Pavlov

Before Pavlov discovered the theory of classical condition, he was only studying the functions of dog’s saliva in their digestion. But he found something more fascinating to him. His experiment consisted of: Pavlov’s dogs, were kept in an experimental chamber, they took  meat powder to the dog and they had their saliva collected via a surgically implanted tube in their saliva glands. After some time, he noticed that his dogs began salivation before the meat powder was even presented, whether it was by the presence of the handler or by a clicking noise produced by the device that took the meat powder to them. Later, Pavlov paired the meat powder with various stimuli like the ringing of a bell. After the meat powder and bell (auditory stimulus) were put together several times, the bell was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, responded by salivating to the sound of the bell (without the food). The bell began as a neutral stimulus. However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able to acquire the ability to trigger the salivation response. Pavlov therefore demonstrated how stimulus-response bonds are formed. He dedicated much of the rest of his career further exploring this finding. The meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus, the dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response, the bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus which produces the conditioned response of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food. Extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus is given a number of times without the unconditioned stimulus but if they keep ringing the bell without giving the dog any food (unconditioned stimulus), eventually the dog will disassociate the bell from the food and it will no longer salivate. Extinction occurred when the dog has no effect on the bell.