Pre-conditioning

Pre-conditioning is a general concept in which an entity is exposed to a form of some stress or stimulus in order to prepare that entity to be more resilient against the stimulus when and if the stimulus is encountered in the future. For example, a human may be exposed to artificially weakened virus in order to stimulate an antibody production in the body against that virus, so that later when the live 'wild-type' virus is countered, the body is immune or at least mounts an immediate and vigorous defense against it by already possessing the relevant antibody: vaccination or pre-exposure prophylaxis. Another example is a simulated exam session for a class of students. A further example is exposure of a covert operative to simulated torture. At the community level, an example might be that of holding a fire or nuclear drill. Pre-conditioning is a vital tool in handling animals for transport or the showring, and also has applications in computer programing and robotics. Considering the planning of learning experiences as 'pre-conditioning' can help the design of those learning experiences.