conditioned response

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

condi′tioned response′, [Psychol.]

1. Animal Behavior a response that becomes associated with a previously unrelated stimulus as a result of pairing the stimulus with another stimulus normally yielding the response. Also called condi′tioned re′flex. 

• 1930–35

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

conditioned response noun

1. a response that is transferred from the second to the first of a pair of stimuli. A well-known Pavlovian example is salivation by a dog when it hears a bell ring, because food has always been presented when the bell has been rung previously
   Also called (esp formerly): conditioned reflex