pavlov's dog

My Freudian SlipPavlov’s Dogs

During the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov, A Russian psychologist, studied the secretory activity of digestion.

In a now classic experiment, Pavlov first performed a minor operation on a dog to relocate its salivary duct to the outside of its cheek, so that drops of saliva could be more easily measured. The dog, which was food deprived, was then harnessed in an apparatus to keep it steady in order to collect saliva.

Periodically, a bell was rang, followed shortly thereafter by meat being placed in the hungry dog's mouth. Meat causes a hungry dog to salivate, whereas rings have little effect. The dog's salivation to meat is an unconditioned reflex - it is in-born, in that dogs do not have to learn to salivate when food is placed in their mouths. Initially, the dog shows little responsiveness to the bell rings. Over time, however, the dog comes to salivate at the sounding of the bell rings alone. When this occurs, Pavlovian conditioning or classical conditioning has occurred, in that a new, or conditioned, reflex has developed. This confirmed Pavlov theory that the dog had associated the bell ringing with the food.