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When Tony slices onions, his eyes begin to water and produce tears. In this example, the onion is the ________ and the tears the ________.

a) Stimulus; conditioned response
b) Conditioned response; unconditioned stimulus
c) Unconditioned stimulus; conditioned response
d) Conditioned stimulus; unconditioned response

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Final answer:

In Tony's case of slicing onions, the onion is the unconditioned stimulus and the tears are the unconditioned response, making option d) the correct answer. Pavlov's work demonstrated that psychic secretions in dogs were unconditioned responses until a neutral stimulus became a conditioned stimulus through repeated pairing.

Step-by-step explanation:

When Tony slices onions and his eyes begin to water and produce tears, the onion is the unconditioned stimulus and the tears are the unconditioned response. This is because slicing onions releases a chemical that irritates the eyes, leading to a natural reflex of producing tears. Thus, the correct option is d) Conditioned stimulus; unconditioned response.

In Pavlov's work with dogs, the psychic secretions were unconditioned responses (a. unconditioned responses). Before conditioning occurred, the dogs salivated (unconditioned response) in response to the meat powder (unconditioned stimulus). During conditioning, a neutral stimulus, such as a bell, is presented just before the unconditioned stimulus (meat powder) continuously. After conditioning, the neutral stimulus alone produces the salivation (conditioned response) and thus becomes a conditioned stimulus.

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