Sheryl makes pleasant small talk and pays her boss a compliment before asking for a day off because such a strategy was successful with a few of her previous bosses. This example MOST clearly illustrates:stimulus generalization.

stimulus generalization.                                    

Explanation:

Stimulus generalization: In psychology, the term "stimulus generalization" is described as one of the parts of the "conditioning processes" and it determined the propensity of a specific conditioned stimulus to trigger same responses once the specific response is being conditioned.

In other words, it occurs when a particular stimulus tends to respond towards the other stimulus which is somewhat similar to the previous one in the same manner.

In the question above, the given statement's example most clearly illustrates stimulus generalization.

answer; strength of association;