Final answer:
In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus after being repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus, such as food in Pavlov's dog experiment, which naturally elicits a response (the unconditioned response).
Step-by-step explanation:
In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is termed the unconditional stimulus is incorrect. The correct term for a neutral stimulus in classical conditioning is a stimulus that initially does not elicit any intrinsic response until it is associated with the unconditioned stimulus. During the conditioning process, the neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, which naturally elicits a response (the unconditioned response). After repeated pairings, the once neutral stimulus elicits a response on its own and becomes known as the conditioned stimulus, with the response it now elicits being called the conditioned response.
For example, in Pavlov's experiment with dogs, the bell initially had no effect on the dogs' salivation and was therefore a neutral stimulus. However, by consistently ringing the bell before presenting food, which is an unconditioned stimulus because it naturally causes dogs to salivate (unconditioned response), the bell becomes associated with food and begins to elicit salivation on its own, thus becoming a conditioned stimulus that produces the conditioned response of salivation.