Iván Pávlov: Biography Of This Reference Of Behaviorism
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist well known for his experiments with dogs, which gave rise to what is known today as classical conditioning. Classical or Pavlovian conditioning is the most basic type of associative learning, in which an organism responds to an environmental stimulus, originally neutral, with an automatic or reflex response.
Pavlov’s discoveries They are studied in all universities of psychology and educational sciences, since it is one of the most introductory topics of both careers, and it is one of the basic principles of learning. In this article you will find the biography of this famous historical figure and the explanation of why he is considered one of the most important researchers of all time. He won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his experiments with dogs.
Ivan Pavlov was born in Ryazan, Russia. His father, Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov, was a village priest, and his mother, Varvara Ivanovna, a housewife. As a child, Pavlov was always an active boy who liked to spend hours and hours in the garden or pedaling his bicycle. He always had a curious mind, and liked contact with nature and animals. Pavlov did not mind doing household chores and taking care of his siblings. Of 11 siblings he was the oldest.
As he grew older, he seriously considered becoming a priest and pursuing a career in theology. But during his adolescence, Pavlov He became interested in the works of Charles Darwin and Ivan Sechenov which motivated him to study natural sciences.
In 1870 He enrolled at the University of Saint Petersburg to study physics, mathematics and natural sciences During his college years, he was influenced by his physiology professor and decided that this was the path he wanted to follow in life. Pavlov was always an exceptional student and in 1875 he graduated. He then continued his Doctorate studies at the Academy of Medical Surgery to further his education in physiology.
The dog experiments
Ivan Pavlov is known for his experiments with dogs. And although today he is one of the famous figures of psychology and education, his first intention It was not to study learning, but the salivation of dogs
During his experiments, what caught his attention was that, after repeated trials, the dogs secreted saliva even in his (Pavlov’s) presence, regardless of whether he fed them or not. This happened because the animals had learned that when Pavlov entered the door they would receive food at any moment.
From this discovery, the physiologist devised a series of experiments in which He rang a bell just before giving the dog food to measure saliva production. Pavlov discovered that once dogs were trained to associate the sound of the bell with food, they would produce saliva even if food was not present. That is, the bell caused salivation to occur just as when food was present. The experiment showed that the dogs’ physiological response, salivation, had been associated with the bell stimulus.
Birth of classical conditioning
Pavlov not only used the bell as a stimulus, but also Later he used other stimuli, both auditory and visual, to produce what he called the conditioned response. His experiments are an example of classical conditioning, which is part of behaviorist theory and, therefore, Pavlov’s ideas leave aside mental processes to give special importance to observable and measurable behavior. And his experiments are of great importance for the development of the scientific method in psychology, and allowed the development of one of the best-known theoretical models of learning.
classical conditioning It is also known as stimulus-response (SR) learning For learning by association to occur, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is initially presented, which is a stimulus that automatically provokes a response from the organism. In the case of Pavlov’s experiment, it was food. The response that this stimulus provokes in the organism is called the unconditioned response (IR). The unconditioned response was the amount of saliva that Pavlov’s dog secreted.
Afterwards it is necessary to present a neutral stimulus (EN), that is, the bell in the case of the experiment, which before learning occurs does not produce any response. Now, when this stimulus is presented repeatedly together with the US, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), which by itself provokes a response similar to that of the unconditioned stimulus. In this case, what happens when you hear the bell is called a conditioned response (CR).
Watson made Pavlov popular in the West
Pavlov was a pioneer in his discovery of classical conditioning; However, his exploits took some time to reach the Western world, as they were carried out in the former Soviet Union. It was thanks to John B. Watson that Pavlov’s initial ideas became popular in Europe and America, and led to the later development of operant or instrumental conditioning
Both theories make up the behaviorist theory, which is considered one of the most prominent currents in psychology. Watson introduced classical conditioning to the United States where it had great importance in the American educational system and in world psychology.
If you want to know more about this author, you can visit this article: “John B. Watson: life and work of the behavioral psychologist”
Logically, we should not underestimate Watson’s work, which was important because he developed Pavlov’s initial ideas and applied them to human beings. Among the most important implications of classical conditioning, it is possible to highlight:
