Final answer:
The term that refers to an organism's ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other non-significant stimuli is known as stimulus discrimination.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term that refers to the tendency for an organism to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and similar stimuli that do NOT predict an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is known as stimulus discrimination. This process ensures that the organism responds only to the specific stimuli that are associated with a significant outcome, such as a food reward or a potential threat, and not to other, irrelevant stimuli. For example, if a bell tone (CS) is repeatedly followed by the presentation of food (UCS), a dog will learn to salivate only in response to the bell. If the dog hears a different tone but does not salivate because it does not signal food, this is an example of stimulus discrimination. The dog has learned to differentiate between the bell tone that means food is coming and other sounds that do not predict food. Conversely, if the dog salivated to any tone that was close to the original bell tone, this would demonstrate stimulus generalization.