What is classical conditioning? Explain with examples.

Classical conditioning is a learning process discovered by Ivan Pavlov where an organism learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a meaningful one. Pavlov's experiment: 1. Dogs naturally salivate (unconditioned response) when seeing food (unconditioned stimulus) 2. Pavlov rang a bell (neutral stimulus) before presenting food 3. After repeated pairings, dogs salivated at just the bell (now a conditioned stimulus) 4. Salivating to the bell alone = conditioned response Real-life examples: • Hearing a song → feeling happy (because it played during a good memory) • Seeing a dentist's office → feeling anxious • Phone notification sound → checking your phone immediately Key concepts: extinction (response fades without reinforcement), generalization (responding to similar stimuli), discrimination (only responding to the specific stimulus).