What is the term for when a conditioned animal responds to a stimulus that is not identical to the original conditioned stimulus?

What is the term for when a conditioned animal responds to a stimulus that is not identical to the original conditioned stimulus?

• A. Habituation
• B. Extinction
• C. Stimulus generalization
• D. Stimulus discrimination

Answer: (C)

Stimulus generalization is the tendency for a conditioned animal to respond to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus. After conditioning, the association between the CS and the US can transfer to similar cues that share features, so the learned response is triggered by these non-identical but similar stimuli. For example, a dog trained to salivate to a specific bell tone may also salivate to bells with slightly different pitches or timbres. The response tends to weaken as the new stimulus becomes less similar, creating a gradient of generalization. In contrast, discrimination would involve learning to respond only to the exact CS and not to similar stimuli, typically through differential reinforcement. Extinction occurs when the CS is presented without the US repeatedly, leading to a decrease in the conditioned response. Habituation is a non-associative decrease in response from repeated exposure to the same stimulus, not due to an CS–US pairing.

Stimulus generalization is the tendency for a conditioned animal to respond to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus. After conditioning, the association between the CS and the US can transfer to similar cues that share features, so the learned response is triggered by these non-identical but similar stimuli. For example, a dog trained to salivate to a specific bell tone may also salivate to bells with slightly different pitches or timbres. The response tends to weaken as the new stimulus becomes less similar, creating a gradient of generalization.

In contrast, discrimination would involve learning to respond only to the exact CS and not to similar stimuli, typically through differential reinforcement. Extinction occurs when the CS is presented without the US repeatedly, leading to a decrease in the conditioned response. Habituation is a non-associative decrease in response from repeated exposure to the same stimulus, not due to an CS–US pairing.