Conditioning of Learning
Day-by-day we run into many ways of associating things, For exam· pIe, the normal stimulus to start a flow of saliva is the taste of food. But how often our mouth waters at the mere sight of some favorite food. This happens because the sight of food has been associated in the past with its actual taste. This involves what we call conditioning: a given response (salivating) comes to be evoked br a previously neutral stimulus (sight) when this stimulus is combined several times with the stimulus which naturally elicits the response. In this Jilustration the flow of saliva is an unlearned response; that is, an unconditional response is a conditioned response. Thus sight has been substituted for tq.ste in eliciting the response of mouth watering.
The more nearly alike a new stimulus is to the original stimulus, the better it will.substitute for it. Sometimes we become conditioned to avoid things. A very unpleasant tasting medicine may be taken in a solution of orange juice. Weeks later the mere sight of an orange may make us shudder.
Through conditioning we often learn to attach value to things that have no intrinsic value. Let us illustrate by a study. In one experiment, secondary rewards ("poker chips") of certain colors were given to chimpanzees. Primary reward values (food, water, and play privileges) were assigned to different chips. The animals were placed in different cages that contained food and water vending machines, and a work apparatus requiring them to lift weights ir! order to get chips that would "buy" food, water, and play privileges. The chimps readily learned to operate the work apparatus, but they would not work for chips that would not buy them anything. They learned not only to manipulate the chip!i iri obtaining rewards but to discriminate between chips (by color) that wduld buy food, water, or activity. And they learned to weed out working for chips that would not buy anything. If the animals had a large number of chips, they would not work very ha~d to secure additional ones. Some the animals even learned to trade "food chips" for '''play chips."
Sometimes the "chimp-o-mat," as the vending machine was caIled, did not work. Yes, you guessed it-the animals banged it on the side! Both animals and humans behave in accord with many ways we have been conditioned. Here is where motivation becomes so important to us in our learning.
