classical conditioning theory and its implications

Classical Conditioning Theory By Ivan Pavlov

1. IVAN PAVLOV a. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov , a Russian citizen, was basically a physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. b. Pavlov was nominated over four successive years for the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine. When Pavlov received the Noble Prize it was specified that he did so “in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion”. c. Pavlov carried out his classical experiments on the digestive glands, which would eventually grant him the aforementioned Noble Prize .

2. IVAN PAVLOV’S STUDY Ivan Pavlov studied the excretion of saliva in the digestive system of the dog. He observed in his study that the excretion of saliva increased in the dog when it saw the food. A few days later, he observed that on hearing the footsteps of the person bringing food, its saliva started to excrete and it was all the more on seeing the food. This response of the dog (response-R) towards the food stimulus(stimulus-S) turned him to the psychological study.

3. PAVLOV’S EXPERIMEMT Pavlov prepared a wooden appliance. There was a wooden plank in the middle and there was a window in the plank through which the food to the dog was supplied. A bell was put at one place in the appliance. Pressing of a switch made the bell to ring and as soon as the bell rang, the food plate emerged before the dog. He tied the hungry dog on the other side. He placed a pipe the saliva gland of this dog by surgery. The other end of this pipe was put into a beaker where saliva was to be collected.

4. EXPERMENTS RESULT As soon as the dog saw the food, then its saliva started to excrete. In the view of Pavlov, food was the natural stimulus for the dog and excretion of the saliva was a reflex action on seeing the food. In the terminology of Pavlov, for the response of excretion of saliva on listening to the sound of the bell was an unnatural stimulus . Pavlov repeated this experiment over many days, and observed after a few days that saliva started to excrete in the dog as soon as it heard the sound of the bell , which was still more on seeing the food. After repeating this experiment over a few days, Pavlov only pressed the switch for ringing the bell but did not present the food plate. He saw that the saliva excreted was equal in amount to the saliva that excreted with the sound of the bell and the food.

5. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Pavlov termed this situation of ringing of the bell as the conditioned stimulus(CS) . Pavlov termed the process of making natural response for conditioned stimulus(CS) in place of unconditioned stimulus (US) as learning . Pavlov termed this type of learning as conditioned reflex action . Modern psychologist call it classical conditioning. After a few days he saw that there was no excretion of saliva in the dog with the sound of the bell. Pavlov termed this process as extinction.

6. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING THEORY There is an unconditioned response(UR) for any unconditioned stimulus(US), which is called reflex action. UR(excretion of saliva)------- US(food) Unconditioned response(UR) occurs presenting a conditioned stimulus(CS) and unconditioned stimulus(US) together. CS(BELL)+US(FOOD)-----UR(SALIVA) Conditioned stimulus(CS)-----UR or CR (He used the termed conditioned response in place of UR in response to CS. Relationship between CS and CR was called by Pavlov as conditioned reflex (CLASSICAL CONDITIONING) d. CS remains effective only for a limited time.

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