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.
Example: Consider the earlier example in which Adam’s
professor, Professor Smith, pulled out a revolver in class and
shot it into the air, causing Adam to cringe. If Adam heard a
gunshot only when Professor Smith pulled out her revolver, he
would be conditioned to cringe at the sight of the revolver. Now
suppose Professor Smith sometimes took out the revolver as
before and fired it. Other times, she played an audio recording
of a gunshot without taking out the revolver. The revolver
wouldn’t predict the gunshot sound as well now, since gunshots
happen both with and without the revolver. In this case, Adam
wouldn’t respond as strongly to the sight of the
revolver.
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.
