Behavioural Psychologists Ivan Pavlov ( _

Ivan Pavlov  Ivan Pavlov is one of the most recognizable names in psychology.  Pavlov was important in psychology because he laid the foundations of what eventually became a school of of thought of psychology called behaviorism.

Behaviorism  Is a learning theory that focuses specifically on the observable behavior(s) of the subject(s) toward certain stimuli in its environment.  It dismisses any mental processing that may have been involved with actions.

Classical conditioning  Also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioninG  IT is a type of learning in which a subject learns to, or becomes conditioned to, associate two stimuli with each other.

The Experiment  Pavlov was originally studying the salivary secretion of dogs when he noticed the behavior of a dog.  When at first he gave the dog its food, it would salivate; after repeating this several times, the dog would salivate to “the mere sight of the food, the food dish, the presence of the person who regularly brought the food, or even the sound of that person’s approaching footsteps.” (Myers, 2007)  This finding led him to study learning, which he hoped would help him understand the brain better.

The Experiment  He experimented with the dog by keeping it in an isolated room; he did so to avoid any extraneous stimuli.  The dog was attached with a device that would divert its saliva to a measuring instrument.  Pavlov would present to the dog food from a separate room, but right before doing so, he would sound a tone.  After several pairings of a tone and food, the dog would salivate upon hearing the tone.

Terms  Unconditioned Response: the natural response to an unconditioned stimulus  Unconditioned Stimulus: a stimulus that naturally triggers a response  Conditioned Stimulus: an originally neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response after being paired with an unconditional stimulus  Conditioned Response: the learned response to a previously neutral stimulus  Classical Conditioning: a type of learning where a once neutral stimulus comes to produce a particular response after pairings with a conditional stimulus

Scientific Analysis-1  Salivation in response to food in the dog’s mouth and is not a learned response.  Therefore, the salivation is an Unconditional Response  Food in the dog’s mouth is an Unconditional Stimulus.  The tone is a neutral stimulus because the dog does not salivate upon hearing it.

Scientific Analysis-2  During conditioning, the procedure of presenting the dog with food right after sounding a tone is repeated.  After conditioning, the dog salivates upon hearing the tone.  So the tone that was originally a neutral stimulus is now a Conditional Stimulus.  The dog salivating is now a Conditional Response instead of an Unconditional Response.

Classical Conditioning & Importance  All species that were tested, “from earthworms to fish to dogs to monkeys to people” (Myers, 2007) were able to be classically conditioned.  Classical conditioning is one way in which all organisms learn to adapt to their environment  He was able to show how processes such as learning can be observed objectively.  He did not make any subjective judgments while recording results, and instead measured how much saliva was produced in cubic centimeters. This was important because it gave future psychologists a model to work from in the laboratory.  Observable behaviour can be changed by associating stimuli with one another. This was important because it gave future psychologists a model to work from in the laboratory.  Observable behaviour can be changed by associating stimuli with one another

Classical Conditioning