A behavior becomes more or less likely because of its consequences or because it has been paired with significant events. Conditioning is that broad learning process. It includes both classical and operant forms.

In classical conditioning, stimuli acquire the power to elicit responses. In operant conditioning, behaviors are strengthened by reinforcers or weakened by punishers. Both operate throughout daily life: the smell of coffee that starts the morning routine, the social smile that rewards a child’s first words, the avoided intersection where an accident once occurred.

Conditioning principles underpin behavioral therapies, animal training, classroom management, and habit-change programs. They demonstrate that much of what we do is shaped by regularities in the environment rather than by conscious deliberation. Understanding those regularities gives leverage for deliberate change.

What is learned through conditioning can often be unlearned by rearranging the same contingencies.