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Classical Conditioning And Pavlovian Conditioning

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Ivan Pavlov, a physician, preformed many experiments concerning the physiology of digestion, by accident he discovered what is now known as classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). Classical conditioning is “a type of learning through which an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). Learning implies that there is at least a semi-permanent change, this change could be demonstrated through behavior for example. In classical conditioning two stimuli are paired together multiple times. A stimulus is “any event or object in the environment to which an organism responds” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). Pavlov, the father of classical conditioning, found that dogs’ natural response to food is salivation. Therefore, whenever the dogs were presented with food they salivated. Salivation is an unlearned behavior, this is referred to as the unconditioned response. He observed that a large portion of the dogs would begin salivating before the food was even presented. For example, the dogs would begin to salivate when they saw the attendant, whom was responsible for feeding them or when they heard the sound of their feeding dishes rattling (Wood, Wood, and Boyd 137). The dogs associated the cues of the attendant and the rattling of the bowls with the unconditioned stimulus, food. An unconditioned stimulus is “a stimulus that elicits a specific unconditioned response without prior learning” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd

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