What psychological concept involves a learning process where a living being connects a stimulus to a reflex?

Classical conditioning is the psychological concept in which a living being learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a reflexive response. This concept was famously demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov in his experiments with dogs, where he showed that a dog could learn to associate the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) with the presentation of food (unconditioned stimulus), leading to salivation (unconditioned response) even in the absence of the food.

In classical conditioning, the focus is on involuntary responses that are triggered in reaction to certain stimuli, indicating how behaviors can be learned through association. This stands in contrast to other learning theories, such as operant conditioning, which deals with voluntary behaviors and the consequences that follow them, social learning theory, which emphasizes learning through observation and imitation, and cognitive behavioral theory, which focuses on the influence of cognitive processes on behaviors.

Understanding classical conditioning provides insights into how certain behaviors and reactions can be conditioned and an individual's ability to learn from their environment simply through association, thus forming a crucial part of psychological and educational theory.