Hall of Fame
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, won the Nobel Prize for his
work on digestion in 1904. The father of behaviourism, he identified
conditioned reflexes in dogs using pouches that collected their
saliva. This physiological response to external stimuli (conditioned
reflexes) was to shape the study of learning for most of the early
and middle 20th century.
Classical conditioning
Observing that dogs salivate as soon as they see their feeder or
food, or smell the food, Pavlov speculated on whether a natural
stimulus could be associated with another unrelated stimulus, eliciting
the same response.
The experiment starts with an ‘unconditioned stimulus’
(UCS) that causes a natural response, namely the sight or smell
of food that causes the dog to salivate, namely the ‘unconditioned
response’ (UCR). If we then ring the bell, immediately followed
by food, repeated several times, after a time, the dog will salivate
‘conditioned response’ (CR) at just the sound of the
bell, the ‘conditioned stimulus’ (CS). The dog has now
associated the bell with food.
If the experiment is reversed and no food accompanies the bell,
the response eventually disappears, this is called extinction.
In human terms we can see that this accounts for learning by association.
Bandura and others showed that this was a very much more complex
affair than simple reflexes. Advertising, for example, relies on
such techniques. Interestingly, in terms of learning, it doesn’t
require us to be taught by another human or to do anything.
Conclusion
This reflex learning was to form the basis of an entire school
of psychology – behaviourism. Pavlov was an excellent physiologist
but physiology is not the same as psychology. His work led to a
rather mechanistic view of psychology, relying too much on animal
experiments, ultimately ignoring the sophistication of the brain
and organism.
Behaviourism had to cope with this and modified theories, known
as S-O-R theories (Stimulus-Organism-Response), recognised that
the person's motivation and other dispositions need to be taken
into account.
Bibliography
Boakes, R. A. (1984). From Darwin to behaviourism. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes. London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov
Encyclopedia article
http://www.ivanpavlov.com/default.htm
Biography and lectures online
http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/pavlov/
Interactive Pavov’s dog learning game
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