Classical Conditioning And Pavlovian Conditioning

Pavlov’s discovery of classical conditioning was a complete accident (Hock, 2009, p. 66). Pavlov was doing physiology research with salvation’s role with digestion when he discovered classical conditioning. In his research, he had dogs with their salvation glands redirected to their cheek in order to test the amount of saliva produced when presented with different foods. Pavlov then noticed that the dogs would salivate before they even got the food. He then discovered that the dogs had associated the worker’s footsteps with the food. So, when the dogs hear the footsteps they know that food is on the way so they begin to salivate.

When in the process of training dogs, one of the the steps one should consider is the act of conditioning. Conditioning is “a behavioral process whereby a response becomes more frequent or more predictable in a given environment as a result of reinforcement, with reinforcement typically being a stimulus or reward for a desired response”(Ency Brit). There are two forms of conditioning. These include Pavlov’s classical conditioning and Skinner’s operant conditioning. In this paper we will discuss these two forms of conditioning and also recognize how they apply to dog training.

Classical Conditioning is a type of learning process of an individual when they come in contact with certain stimuli. According to Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, he developed several experiments on learning and he discovered that classical condition is the basic form of learning for an individual. However, according to Pavlov, behaviorism is the view that psychology should be the main objective science that studies behavior without including mental processes of an individual in the investigation. Behaviorism is more about the person’s behavior and how they were influenced to act a certain why, including their surroundings. Thus, from this learning process many behaviorist believes that the basic laws of learning are similar for all different species, including humans. Furthermore, the two major characteristics that distinguish classical conditioning from operant conditioning is that in classical conditioning, an unconditioned response is an event that happens naturally in response to some stimuli such as salivation. Another characteristic is an unconditioned stimuli, which is a process where an individual naturally discovers something without learning the process and reacts to the unlearned response, For instance, when someone put food in there mouth this causes salivation. A conditioned stimuli in classical

He began to study this further, and would pair the meat powder with various stimuli. After the dogs were presented with this stimuli, like a bell, and the meat powder multiple times, they would salivate just to the sound of the bell even if the powder wasn’t presented. Pavlov then went on to demonstrate these ‘stimulus-response’ bonds, which many consider the basic building blocks of learning. He then spent much of the rest of his career devoted to researching further into this finding. Pavlov called this classical conditioning, which is more modernly defined as a basic form of learning where one stimulus or event predicts the occurrence of another stimulus or response. This theory can also be known as Pavlovian conditioning. In every form of classical conditioning, there some form of stimulus and a response. The main four are UCS, UCR, CS, and CR. The UCS is known as the unconditioned stimulus, the UCR is the unconditioned response, the CS is known as the conditioned stimulus, and the CR is the conditioned response. In this study, the UCS was the food powder, while the UCR was the salivation. After conditioning took place, he CS became the bell, and the CR was the salivation. B.F. Skinner and John Watson both branched off of this, shaping their own theories.

As mentioned before, Ivan Pavlov founded classical conditioning. What is interesting is he founded this type of learning by accident while experimenting with a dog and how the body goes through digestion. During his experiment on the dog, he noticed something unusual that triggered the dog causing it to salivate. A natural behavior humans and animals possess is salivating when food is seen, but the dog did not only salivate at the sight of food, it also salivated at the sight and sound of the things that are associated with the food, such as the food

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov made several great discoveries. He discovered many things about classical conditioning, conditioned reflex, subconscious, and a dog’s digestive tract. He won a Nobel Prize Award in 1904, in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on crucial knowledge of the subject has been transformed and expanded (Davis, para. 1)

Classical conditioning was stumbled upon by a Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov. His unexpected discovery led him to win a rightfully earned Noble Prize. Classical conditioning is defined as “a form of learning in which reflex responses are associated with new stimuli (Coon & Mitterer, 2016, p. 201).” This form of learning is also called Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning. He found a connection between the stimuli for his dogs’ salivation during his experiment. To begin explaining classical conditioning, it is best to explain how Pavlov conducted his research. He began his experiment by ringing a bell, which was a neutral stimulus (NS) for his dogs. A neutral stimulus is defined as “a stimulus that does not evoke a response (Coon & Mitterer, 2016, p. 201).” Directly after, he put meat

The paper explores the life and the theory of a Russian scientist, physiologist call Ivan Pavlov, who was born in Russia in September 23, 1849 and died in February 27, 1936. His theory has delivered a tremendous awakening in Psychology, which was rooted by quite an accidental experiment of how dog salivate before and after conditioning. His fundamental study was based on digestion and behaviors that are evoked during an event and an anticipate response. Yet, his experiment awoke the twentieth century by a different type of learning called Classical conditioning, which is a compulsory or unconditional type of learning from one stimulus to another through a response.

