Conditioning
Why did you press the button? Nothing told you to press the button, but you instinctually knew that you needed to press the red button to proceed. Psychology provides an explanation through the term conditioning.
💡 Conditioning is the process of training a person to behave in a certain way
You, the user, have unintentionally gone through the proper conditioning to recognize that the red box was a button, and that pressing the button was essential to proceeding (assuming that you have adequate experience with navigating websites).
Operant Conditioning
💡 The learning that results when an organism connects a behavior with a consequence
This type of conditioning was the one this website utilized in order to get the user (you) to press the red button. Operant conditioning is comprised of a few features, such as: Behavior, Consequence, Reinforcement, Shaping, and Punishment. I will outline how these features correlate with the button analogy.
| Feature | Definition | Button Example |
|---|
| Behavior | The learned action performed | Pressing the red button |
| Consequence | The outcome of the behavior | Advancing to the next page |
| Reinforcement | Process that increases the likelihood of a behavior | Successful navigation to next page |
| Shaping | Gradual modification of behavior through successive approximations | Learning web interaction patterns over time |
| Punishment | Consequence that decreases the likelihood of a behavior | Potential error or unexpected outcome if button not pressed |