Final answer:
A neutral stimulus is one that has neither a learned nor reflexive meaning (A). It is an element in conditioning that, by itself, does not naturally cause a response in an organism until it is paired with an unconditioned stimulus and becomes a conditioned stimulus.
Step-by-step explanation:
A neutral stimulus is one that does not naturally provoke any response or reaction in an organism before it is associated with an unconditioned stimulus in the process of conditioning. In the context of conditioning, a neutral stimulus (NS) is something that, by itself, does not elicit any innate, reflexive response in an organism. For example, before conditioning takes place in Ivan Pavlov's famous experiments with dogs, the sound of a tone itself did not cause the dogs to salivate; the tone was a neutral stimulus. It was only after being repeatedly paired with the presentation of food, an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which naturally caused salivation (an unconditioned response or UCR), that the tone became a conditioned stimulus (CS), capable of eliciting salivation on its own.
So, when faced with the options:
- A. Has neither a learned nor reflexive meaning
- B. Has a learned meaning
- C. Has a reflexive meaning
- D. Has both a learned and reflexive meaning
the correct answer is A. Has neither a learned nor reflexive meaning. As it stands, a neutral stimulus has no significance to an organism until it is associated with an intrinsic or learned response through the process of conditioning.