When researchers paired head-stroking with sweet liquids for repeated trials, infants began sucking when their heads were stroked. In classical conditioning terms, head-stroking would be considered a(n):

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In classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is something that originally does not elicit a strong or natural response in the subject, but comes to do so after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus. In this scenario, head-stroking becomes the conditioned stimulus because it is paired with the sweet liquids (the unconditioned stimulus) and eventually elicits sucking (the conditioned response) on its own.

When Researchers Paired Head-Stroking with Sweet Liquids for Repeated Trials