conditioning
/kənˈdɪʃənɪŋ/ (bre, ipa) · /kənˈdɪʃənɪŋ/ (ame, ipa) · /kən-ˈdi-sh(ə-)niŋ/ (ame, mw)
conditioning — noun
1. The process by which people or animals learn to connect one event with another t
The process by which people or animals learn to connect one event with another through repeated experience, gradually forming automatic habits or responses that happen without conscious thought.
Classical conditioning taught Kwame's dog to salivate when it heard a bell.
collocation: classical conditioning
Social conditioning often shapes how people think about gender roles without them realizing it.
collocation: social conditioning
Through operant conditioning, the students learned that completing their work led to extra free time.
Adina's fear of swimming pools came from childhood conditioning rather than any real accident.
Advertisers use conditioning so that consumers feel happy when they see a brand logo.
- training
broader and less technical; can refer to any skill-building, not just automatic responses
- shaping
a narrower term within behavioral psychology referring specifically to step-by-step behavior modification
- socialization
overlaps with social conditioning but emphasizes learning group norms rather than stimulus-response links
- habituation
a specific type of conditioning where an organism stops responding to a repeated, unimportant stimulus
- extinction
the gradual weakening of a conditioned response when the expected outcome stops happening
文法句型
conditioning + through [stimulus]
conditioning + to [response]
用法筆記
The term is most frequently encountered in psychology (classical and operant conditioning) but also appears in everyday talk about social influences. This sense is uncountable — you cannot say 'a conditioning' when referring to the psychological process.
常見錯誤
2. The regular care, exercise, or treatment that keeps something — such as a person
The regular care, exercise, or treatment that keeps something — such as a person's body, hair, leather, or a room's air — in a healthy, clean, or comfortable state.
The air conditioning in Hui's apartment stopped working during the hottest week of summer.
compound noun: air conditioning
After six months of physical conditioning, Nikhil ran his first half-marathon without stopping.
collocation: physical conditioning
Élise gives her hair a conditioning treatment every Sunday to prevent damage from heat styling.
Regular leather conditioning keeps your bags, shoes, and jackets looking new for many years.
Good physical conditioning helps older adults stay active, climb stairs, and avoid common injuries.
- maintenance
more general; used for objects and systems but not for the human body
- exercise
only covers the fitness aspect, not product care
- training
emphasizes skill or performance improvement rather than general upkeep
文法句型
[noun] + conditioning
conditioning + of [noun]
用法筆記
This sense covers both physical fitness training (exercise, diet, rest) and the maintenance of materials and products (hair conditioning, leather conditioning). Air conditioning is a fixed compound noun referring to a cooling system; it is the most common everyday use of this sense.