Behaviorism: Pavlov, Skinner, Thorndike, Watson (Part 1)

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a Russian psychologist known for his work on classical conditioning or stimulus substitution. Pavlov's most renowned experiment involved meat, a dog, and a bell. Initially, he was measuring the dog's salivation in order to study digestion. This is when he stumbled upon classical conditioning.

Pavlov's Experiment. Before conditioning, ringing the bell (a neutral stimulus) caused no response from the dog. Placing food (an unconditioned stimulus) in front of the dog initiated salivation (an unconditioned response). During conditioning, the bell was rung a few seconds before the dog was presented with food. After conditioning, the ringing of the bell (a conditioned stimulus) alone produced salivation (a conditioned response). This is classical conditioning.

Somehow you were conditioned to associate particular objects with your teacher. So at present, when you encounter the objects, you are also reminded of your teacher. This is an example of classical conditioning.

Pavlov also had the following findings:

• Stimulus Generalization. Once a dog has learned to salivate at the sound of a bell, it will salivate at other similar sounds.
• Extinction. If you stop pairing the bell with the food, salivation will eventually cease in response to the bell.
• Spontaneous Recovery. Extinguished responses can be "recovered" after an elapsed time, but will soon extinguish again if the dog is not presented with food.
• Discrimination. The dog could learn to discriminate between similar bells (stimuli) and could discern which bell would result in the presentation of food and which would not.
• Higher-Order Conditioning. Once the dog has been conditioned to associate the bell with food, another unconditioned stimulus, such as a light may be flashed at the same time that the bell is rung. Eventually the dog will salivate at the flash of the light without the sound of the bell.

Source: Facilitating Learning by Lucas and Corpuz (Lorimar Publishing)