In creating an interactive application or game, we want the user experience to be the best it can be. In creating meaningful play, we have given the user a rich set of options to choose from, and their path through the game has many possible states and outcomes. As the possible states and transitions in the game increase, it becomes harder as a game designer, to ensure that each path through the game states results in a positive interaction. We need to use user conditioning to help guide a user's behavior to interact with our application in predictable ways.

The effect of conditioning was clearly demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov in an experiment involving a dog and food. In this experiment, Pavlov would ring a bell every time he fed his dog. Eventually, he could get the dog to drool by just ringing a bell. The dog learned to associate a neutral stimulus, like the bell, with food. While it seems weird to say we want to manipulate our users like this, it will help us to guide the...