Final answer:
Classical conditioning is the process where a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response, such as in Pavlov's experiments with dogs where a bell is paired with food to elicit salivation.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term for the basic form of learning where a neutral stimulus is paired with another stimulus that naturally elicits a certain response is classical conditioning. A widely known example of classical conditioning is Ivan Pavlov's experiments with dogs.
In these experiments, Pavlov paired the sound of a bell, which was initially a neutral stimulus, with the presentation of food, an unconditioned stimulus that naturally caused the dogs to salivate. Over time, the sound of the bell alone, now a conditioned stimulus, elicited the response of salivation, even without the presence of food.
The key phase in classical conditioning is the acquisition period. During acquisition, the neutral stimulus is consistently presented just before the unconditioned stimulus, until the neutral stimulus itself triggers the same response.