Question

The difference between unconditioned and conditioned stimulus is always relative.

Answer 1

In the learning process known as classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus.

Answer 2

Conditioned and unconditioned responses are behaviors that result from specific stimuli. An unconditioned response is behavior that occurs naturally due to a given stimulus. However, a stimulus prompts a conditioned response only when someone has come to associate that stimulus with another. For example, when a person yelps upon being bitten by an insect, the yelp is an unconditioned response. After hearing a buzzing every time one is bitten, one might begin to yelp every time one notices the sound: this is a conditioned response because it occurs after one learns to associate the buzz with an insect bite (it does not occur spontaneously). Psychologists distinguish between conditioned and unconditioned responses to explain classical conditioning, a kind of learning.