Ivan Pavlov: biography of this benchmark of behaviorism

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist well known for his experiments on dogs, which led to what is known today as classical conditioning. Classical or Pavlovian conditioning is the most basic type of associative learning, in which a organism responds to an environmental stimulus, originally neutral, with an automatic or reflects.

Pavlov's discoveries are studied in all universities of psychology and educational sciences, as it is one of the most introductory topics of both careers, and is one of the basic principles of learning. In this article you can 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 on dogs.

• Related article: "Classical conditioning and its most important experiments"

Who was Ivan Pavlov?

Ivan Pavlov was born 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 he liked being in contact with nature and animals. Pavlov didn't mind doing housework and taking care of his siblings. Of 11 siblings he was the oldest.

As he grew older, he seriously considered becoming a priest and studying theology. But during his adolescence, Pavlov he became interested in the works of Charles Darwin and Iván Sechenov, which motivated him to study natural sciences.

In 1870 he enrolled at the University of Saint Petersburg to study physics, mathematics and natural science. 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 doctoral 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 in psychology and education, his first intention It was not the study of learning, but the salivation of dogs.

During his experiments, what struck him was that, after repeated trials, the dogs secreted saliva even in his presence (Pavlov's), regardless of whether he eat or not. This happened because the animals had learned that when Pavlov walked through the door they would receive food at any moment.

From this discovery, the physiologist devised a series of experiments in which rang a bell just before handing 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 the food was not present. That is, the bell caused salivation to occur the same as when food was present. The experiment showed that the physiological response of the dogs, salivation, had been associated with the bell stimulus.

Birth of classical conditioning

Pavlov not only used the bell as a stimulus, but 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 put mental processes aside to give special importance to observable behavior and measurable. And it is that his experiments have 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 learning (E-R). For learning by association to occur, the unconditioned stimulus (IE) is initially presented, which is a stimulus that automatically elicits a response from the body. In the case of Pavlov's experiment, it was food. The response that this stimulus causes in the body is called the unconditioned response (IR). The unconditional answer was the amount of saliva that Pavlov's dog secreted.

Then it is necessary to present a neutral stimulus (EN), that is, the bell in the case of the experiment, which does not produce any response before learning occurs. Now, when this stimulus is presented repeatedly together with the US, the neutral stimulus is converted to a conditioned stimulus (CS), which alone elicits a response similar to that of the stimulus unconditioned. In this case, what happens when you hear the bell is called a conditioned response (CR).

• Related article: "Operant Conditioning: Main Concepts and Techniques"

Watson made Pavlov popular in the West

Pavlov pioneered his discoveries of classical conditioning; However, it took some time for his exploits to reach the western world, since they were carried out in the former Soviet Union. It was thanks to John B. Watson that Pavlov's initial ideas were popularized in Europe and America, and gave rise 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 in 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”

Contributions for behaviorism

Logically, one should not underestimate the work of Watson, 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:

• Importance in development and treatment of some pathologies: phobias, anxiety, etc.
• He helped understand associative learning processes.
• Great influence on the scientific method in Psychology.
• Generation of behavioral habits through reinforcement by helping to develop instrumental conditioning.
• Enhancer of the generalization of learning.