On conditioning

Tweet

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who studied salivation in dogs as a part of his research regarding digestion. Research that led to his Nobel Prize in 1904. To study the processes of digestion Pavlov built a machine that let him measure the amount of saliva of a dog. The procedure was such that Pavlov placed many types of food in front of a dog and then he quantified the differences in salivation that arose. But, just like so many times in research history, this experiment led to a revolutionary discovery. Pavlov observed that after a while the dogs were already salivating before the food was put in front of them. It was discovered that it was the footsteps that were triggering the saliva. The footsteps were a substitute for the food itself. Pavlov could of course not let this phenomenon left unstudied. Soon, a stimuli was shown that would not normally lead to salivation, for example a pat on the foot, presented at the time that food was brought forth. The stimuli alone would make the dog salivate after a few repetitions. The principle that controls this phenomenon is called classic conditioning. You can say that the dog is being conditioned. Have you ever been called a Pavlov's dog? I have and it hurts.