What term describes the ease with which an animal learns classical conditioning based on certain stimuli?

The term "preparedness" refers to the concept that certain animals are biologically predisposed to learn certain associations more easily than others due to their evolutionary history. This principle is grounded in the idea that some stimuli have a more significant relevance or impact on survival and reproduction, leading animals to be naturally inclined to form associations with those stimuli.

For example, a rat may more readily learn to associate a specific taste with gastrointestinal distress (a form of conditioned taste aversion) because this type of learning has critical survival implications — identifying toxic food sources. On the other hand, other forms of conditioning may be harder for animals to grasp if they don't have an innate predisposition to make that particular association.

The other terms present in the choices, such as PREE (partial reinforcement extinction effect), experimental neurosis (a condition where animals display atypical responses due to stress in learning environments), and overshadowing (a phenomenon where a more salient stimulus inhibits the learning associated with a less salient stimulus), do not specifically address the biological readiness or predisposition involved in learning certain associations in classical conditioning in the same way that preparedness does. Therefore, preparedness is the best fit for describing this ease of learning based on specific stimuli.