Stimulus Discrimination and Generalization
Once an association has been learned, the next question becomes: Which stimuli should trigger the response? Two important classical conditioning processes—stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalization—help organisms decide when a learned response should or should not occur.
These skills are essential for survival. Animals (including humans) must learn to respond only to cues that truly signal danger, food, safety, or important outcomes.
stimulus discrimination
Stimulus discrimination occurs when an organism learns to respond only to the conditioned stimulus (CS) and not to other similar stimuli. For example:
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Pavlov’s dogs learned that the tone predicted food but the doorbell did not, so they salivated only to the tone.
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Tiger the cat learns the difference between the electric can opener (CS = food coming) and the electric mixer (no food).
stimulus generalization
Stimulus generalization happens when an organism responds to a new stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus—even if it has never been paired with the UCS. Generalization is helpful when a learned response should apply broadly, not narrowly. For example:
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If the electric mixer sounds very similar to the can opener, Tiger may come running at both sounds—until she learns the difference.