Unlock the Secret of Your Mind: Conditioning Techniques For a Better Life

Conditioning is a fundamental idea in psychology. This article discusses how we can leverage it to increase our productivity and improve our lives.

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What Is Conditioning?

Those of you who have taken some psychology classes may vaguely remember learning about Ivan Pavlov’s research on conditioning in dogs. You may also remember hearing terms such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Fundamentally, conditioning is a way of modifying behavior. More specifically, it's an excellent way to elicit a particular behavior. The main difference between classical and operant conditioning appears in how we accomplish this.

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov published his first paper discussing this phenomenon in 1897. The paper detailed how, during some unrelated research on dogs, Pavlov discovered that dogs began to associate the sound of a bell with being fed. This association became so intense that dogs began to salivate just at the sound of the bell.

This simple study has become a stepping stone to understanding many other phenomena in the world of psychology, and while it's clearly an interesting effect, you may be wondering what we can really take away from…