conditioned emotional response
Noun: A learned emotional reaction that occurs in response to a previously neutral stimulus after that stimulus has been repeatedly paired with an event that naturally triggers an emotion. It is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, demonstrating how emotions can be classically conditioned.
The term is used primarily in academic, psychological, and scientific contexts to describe an emotional reaction that is not innate but has been learned through association. - It is a compound noun, typically used in its full form. - It often appears in discussions of classical conditioning experiments, such as those conducted by Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson.
- The child's fear of white rats was a conditioned emotional response established during the famous Little Albert experiment.
- After the car accident, the sound of screeching tires triggered a conditioned emotional response of intense anxiety.
- Therapists work to extinguish maladaptive conditioned emotional responses, such as phobias.
- "CER": The term is frequently abbreviated to CER in psychological literature and research notes.
- The study measured the latency of the CER to the auditory cue.
- Conditioned Response (CR): A broader term for any learned response (not exclusively emotional) to a conditioned stimulus.
- Conditioned Emotional Reaction: A synonymous phrase.
- Conditioned Fear: A specific, common type of conditioned emotional response.
- Conditioned Reflex: A related concept focusing more on automatic physiological responses.
- Learned emotional reaction
- Conditioned affect
- Conditioned emotion (as noted in the reference context)
This term is a specific application of the general principle of classical or Pavlovian conditioning. It highlights that not just physical reflexes (like salivation) but complex internal states (like fear or pleasure) can be conditioned through associative learning.
- an emotional response that has been acquired by conditioning