Here's why:
* Classical Conditioning: In classical conditioning, an organism learns to associate a neutral stimulus (CS) with a meaningful stimulus (UCS) that naturally elicits a response (UCR). This association leads to the neutral stimulus now eliciting a similar response (CR).
* Stimulus Generalization: This occurs when an organism responds to stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus (CS). For example, if a dog is conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell (CS), it might also salivate at the sound of a chime, which is similar to the bell.
In simpler terms: The organism has learned to generalize the response to other stimuli that share similar characteristics with the original CS.