ABSTRACT
The ability to make associations and relate different stimuli together is a key building block of the learning of all organisms, humans included. Sometimes even one ‘trial’ is enough to form an association that modifies behaviour for an entire lifetime. A dog needs no training to salivate when food is presented. In the language of respondent conditioning, food is an unconditioned stimulus and salivation is an unconditioned response. The association of fear and parrots might subsequently persist for many years. Parrots and their squawks become a conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response of fear can begin to show up consistently around birds, and can even generalise to similar contextual cues, such as other animals, or places like parks where birds or animals are known to be present. Respondent conditioning is so efficient that the fear response could even be learned from observing a parent respond with fear around an apparently passive animal.
