At home, you rattle the chain on your dog's leash every time you prepare to take him for a walk. After several episodes like this, you find that your dog comes running to the front door even when you pick up the leash to put it back in the closet. In this example, what is the conditioned stimulus?

The dog leash has become the conditioned stimulus

Explanation:

In classical/respondent conditioning, antecedent events become associated with one another.

A stimulus that does not typically produce a response is paired with one that does.

Learning is said to have taken place when the stimulus that did not produce a response begins to elicit a response.

In this scenario, the stimulus that does not elicit a response (neutral stimulus) is the dog's leash and after a while, it becomes the conditioned stimulus.

Rattling the chain is the stimulus that has been paired with walking the dog.

plato users:

d.  

there was a variety of food available on island x, but there were only large seeds and nuts on island y.