conditioning

/kənˈdɪʃənɪŋ/ (bre, ipa) · /kənˈdɪʃənɪŋ/ (ame, ipa) · /kən-ˈdi-sh(ə-)niŋ/ (ame, mw)

conditioning — 名詞

1. The process by which people or animals learn to connect one event with another t

1.名詞B2
釋義

制約

透過重複經驗建立自動反應的學習過程

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.

例句

Classical conditioning taught Kwame's dog to salivate when it heard a bell.

古典制約讓 Kwame 的狗學會聽到鈴聲就流口水。

collocation: classical conditioning

Social conditioning often shapes how people think about gender roles without them realizing it.

社會制約常常在人們不知不覺中塑造了他們對性別角色的看法。

collocation: social conditioning

同義詞
  • 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

反義詞
  • 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

❌The teacher used conditioning to make students memorize the poem by repeating it.
✅The teacher used conditioning to associate the math problem with a reward after each correct answer.
💡conditioning requires pairing a stimulus with a response or outcome, not just repeating an action.
❌My parents gave me a good conditioning about manners.
✅My parents' conditioning taught me to say thank you without thinking.
💡conditioning is uncountable; avoid putting 'a' before it.

2. The regular care, exercise, or treatment that keeps something — such as a person

2.名詞B2
釋義

保養；鍛鍊

透過定期照顧或訓練維持良好狀態

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.

例句

The air conditioning in Hui's apartment stopped working during the hottest week of summer.

Hui 住處的空調在最熱的那一週壞掉了。

compound noun: air conditioning

After six months of physical conditioning, Nikhil ran his first half-marathon without stopping.

經過六個月的體能鍛鍊，Nikhil 順利跑完了他的第一場半程馬拉松。

collocation: physical conditioning

同義詞
  • 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.

常見錯誤

❌I need to do some conditioning before the job interview.' (when meaning general preparation)
✅I need to do some physical conditioning before the hiking trip.
💡specify the type of conditioning when the context is ambiguous.