Stimulus-Response
Stimulus-Response is a fundamental concept in psychology that describes how organisms react to external stimuli. A stimulus is any event or situation that evokes a reaction, while the response is the behavior or action that follows. For example, when a loud noise (stimulus) occurs, a person may jump or feel startled (response). This relationship helps explain how individuals and animals learn and adapt to their environments.
This concept is often associated with behaviorism, particularly the work of B.F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov. In Pavlov's famous experiment, dogs learned to associate the sound of a bell (stimulus) with food, leading to salivation (response) even when no food was present. Understanding Stimulus-Response interactions is crucial in fields like psychology, education, and animal training.