Learning And Ivan Pavlov 's Discovery Of Classical Conditioning

He deciphered that dogs like humans salivate (reflex response) when they see food; it is a natural physiological reflex response. However he also demonstrated that a signal such as using a bell (stimulus) just before he gave the dog food would eventually lead the dog to salivate at the sound of the bell even if there was no food present. Pavlov verified by pairing or associating another stimulus (the bell) with food he could train the dogs to salivate. This theory could then be applied to people as well. According to Richard et al (2007) it was found that pairing one stimulus with another stimulus could also provoke a reflexive response in people. This is also called a stimulus – response theory of learning.

Pavlov’s discovery of classical conditioning was a complete accident (Hock, 2009, p. 66). Pavlov was doing physiology research with salvation’s role with digestion when he discovered classical conditioning. In his research, he had dogs with their salvation glands redirected to their cheek in order to test the amount of saliva produced when presented with different foods. Pavlov then noticed that the dogs would salivate before they even got the food. He then discovered that the dogs had associated the worker’s footsteps with the food. So, when the dogs hear the footsteps they know that food is on the way so they begin to salivate.

Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner both studied learning, in which they both did different experiments on different animals and with different conditioning. Classical conditioning is the process in which two stimuli become linked; once this association has been recognized, an originally neutral stimulus is conditioned to provoke an involuntary response. The dogs in Pavlov’s studies learned to associate countless stimuli with the expectation of food, which caused in them salivating when the stimuli were presented. Pavlov revealed how such associations are learned, and referred to this process as conditioning. While the

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning which occurs when two stimuli are paired together repetitively and therefore become associated with each other eventually producing the same response. Classical conditioning was developed from the findings of Ivan Pavlov to account for associations between neutral stimuli and reflexive behavior such as salivation. Pavlov (1927) accidently discovered that dogs began to salivate before they had tasted their food. To support his theory, he carried out experiments using dogs which involved measuring the amount of saliva they produced. In his experiments, food started off as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which produced salivation, an unconditioned response (UCR). They are both unconditioned as they occur naturally without being learned. The dogs were presented with a bell (NS), this provided no salivation. The bell and food were presented together and after many trails an

Behaviorist Ivan Pavlov introduced the ideas of classical and operant conditioning as ways that humans and other species learn. Classical conditioning promotes the idea that a positive or

Classical conditioning is a form of basic learning the body automatically responds to a stimulus. One stimulus takes on the properties of another. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) is credited for discovering the basic principles of classical conditioning whilst he was studying digestion in dogs. He developed a technique for collecting dog’s salivary secretions. Pavlov (cited in Eysneck M.W 2009) noticed that the dogs would often start salivating before they were given any food or saw the feeding bucket or even when they heard the footstep of the laboratory assistant coming to feed them. Quite by accident Pavlov had discovered that the environmental control of behaviour can be changed as a result

Classical conditioning is learning that occurs trough association can be defined as a type of learning in which a conditioned stimulus (sound of a bell, Pavlov) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) to evoke a response. In the early twentieth century Pavlov’s research included dogs that would start to salivate when food was presented. Pavlov suggested that salivation was a learned response. During the research a bell was rang when the food was presented, the dog salivated

Classical conditioning is learning which has been acquired by experience (Terry, 2009).  Pavlov was the first one to experiment classical conditioning by training dogs how to salivate when they heard a bell ring.  In order for Pavlov to be able to do this, the first step was to show the dogs food.  The showing of food would cause the dogs to salivate.  Afterward, Pavlov would ring a bell whenever he brought food out. The experimenter continued to this many times.  Eventually, by the time the

Ivan Pavlov was an innovative Russian physiologist who paid strict attention to detail. This precision of detail allowed him to notice that the dogs he was experimenting with began salivating to the sound of a researcher's footsteps instead of to the food that the researcher was bringing to the dog. The realization that the dogs anticipated receiving food before seeing the food prompted him to conduct more research and eventually create the methods of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has been used since the early twentieth century in order to see how animals and humans learn to predict that a particular stimulus leads to a particular event. There are many different methods of learning that are heavily influenced by classical conditioning

Learning is the process of gaining knowledge or skills through study, experience or teaching. It is a process that depends on experience and leads to long-term changes in the possible behaviour of an individual in a given situation, in order to achieve a goal.

