and his associates were careful to avoid the idea that such changes corre- 

 spond to what happens when one of us "learns" any kind of lesson. Indeed, 

 Pavlov is said to have penalized any workers in his laboratories who used 

 the word learn in connection with these experiments. 



Such conditionings were carried out in very complex combinations. For 

 example, the dog's food would be placed at a certain point in the room, and 

 the dog in time came directly to that location. Then a special stimulus pre- 

 ceded his admission to the room, until that signal came to mean for the dog 

 "come and get it". A different stimulus preceded an electric shock, which 

 made the animal turn and run away. These two "signals" thus became asso- 

 ciated with coming and going. But they were also substituted for the stimulus 

 "see meat", so that seeing meat no longer made the dog's mouth water. 

 Now the conditioned dog had to come or go when he saw meat, but he had 

 to wait until he saw which signal was up (see illustration, p. 671). 



The natural responses of many birds and mammals and other animals 

 have been conditioned experimentally. Even an earthworm can be condi- 

 tioned to turn always in a certain direction for food. 



By feeding and milking cows on a regular program we get them to 

 come in from pasture at sunset or when we call them. This saves the work 

 of going after them. Horses come to follow fixed routes, and they come 

 home after they have strayed away. Chickens come in response to a familiar 

 call. We train animals to perform tricks for our entertainment. 



Learning and Feeling The experiments show us that conditioning is 

 not merely a matter of repeating and repeating: it involves the satisfactions 

 or pains that are associated with experience. Indeed, this has always been 

 generally recognized and used in the training of animals. Nearly everybody 

 recognizes this principle to some extent; we encourage one kind of conduct 

 with rewards, and we discourage other actions by means of punishment. 



All this works well enough in laboratory experiments or in training 

 animals. But it presents some difficulties when we are dealing with human 

 beings. Most of us are intelligent enough to discover that we can obtain 

 certain rewards for doing what others demand of us. One hates to practice 

 scales, for example; but he can stand the annoyance for half an hour in 

 exchange for candy or a visit to the movies. But unless the "practice" yields 

 other satisfactions, he seems to make no headway. Or one may learn how 

 to dodge penalties provided for disapproved behavior, instead of learning to 

 abhor such behavior. 



The education of human beings, like the training of a dog, begins with 

 the changing of natural or impulsive behavior. But human learning, skill 

 and character go much farther and involve much more than training or con- 

 ditioning. The great differences between man and other species seem to be 

 related to the complex brain and nervous system that distinguish our species. 



268 



