A conditioned response transfers to stimuli resembling the original, with strength falling as similarity falls.
Pavlov's finding, and the reason exposure therapy must be conducted across varied contexts: a response extinguished in one setting generalises poorly to others.
In practice
- A dog trained to sit at the kitchen door sits at any door of similar width, and ignores the command in the garden.
- A person who has overcome a fear in the clinic finds it intact in the car park, and the transfer was never automatic.