Topic > Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov - 579

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian behaviorist, is known for his classical conditioning experiments. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which we associate two stimuli. Note that his curiosity aspired when he noticed that the salivation ran on the tangent of putting food in a dog's mouth. He began to notice that the dog was not only salivating at the food in his mouth, but also at the environment associated with the food, such as the position, the sight of the person feeding him, the plate of food, and even the noise of the steps. Pavlov considered these “psychic secretions” a nuisance to his study until he realized this independently of the form of learning. Pavlov began to set up his experiment by first eliminating any unwanted and possible influences. Pavlov and his collaborators isolated the dog in a small room, secured it with a harness, and attached a device used to measure the saliva secreted. They began their first phase, the acquisition; where they connected a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins to trigger the conditioned response. From another room they slipped the food...