Pavolv and His Dogs

438 Words2 Pages
In the case study “It’s not just about salivating dogs!’ by Roger R. Hock we are able to see how Ivan Pavlov used classical conditioning in his research. His theories on classical conditioning help to expand a major impact on the study of human behavior and helped psychology become a true science. Classical conditioning is used to explain and interpret a range consisting of human behavior, also including “where phobias come from, why you dislike certain foods, the source of your emotions, how advertising work, why you feel anxiety before a job interview or an exam, and what arouses you sexually” (Hock, Pg 69) Reflexive behavior is studied through classical condition. Any reflex is able to be conditioned to occur to other previously neutral stimulus. His research involved the use of dogs as the subject to study the role of salvation on digestion. He would come present various types of food or in some cases non food into the dogs’ mouth and observe the amount of saliva that would come to the dogs’ mouth. He used a tube that was incision into the dogs’ cheek. This was done to collect and measure the amount of saliva the dog then produced. While doing this experiment he was able to learn many things. When the dog received moist food, little amounts of salvia were produced, compared with a heavy flow of saliva when dry food was presented. The amount of saliva produced varied to the conditions regarded by Pavlov’s reflex, the response that occurs automatically without needing it to be learned. The original reflex is formed from an unconditioned stimulus and an unconditioned response. In his experiment the food was the unconditioned stimulus and the salvation was the unconditioned response. The bell served as the neutral stimulus known as the conditioned stimulus. When the dogs salivated after the controlled stimulus (the bell) it then on its own is termed as the
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