The process that Pavlov utilized is quite interesting, as he would take a stimulus that caused a reaction or reflex already and combine it with another gadget that did not provide the same feedback. Since food was the stimulus that caused dogs to salivate already, the food was known as the unconditioned stimulus while the salivation was deemed the unconditioned response. The fork that he would ring would become the conditioned stimulus since that is what he was basically programming the dog’s salivation to react with, but until it is official it is known as the neutral stimulus. Before the conditioning process, the food alone would cause the dog to salivate yet the ringing of the fork would not. Pavlov would then combine the ringing of the fork and the food during the actual conditioning process in order to instill the ringing as a stimulus for salivation. Once the entire conditioning process was officially completed, Pavlov had the ability to only ring the fork to cause the dog to salivate rather than needing the food along with it. This result proved that he had successfully register a new stimulus within the dog that it could not control after having combined both the unconditioned stimulus and the now conditioned stimulus: “Once the neutral stimulus has become associated with the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS). The conditioned response (CR) is the response to the conditioned stimulus” (“Pavlov’s Dogs”). It is a rather quite depressing thought that human infants were trained and programmed in a

He began to study this further, and would pair the meat powder with various stimuli. After the dogs were presented with this stimuli, like a bell, and the meat powder multiple times, they would salivate just to the sound of the bell even if the powder wasn’t presented. Pavlov then went on to demonstrate these ‘stimulus-response’ bonds, which many consider the basic building blocks of learning. He then spent much of the rest of his career devoted to researching further into this finding. Pavlov called this classical conditioning, which is more modernly defined as a basic form of learning where one stimulus or event predicts the occurrence of another stimulus or response. This theory can also be known as Pavlovian conditioning. In every form of classical conditioning, there some form of stimulus and a response. The main four are UCS, UCR, CS, and CR. The UCS is known as the unconditioned stimulus, the UCR is the unconditioned response, the CS is known as the conditioned stimulus, and the CR is the conditioned response. In this study, the UCS was the food powder, while the UCR was the salivation. After conditioning took place, he CS became the bell, and the CR was the salivation. B.F. Skinner and John Watson both branched off of this, shaping their own theories.

Briefly, Pavlov`s classical conditioning theory explain learning new behavior. He used dogs in his experiment. He explained three stages of classical conditioning. The unconditioned stimulus means that a stimulus in the environment has created a behavior (meat salivate the dog), Neutral stimulus that itself will not create a reaction (bell is ruining no salivate dog), conditioned stimulus means that neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus together (meat and bell together salivate dog) and after conditioning means that neutral stimulus creates a conditioned response and becomes a conditioned stimulus(rang bell salivate

Ivan Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849 in Ryazan Russia. He was a Russian physiologist, and his work lead to the development of the first experimental model of learning: classical conditioning. He began his studies as a theology major, and changed throughout the years to physiology at the University of St. Petersburg. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 (Psychology History). Ivan Pavlov was a very intelligent man. He was known for working on and experimenting with animals (dogs specifically). Pavlov 's theory of classical conditioning consisted of a dog, a bell, food, and salivation. He conducted his experiment in 1890 (Wikipedia).

Pavlov found that even if food was not brought the dog would still salivate to the sound and this was called the conditioned stimulus. Pavlov’s experiment generated much research as they identified many conditioning processes such as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalisation and discrimination. Baron defined acquisition as ‘The process by which a conditioned stimulus acquires the ability to elicit a conditioned response through repeated pairings of an unconditioned stimulus with the conditioned stimulus’.