Ivan Pavlov's Experiment (Outlines, Goals, and Findings)

Outline and Goals:

In a series of experiments, Pavlov tried to figure out how saliva and lab coats were linked. This was his outline. Ivan noticed that people who were in lab coats made the dogs drool. This was because the scientists would feed their dogs in lab coats. In order to figure out this phenomenon, his goal was to strike a bell when the dogs were fed. If the bell was sounded in close association with their meal, the dogs would hopefully learn to associate the sound of the bell with food. After a while, at the mere sound of the bell, Ivan expected them to respond by drooling.

Findings:

Pavlov worked on the conditioned reflex, a fundamental aspect of learning. He showed that if the presentation of food to a dog was repeatedly accompanied by the sound of a bell, then the dog would respond by coming to the bell as if it was food. Pavlov regarded salivation on sight of food as an unconditional response and the subsequent salivation on sound of bell alone as a conditional response. Salivation in response to food was unlearned and was the unconditioned response. The unconditioned food stimulus was the food because the food in the mouth unconditionally starts salivation. Now, the conditioned response is the salivation , while the conditioned stimulus is the bell sounding. In addition, he is responsible for many of the basic concepts and can be regarded as the founder of the experimental study of animal learning. Pavlov also discovered that these reflexes originate in the cerebral cortex of the brain.