The Conditioned Reflex

A Russian investigator, Pavlov, many years ago noticed that dogs in the laboratory drooled saliva when the man in charge of feeding them made an appearance. The association of saliva with the man was not a "natural" response, although the saliva would be thought of as flowing "naturally" at the sight of food. Pavlov went to work on the dogs and found that they could be trained to secrete saliva if a bell were rung every time they were given food. After many such repetitions, he rang the bell without giving the food. Sure enough, the saliva flowed. He reasoned that the bell con­ditioned the dogs because it had become closely associated over certain nerve pathways with the idea of food.

This was only the beginning of thousands of experiments to under­stand the conditioning process better. It soon became apparent that cats, rats, pigeons, and other animals could be conditioned to respond to "un­natural" stimuli. Soon the concept of conditioning was enlarged to in­clude the reactions of humans, and it was found to apply here as well, but it was also found to be more complicated for advanced behavior. This will be touched upon in Part 4.

Conditioned reflexes liberate our conscious minds from routine "think­ing" about where we are going. Too much reliance upon conditioning is what gives rise to the amusing things that are said to happen to absent-minded professors!

Studying is a process for creating the patterns which, after repetition, can almost become conditioned responses. If given enough practice, we can almost automatically respond to well-known questions with a well-rehearsed answer. This is what happens in word association tests. It also happens in a well-rehearsed play. Setting up the flags beforehand is a kind of conditioning. Some people have no need for repetition in getting the flags in place, while others must go over and over the flag placement and the pathways leading from them to the information.