Which process involves an animal learning to respond to a reflex action through association with a stimulus?

The process of classical conditioning involves an animal (or a human) learning to associate a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicits a reflexive response. This occurs through repeated pairings of the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually leading to the neutral stimulus eliciting the response on its own. The classic example of this is Pavlov's experiments with dogs, where the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) became associated with the presentation of food (unconditioned stimulus), leading to the dogs salivating (conditioned response) merely upon hearing the bell.

While operant conditioning involves learning based on the consequences of behavior (reinforcement or punishment), and social learning encompasses learning through observation or imitation of others, these do not specifically focus on the association of a reflexive response with a stimulus as classical conditioning does. Thus, classical conditioning is the correct answer as it precisely describes the process of learning a reflexive response through association with a particular stimulus.