Humans have this amazing ability to learn. What this means is that based on experiential circumstances, we discover with time and repetition, certain outcomes are brought about. Operant conditioning is what we call this method of learning. It was originally hypothesized and tested (a experiment later described as ‘Pavlov’s Dogs’) by a psychologist Ivan Pavlov, and further perfected by a psychologist BF Skinner. So, this whole conditioned response idea really isn’t a new idea, and in fact, psychologists have been working on understanding it for more than a century.