After five pairings of a tone followed by the presentation of meat powder, Pavlov's dogs are presented the tone by itself (a test trial). None of the dogs begin to salivate. In this case, the tone would best be called:
A) An unconditioned stimulus
B) A non-functional stimulus
C) A conditioned stimulus
D) A complex stimulus

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The tone is a non-functional stimulus because it did not elicit the conditioned response (salivation) after the pairings, indicating that conditioning did not occur.

After Five Pairings of a Tone Followed by the Presentation