It explained that the idea of conditioning was to teach the subject to associate an unconditioned stimulus, which causes a particular reflex, with a conditioned stimulus, which will cause the same reflex. Watson, in his paper “ Psychology as the behaviourist views it” (1913), presented the idea of “Classical Conditioning” which was based upon the observations conducted by Pavlov.
Pavlov was the first person to study the laws of conditioning which paved the way for others, such as John Watson, to develop the idea further. The dogs had made a connection between the sound of a bell and receiving food, so a new behaviour had been conditioned. The bell began as a neutral stimulus as it had no bearing on whether or not the dogs would salivate but once the bell could cause salivation regardless of the presence of food it became a condition stimulus. Pavlov built upon this theory and as time went on he was able to get the dogs to salivate upon hearing the bell, even if there was no food present. His work referred to his study of how dogs salivate and how he could change their behaviour through reinforcement: he found that when a bell was rung in a particular sequence in relation to the presentation of food he could get the dogs to salivate before the food was consumed. Pavlov was a physiologist and is famous for his research into “Conditional Reflex,” this research signalled the start of behaviourism. However Pavlov was invited to the institute of Experimental Medicine in 1891 to organize and direct the Department of Physiology and, over a 45 year period, he was credited with it becoming one of the most important centres of physiological research. However, Pavlov began as a man of religion before turning his attention to the sciences for which he is now known.ĭuring his career Pavlov held many scientific/medical positions such as the chair of pharmacology at the Tomsk University and then at the University of Warsaw. Ivan Pavlov devoted his life to the study of physiology and sciences, providing us with remarkable discoveries which led to him being awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1904.
Pavlov was born on the 26th September 1849 in Ryazan, Russia.