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They decided to use the sound of a bell as a neutral stimulus.
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Thus, they wanted to observe if the dog learned to associate this stimulus with food. They wanted to find out if a neutral stimulus (which has no meaning for the dog or relation to food) could become a signal that food was going to appear. The researchers were put into another room from which they could feed the dog in a bowl. So that there were no other stimuli that could affect the experiment, the dog was placed in an isolated room, tied with leashes, and fitted with a device to collect and measure saliva. Then they began to conduct experiments to get a more objective view of the dog's reaction. However, this did not lead to any results. Pavlov and his colleagues began by trying to understand what the dog was thinking and feeling when it salivated when it saw food. From this moment on, he directed his research to understand this phenomenon. He even salivated upon hearing that person's footsteps.Īt first Pavlov thought that these dog responses interfered with his experiments, but later discovered that this demonstrated a form of learning. What's more, he gave the same response when he saw his plate of food or the person who gave it to him. He observed that when food was put into a dog's mouth, it would automatically start salivating.Īlso, I can verify that he also salivated if he saw the food or smelled it. During his studies on the digestive system, he focused on the secretion of saliva in dogs. Pavlov changed the course of his investigations after a fortuitous discovery. Days later, he generalized his answer by being scared when he saw a rabbit, a dog or a fur coat. This allowed the application of the scientific method to psychology, separating complex blocks of behavior in order to study them objectively.Īfter several repetitions in which the noise was made when seeing the rat, little Albert cried only when he saw the rat.
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This learning is observed in most organisms to adapt to their environment.Ĭlassical conditioning has been central to the history of psychology because Pavlov demonstrated that the learning process could be studied objectively. Pavlov's experiments led him to discover a form of learning that has been called classical conditioning, also known as Pavlovian conditioning. After several repetitions, the sound alone caused the dogs to salivate. Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov used dogs that were presented with a sound before food. The Pavlov's experiment It is one of the most famous in psychology. To treat alcoholism and other addictions.Video: Pavlov’s Theory of Classical Conditioning Explained! Content
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