The Conditioning of Habits

The brain is an amazing gift of nature. It allows us to do the things we do; it allows us not only to move, eat, and sleep, but also to think, predict, and learn. One of the most remarkable aspects of the brain is its ability recognize patterns and condition itself in response.

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, conducted a famous experiment that would show the mode of learning called classical conditioning. The experiment would measure when saliva secreted from the dog's mouth when it is exposed to different stimuli.

It is a natural reflex that a dog salivates when it has food in its food. To measure the amount of saliva a dog secreted, Pavlov put a tube inside the dog's mouth and took it out regularly to record the volume. In his experiment, every time before feeding the dogs, he would ring a bell and then measure the saliva secreting from the dog's mouth. At first, as expected, the dogs would salivate when they saw the caretaker bringing food. However, gradually over time, the dogs would salivate when the bell was rung instead of when they saw the food. Finally, after a series of repetitions the caretaker rang the bell but did not bring out any food. The dog still salivated, which suggested a relationship between the bell and the saliva secretion that was trained through repetition.

Classical conditioning is not only found in dogs, we also have habits of classical conditioning. So when that cat or dog bit you so long ago you might still have a phobia for cats or dogs. When you puked after eating a certain food too much, you might still dislike it. The smell of homemade food might remind you of your old home when you were a child. Classical conditioning is part of our lives and you've probably realized it before reading about it.

Why else would we be dreaming so much about food in the hour before lunch? 

Comic by Schootingstarr [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Learning complex ideas from simple atoms

Thinking (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Learning something can sometimes be either difficult or easy, usually in between the two. Just what makes learning differential equations and learning simple arithmetic the difference between learning "complex" and "simple"?

Well, the direct answer would be that to learn differential equations, you must know arithmetic, you and you must know algebra. You also need to know how to use numbers, logic, and algebra to even attempt to learn calculus. Compared to simple arithmetic, all you need to know is how to count. Learning isn't some miracle happening inside your brain, it's a putting together and adding little things we know or have memorized as true. To learn differential equations, you need to put together what you learn from arithmetic, geometry, and algebra.

For example, to learn to add, a child must first learn to count. A child memorizes the numbers 1 through 10. 2 comes after 1, 3 comes after 2, 4 comes after 3, etc. Now, after memorizing the numbers, he is taught the concept of putting two numbers together called adding. 4 plus 5 is counting 5 from 4. 5 (1), 6 (2), 7 (3), 8 (4), 9 (5). There we go, the answer is 9. A child must count twice and know where to count in order to add two numbers together.

As you might guess, learning multiplication is the same thing. A child just has to add the same number some number of times. 4 times 5 is just 4 added with 4 added with 4 added with 4 added with 4.

Now imagine if a child had to learn multiplication without learning how to add or count. The seemingly simple operation would be exceedingly difficult and complex!

I know not all kids are taught the concepts of addition or multiplication. They just memorize big tables. Then again, when we ourselves multiply 4 and 5, we don't actually add 4 to itself 5 times, we just know it's 20. However, it serves as a good example. Why do so many students think math is so difficult? If you don't understand one concept, you will miss the next concept, and the workload piles up.

It isn't just math, it applies to everything. Science, sports, writing blogs, you name it. Anything to add? Post it in the comment section below.

Here is an interesting chart on another take on learning simple to complex. It divides learning a concept into multiple steps for a fuller understanding.