"Conditioned Reflex"

Going to the Dogs

Ivan Pavlov is one of the most widely-recognized figures on mental conditioning, but he did so much more than that in his lifetime. Not only was he almost ordained as a priest, but he made major advances in circulatory medicine, physiology and the nervous system.
Click here to learn about Pavlov's personal history.

"Conditioned Reflex" Learning Theory

Pavlov is best known for his work with dogs, training them to react to various stimuli. This research was spawned from experiments with canine digestive systems, possibly based on the work of a scientist named Beaumont, who worked with a trapper that had a deformed stomach, and Beaumont was able to study the various parts of the digestive processes by removing food from the trapper’s stomach. This research on dogs’ digestive systems led Pavlov to notice their reactions to the presentation of food. While he did use a well-known bell, he also tested such techniques as electric shock, whistles, and even visual stimuli.

His experiments were based around a kind of proactive response that he called “conditioned reflex;” Pavlov would ring a bell and present food to a dog, who would then drool (as one might expect,) but then the dog began to equate the bell with food. Pavlov then would ring the bell without presenting food, and the dog would still drool. This discovery was the beginning of an entire field of study, and was continued by such luminaries as B. F. Skinner, who reversed Pavlov’s principle and conditioned his subjects by rewarding appropriate behavior.