ou might be thinking, first spiders and now dogs! What's the correlation? What’s behind this jump in phyla from Arthropoda to Chordata? You'll see that the concept of associative learning, as in the case of Pavlov's dogs, will play an important role in the series of events that would play out in 2004.
But first a little background.
Ivan Pavlov began his science career studying the mechanisms of digestion in mammals. His work earned him a Nobel Prize in physiology. It was during his research with the digestive process that he stumbled across what is known as "conditioned reflex".
Typically, reflexes are innate responses that are repeated in exactly the same fashion each time that one applies the stimulus. Focused on the physiology or mechanics of the digestive system, Pavlov was querying the relationship between salivation and the digestive process. Saliva in the oral cavity is critical in digestion because it facilitates swallowing and also contains the enzymes required to break down various compounds in food. Pavlov’s experimentation measured and analysed the volume of saliva produced and response to food in dogs under various conditions. Remarkably, Pavlov noted that the dogs would salivate before food was actually presented and this promoted him to try to find out the reason for this phenomenon.
He discovered that he could trigger a reflex through experience, where ordinarily no reflex would naturally occur. The connecting of a stimulus to a reflex, or the ability for the dog’s central nervous system to associate a stimulus with salivation, is an example of conditioning.
A metronome was sounded as food was presented to the dogs. Initially, it is theorized that the dogs naturally salivated when they encountered the food. But by sounding the metronome while presenting the food, eventually the dogs began to associate the sound of the metronome with food. After a period of time and experience, sounding the metronome could trigger salivation in the dogs, without presentation of food at all. A conditioned reflex had developed. The sound of the metronome represented the availability of food, or “food on its way”, so to speak. Alternatively, a conditioned reflex can be repressed if a stimulus is presented over time without the related reward. By sounding the metronome repeatedly with no presentation of food to follow, eventually the dogs stop salivating at the sound.
His experimentation and the resulting information that contributed to behavioural understanding are often referred to as “Pavlov’s drooling dogs”. Pavlov’s conditioned reflex work would later be applied in Watson’s psychological theory that various stimuli associated with injury and threats relate directly to withdrawal.
But first a little background.
Ivan Pavlov began his science career studying the mechanisms of digestion in mammals. His work earned him a Nobel Prize in physiology. It was during his research with the digestive process that he stumbled across what is known as "conditioned reflex". Typically, reflexes are innate responses that are repeated in exactly the same fashion each time that one applies the stimulus. Focused on the physiology or mechanics of the digestive system, Pavlov was querying the relationship between salivation and the digestive process. Saliva in the oral cavity is critical in digestion because it facilitates swallowing and also contains the enzymes required to break down various compounds in food. Pavlov’s experimentation measured and analysed the volume of saliva produced and response to food in dogs under various conditions. Remarkably, Pavlov noted that the dogs would salivate before food was actually presented and this promoted him to try to find out the reason for this phenomenon.
He discovered that he could trigger a reflex through experience, where ordinarily no reflex would naturally occur. The connecting of a stimulus to a reflex, or the ability for the dog’s central nervous system to associate a stimulus with salivation, is an example of conditioning.
A metronome was sounded as food was presented to the dogs. Initially, it is theorized that the dogs naturally salivated when they encountered the food. But by sounding the metronome while presenting the food, eventually the dogs began to associate the sound of the metronome with food. After a period of time and experience, sounding the metronome could trigger salivation in the dogs, without presentation of food at all. A conditioned reflex had developed. The sound of the metronome represented the availability of food, or “food on its way”, so to speak. Alternatively, a conditioned reflex can be repressed if a stimulus is presented over time without the related reward. By sounding the metronome repeatedly with no presentation of food to follow, eventually the dogs stop salivating at the sound.
His experimentation and the resulting information that contributed to behavioural understanding are often referred to as “Pavlov’s drooling dogs”. Pavlov’s conditioned reflex work would later be applied in Watson’s psychological theory that various stimuli associated with injury and threats relate directly to withdrawal.
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