Classical conditioning. Classical conditioning occurs when we link something usually considered "neutral" with a what is called an involuntary response. An example of this would be a student who begins to fear school because of a bully at school. The student associates school with the bully. A well known example of classical conditioning is Pavlov's experiment with his dogs, where the dogs learned to associate the ringing of a bell with eating meat. The dogs only had to hear the bell (not actually see the meat) in order to begin salivating in anticipation of being given the meat to eat.