Question

Researchers paired rats’ drinking of saccharin-sweetened water with injections of a drug that weakened the immune system. After repeated pairings, sweetened water triggered the rats’ immune systems to break down. What was the conditioned stimulus in the study?

Answer 1

Answer:

The conditioned stimulus is the sweetened water.

Explanation:

Classical conditioning is the process by which a behavior is acquired through various stimulus which provide responses.

Let's define which is which in this example:

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): the drug injected into the rat's body to weaken its immune system.
• Unconditioned response (UCR): the weakening of the immune system.
• Neutral stimulus (NS): the saccharin- sweetened water, which by itself generates no response.
• Once the UCS and NS are combined, they generate the UCR; the weakening of the rat's immune system.
• Finally, the conditioned stimulus (CS) becomes the sweetened water, which without the drug (UCS) generates the conditioned response of the weakening of the immune system.