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Who was Ivan Pavlov?
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist that is renowned for his landmark study on conditioning. He conducted this hallmark study during the twentieth century. The interesting thing about this study was the fact that Pavlov was not even studying the effects of conditioning when he launched the study.
He was actually studying the physiological effects of eating in the dogs. He began by studying digestion, but Pavlov began to observe that the salivation of the dogs was very curious. He would place meat powder or some other food morsel on the dog's tongue, waiting for the salivation to occur.
He began to see that the dogs were salivating as soon as he entered the room, which was before any food was even in sight. Since salivation in any animal is a reflex, Pavlov decided to probe deeper into the conditioning of the dogs. This later became known as classical conditioning.
I have heard about Pavlov's dogs. What is so significant about this study?
Pavlov's study is also known as Pavlovian conditioning. This study is one of the most used studies in classical conditioning. Conditioning is a type of learning. Basically, what this study proved was that the dogs became conditioned by Pavlov to have expectations. When he entered the room, the dogs expected food; therefore, they began salivating in expectation. After he noticed that the meat powder had this effect, he decided to try a different neutral stimulus.
What is a neutral stimulus?
A neutral stimulus is something that normally would not produce any salivation. Pavlov chose to ring a bell since ringing a bell would not normally produce salivation in the dogs.
Pavlov began ringing a bell before placing the meat powder or item on the dog's tongue. Each and every time that the bell was rung, meat powder or food was given to the dog. Pavlov repeated these experiments many, many times. Eventually, the bell alone was enough to make the dogs salivate. This proved that a neutral stimulus that elicited no response whatsoever from the dogs before was now causing a response- salivation.
What did this prove?
Pavlov's experiment proved that all animals could be trained or conditioned to expect a consequence on the results of previous experience. For example, a child that is always given a cookie by a particular teacher will begin to expect that cookie every single time that they see the teacher. If the teacher always says the word 'yummy' before giving the cookie, the child will become conditioned to expect the cookie after hearing the word. The children would even begin to salivate at the appearance of the teacher or the word yummy after repeated conditioning.
How can I learn more about this and other studies in classical conditioning?
You can either check your local library for books on psychology, or you can do an Internet search for classical conditioning. I hope that this has broadened your knowledge of conditioning, and helped you to understand Pavlov and his dogs.
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