Researchers once thought of conditioning as automatic and not involving much
in the way of higher mental processes. However, now researchers believe that
conditioning does involve some information processing.
The psychologist Robert Rescorla showed that in classical
conditioning, pairing two stimuli doesn’t always produce the same level of
conditioning. Conditioning works better if the
conditioned stimulus acts as a
reliable signal that predicts the appearance of the
unconditioned stimulus.
The fact that
classical conditioning depends on the predictive power of the
conditioned stimulus, rather than just association of two stimuli, means that some
information processing happens during classical conditioning. Cognitive processes
are also involved in
operant conditioning. A response doesn’t increase just because
satisfying consequences follow the response. People usually think about whether the
response caused the consequence. If the response did cause the consequence, then it
makes sense to keep responding the same way. Otherwise, it doesn’t.
