Final answer:
The key concepts of stimuli, responses, conditioning, and learning are associated with behaviorism, a school of thought in psychology exemplified by the work of Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson, focusing on observable behaviors and the stimulus-response relationship.
Step-by-step explanation:
Stimuli, responses, conditioning, and learning are key concepts in the thinking of behaviorists. Behaviorism is a school of thought in psychology that focuses on studying observable behaviors rather than internal thought processes. Early behaviorists like Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson laid the groundwork for this perspective, asserting that behaviors could be understood as reflexes triggered by environmental stimuli.
Pavlov's discovery of classical conditioning demonstrated that a reflex, like salivation in dogs, originally triggered by food, could be triggered instead by a previously neutral stimulus that had been associated with the food. Meanwhile, Watson advocated for a shift in psychology towards the study of observable behavior and away from unobservable mental states.
The essence of classical conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response. This has been a major component of behaviorism, exemplifying the stimulus-response relationship central to the school of thought. Operant conditioning, another form of learning within behaviorism, was further developed by B.F. Skinner demonstrated how behaviors could be modified by their consequences through reinforcement or punishment.
Behaviorism's influence has waned with the rise of cognitive psychology, but its principles, especially regarding learning and conditioning, remain fundamental in various applications, such as behavioral therapy and animal training. Recognizing the interaction between cognition, context, and behavior, later psychologists like Albert Bandura expanded on strict behaviorism to include cognitive processes in understanding personality development, proposing the social-cognitive theory.