behavior comes to be elicited as a reflex response by association with a neutral antecedent stimulus through repetition of the stimulus-response pairing.

Note
The neutral antecedent stimulus such as the ringing of a bell is repetitively paired with an unconditioned stimulus such as food to elicit a response such as salivation.

Related Terms
- conditioned stimulus: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12095
- stimulus: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12094
- unconditioned stimulus: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12096

Source
- PAC, 2015, 87, 841. 'IUPAC Glossary of terms used in neurotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 858 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0103)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11687/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11687/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11687/xml

Citation: Citation: 'classical conditioning' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11687
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Accessed: 2026-05-14T17:00:28+00:00