The dogs would start to salivate just by hearing the bell ringing, which normally would not produce this response. The first part of the process involves an unconditioned response, like blinking or salivating. The next part needed for classical conditioning is an unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus is one that automatically produces the unconditioned response, such as the smell of food triggering salivation. During conditioning, the neutral stimulus, like the bell in Pavlov’s case, is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, or the meat powder. After a while, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned stimulus then produces a conditioned response, since the subject of the experiment has associated the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned response. Many interesting experiments have been conducted using classical conditioning. Another scientist that preformed an experiment with classical conditioning is John B. Watson. Watson used classical conditioned to make a young boy fear white fluffy objects. He scared the child by making loud noises every time the child was presented a white rat.

Something that we have all been exposed to in our lifetimes is classical conditioning, or an association between different stimuli that elicits a new learned behavior. Classical conditioning consists of an unconditioned stimulus (US), conditioned stimulus (CS), conditioned response (CR), and an unconditioned response (UR). The unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response that is not based on any prior experiences. Salivating when you smell food is an example of an unconditioned response to an unconditioned stimulus. Adversely, ringing a bell before dinner would create an association between food and the bell and cause salivating. This is an example of a conditioned stimulus (the bell) and a conditioned response (salivating). Perhaps the most well-known example of classical conditioning can be evidenced in Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with the salivating dogs. Ironically, Pavlov was researching digestion in dogs, when he observed that the dogs began to salivate when the researchers who normally fed the dogs were present. This reaction, was caused by the dogs associating being fed, with the presence of the researchers, who inadvertently became the conditioned stimuli. Pavlov validated his findings by using sound as a stimulus while feeding the dogs. After several repetitions, the dogs began to salivate when they heard the sound without the presence of food (McLeod, 2014).

In the 1890’s Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist began a study involving the relationship between an unconditioned stimulus, an unconditioned response, and a conditioned stimulus. The results Pavlov found showed how a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus once it becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus (McLeod). In this particular experiment, Pavlov studied how much a dog would salivate as he associated the ringing of a bell with food. It is a dog’s instinct to salivate when it sees food and not something a dog learns to do, making salivating an unconditioned response to seeing food, an unconditioned stimulus. Pavlov first measured the amount his dogs would salivate when food was put in front of them. From that point he would ring a bell whenever he would feed the dogs, introducing

Classical conditioning involves the pairing of a neutral stimulus, with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a response. One of the most prominent experiments conducted to define classical conditioning is the behavioural psychology study of Pavlov’s Dogs, devised by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning which occurs when two stimuli are paired together repetitively and therefore become associated with each other eventually producing the same response. Classical conditioning was developed from the findings of Ivan Pavlov to account for associations between neutral stimuli and reflexive behavior such as salivation. Pavlov (1927) accidently discovered that dogs began to salivate before they had tasted their food. To support his theory, he carried out experiments using dogs which involved measuring the amount of saliva they produced. In his experiments, food started off as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which produced salivation, an unconditioned response (UCR). They are both unconditioned as they occur naturally without being learned. The dogs were presented with a bell (NS), this provided no salivation. The bell and food were presented together and after many trails an

Ivan Pavlov (1928) demonstrated the use of reinforcement was connected between the pairings of an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and a conditioned stimulus (CS). Pavlov’s experiments consisted of presenting meat powder, an unconditioned stimulus to a dog and as a result the dog produced salivation. A bell tone,

Pavlov’s initial experiment focused on digestive physiology and in particular, the secretion of saliva in dogs. He was aware that salivation appears whenever food enters the mouth but during his experiments he discovered that salivation could in fact be triggered by other neutral stimuli including the sight, smell or recognisation of the individual whom usually provides the food. Pavlov discovered that the dogs were actually altering their behaviour as a result of learning. He decided to refocus his experiments and established simple patterns that the animal could identify. In order to describe