A conditioned reflex, also called an acquired reflex, is an automatic response to a stimulus that differs from that initially causing the response, but that has become associated with it by repetition, in a process known as classical conditioning. Such a reflex is developed gradually by training in association with specific repeated external stimuli.
An example is that in Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov’s experiment in which a dog salivates at the ringing of a bell if, over a period of time, every feeding is preceded by the bell-ringing stimulus. Such a reflex is built into the nervous system and does not need the intervention of conscious thought to take effect.
