conditional reaction
- noun
- Specialized
:
reacción condicional
- Gaining a conditional reaction to certain smells can result from repeated experiences.
Examples
-
A dog exhibits a conditional reaction when it hears a bell.
-
The laboratory measured the subject's conditional reaction to different sounds.
-
A dog salivating when it hears a bell is an example of a conditional reaction.
-
The scientist studied the conditional reactions of various animals.
-
After being repeatedly exposed to the bell before receiving food, the dog developed a conditional reaction to the bell, salivating whenever it rang.
-
The experiment demonstrated that a conditional reaction could be triggered by a specific sound associated with a reward.
-
Children often learn a conditional reaction when they see a red light and stop, associating the light with the need to pause.
Synonyms
3
4.8
A learned reaction to a signal, like a bell, that happens after the signal is often shown with something else
1
5.3
An automatic response learned when a neutral sound or sign is repeatedly paired with something that naturally causes it
1
5.7
A reaction a person develops from practice or experience, not one they are born with
A learned response that happens when a signal like a bell is paired with food many times
A learned reaction to a sound or signal after it happens many times
An automatic learned reaction to a signal after repeated practice, for example a dog drooling at a bell
A learned automatic response to a signal, for example salivating at a bell
A way of acting you get from practice or experience
How Automatic
- Specialized
1
5.3
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
5.7
- Specialized
11
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is directly compositional: 'conditional' means depending on a condition and 'reaction' means a response, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer a response that occurs only under certain conditions (e.g., when a specific stimulus is present). Although the full technical sense (learned via conditioning) is more specialized, the basic idea is predictable from the constituents and cross‑linguistically common.
Etymology
Conditional reaction comes from classic learning experiments like Ivan Pavlov's, where a dog learned to drool when it heard a bell paired with food. Here conditional means 'only after a certain signal' and reaction means 'a response', so the phrase means a response that happens only when a specific signal is present.