define classical conditioning
home / study / social sciences / psychology definitions / classical conditioning. In behaviorism, classical conditioning is a kind of learning in which a person or animal comes to associate two kinds of stimuli, one that naturally prompts a given behavior and one that does not. In the early twentieth century Ivan Pavlov illustrated classical conditioning through experiments with dogs. When food was presented to a dog, the dog naturally salivated. After repeatedly hearing a bell when food was presented, the dog salivated upon hearing the bell even in the absence of food.