# 17. Symbolic Reward ## 17.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 17.5.4. Conditioning Also known as classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning, it's a form of learning and expectation based on the experience of association between a stimulus and a response. The Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov is credited with the discovery of this conditioning mechanism. Pavlov found that dogs can be conditioned to salivate in the presence of a non-food stimulus that they have learned to associate with food. If Pavlov brings the food and claps before feeding the dog, the dog will eventually salivate when Ivan (or any other human being) walks into the room or when the dog hears a clap. A response to conditioning can be involuntary, as in the case of salivation, and it can be unconscious as in the case of expecting to get relief from an ailment by following a doctor's orders. Human beings are also capable of being conditioned to respond in ways not directly connected with a particular real event. **Negative conditioning example:**  In contrast, this refers to victims reacting negatively to mistreatment. For instance, members of continuously persecuted groups may react defensively when confronted by the presence of police or other uniformed officials. The symbolism of the uniforms is enough to trigger a conditioned response. Such were the conclusions of some sociologists regarding the rapid escalation of violence in the 2011 riots in England17.1. Many researchers documented that rioters were reporting that even the presence of the police made them feel and behave violently. A long standing antagonism to the police had become entrenched in minority populations. This was attributed by researchers to decades of racial prejudice in the British police force, the racially biased use of stop and search by English police and similar long-term conditioning behaviours against black or Asian British citizens. Thus the effect of decades of discrimination and oppression of minority groups has been enough to create a negative conditioned reaction in a sizeable part of the nation's youth towards the country's main institution of law and order - the police.