a1667 G. Wither Speculum Speculativum in Misc. Wks. (1872–7) V. 31 And whether want of pre-conditioning Will bring at length, most damage to the King And his Old Party.

1931 Lincoln (Nebraska) Star 10 Feb. 14 The addition of two major league players to the colony of ball players here for pre-conditioning.

1949 Times 29 Sept. 5/3 Fear and self-interest have always wrought powerfully, and require no preconditioning of human nature to enhance their effectiveness.

1967 Jrnl. Compar. & Physiol. Psychol. 64 360/1 Sensory preconditioning (SPC) involves the pairing of two neutral stimuli, S₁ and S₂.

1970 E. H. Methvin Riot Makers 240 (heading) Attitudes instilled by preconditioning.

1993 New Scientist 11 Dec. 19/1 Repeatedly interrupting the heart's blood supply for short periods can help it to withstand longer periods of reduced blood flow. They call the effect ischaemic preconditioning.

2005 Slate Mag. (Nexis) 6 Sept. In Iraq..the descent into chaos following catastrophe..had nothing to do with preconditioning from life under dictatorship.

1900 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 12 81 The psychology of language considered as the preconditioning mechanism of the higher mental processes.

1950 Science 22 Dec. 743/2 An experiment to determine whether extinction to operant (preconditioning) level is permanently effective in eliminating differences in response strength.

1974 Psychol. Abstr. 51 572/2 The strength of resultant saccharin aversions was inversely related to preconditioning saccharin familiarity.

1981 Science 30 Jan. 508/3 A study based on sensory preconditioning procedures..seems a promising way to address this problem.

2003 Lancet (Nexis) 27 Sept. 1007 The further identification and characterisation of preconditioning stimuli that are effective but relatively benign is of utmost importance.