The problem was to investigate the conditioning of a withdrawal movement in the neonate. With shock as the unconditioned stimulus and the sound of a buzzer as conditioned stimulus, an exptl. group of 12 subjects showed clear evidence of conditioning and spontaneous recovery. A control group of 12 subjects, receiving an equivalent number of shocks alone but no paired presentation of shock and buzzer, likewise responded to the buzzer alone and showed spontaneous recovery in a test situation. Checks indicated that these results were not due to exptl. artifacts or to factors of maturation. 2 possible theoretical explanations are advanced.