Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist and psychologist, whose research was pioneering and established key concepts in psychology. Despite beginning his research in the field of the digestive system, he carried out one of the most famous experiments in psychology and his contributions continue to be valid and applied today. If you want to know more about the history and theory of this historical figure, continue reading our Psychology-Online article: Ivan Pavlov: biography and theory of classical conditioningwhere you will find both the complete biography and the summarized biography of Ivan Pavlov.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov: biography
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born in 1849 in Ryazan, Russia. The son of a housewife and an Orthodox priest, he began his studies in the field of theology initially through family advice. However, Pavlov was at that time an avid reader of the works of Charles Darwin, so he eventually abandoned his studies in the field of theology and began studying medicine and chemistry at the University of Saint Petersburg.
During his student days, his main teacher was Vladimir Békhterev, a well-known Russian neurologist, neurophysiologist and psychiatrist. After receiving his doctorate in 1883 from the Academy of Medical Surgery, he moved to Germany with the purpose of expanding his knowledge, finally specializing in human circulatory system and digestive physiology.
In 1890, already married and with a son, he obtained a position as professor of physiology at the Academia América Experimental. In turn, he was also appointed director of the physiology department of the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the city of Saint Petersburg, where he was for more than 45 years and carried out his well-known investigations, among others, on the digestive system and conditioned reflexes. Likewise, his passion for the laboratory was reflected in his students, whom he supervised their research, helped with the interpretation of data and editing of essays.
In the following years he devoted himself to the study and digestive system research and gastric and pancreatic juices, perfecting and creating physiological techniques in this field. His invention of a technique to study the functioning of the digestive system in living animals is especially recognized. His dedication and research into the secretory activity of the stomach was awarded in 1904 with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicinebecoming the first person of Russian nationality to receive this recognition of merit.
Pavlov is best known for being the person who formulated the law of conditional reflex, which will be explained extensively in the following sections. In the field of reflexology he was greatly influenced by Ivan Sechenov, who investigated brain reflexes. Pavlov focused his research on this higher nervous activity in 1907.
It should be noted that between 1910 and 1925, Pavlov’s laboratory became the most equipped in the world. After the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, he was given the position of director of the physiology department from the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. In the 1930s he published a series of research on reflexology in the area of human language.
In 1935, the World Congress of Physiology took place in Moscow and Leningrad, with the presence of more than 900 scientists from all over the world. At this same congress he was recognized and named as the most important physiologist in the world. The following year, on February 27, 1936, Ivan Pavlov died of pneumonia at the age of 86.
Ivan Pavlov: short biography
Below, you will find a selection of the most relevant data from Ivan Pavlov’s biography.
Ivan Pavlov: summary biography
- He was born in 1849.
- He studied medicine and chemistry.
- He received his doctorate in 1883.
- He married and had a son.
- He was a professor of physiology.
- Research the digestive system and conditioned reflexes.
- In 1904 he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- He formulated the law of conditional reflex.
- He was named the most important physiologist in the world.
- In 1936, he died at the age of 86.
Ivan Pavlov: theory
Ivan Pavlov, in his studies on higher nervous activity, made use of the method of conditioned reflex. A conditioned reflex is a learned reflex, a response to a stimulus that previously caused no reaction. This learned reflex is the result of the repeated association between this stimulus that previously did not cause any response with another that is capable of causing it. This learning by association is called classical conditioning.
Ivan Pavlov: learning theory
This discovery was a great contribution by Iván Pávlov to the theory of learning in psychology, since it showed the most basic mechanism by which both people and animals were capable of understanding the relationships between stimuli. learn new answers and vary and adapt their behavior based on these. Therefore, Pavlov introduces and demonstrates one of the basic principles of learning theory.
Ivan Pavlov: behavioral theory
On the other hand, Pavlov’s legacy extends to behaviorist theory, the current of psychology whose object of study focuses on the observable behavior of animals and human beings with the aim of establishing common laws of behavior. Although it was John B. Watson, an American psychologist, who founded the psychological current of behaviorism, Iván Pávlov’s contributions to behaviorist theory were essential and of great relevance. Watson himself claimed to have been impressed with the Russian physiologist’s studies. Pavlov was the first to study the conditioned stimuli and his theory of classical conditioning is one of the key concepts and starting point of behaviorist theory.
Ivan Pavlov: classical conditioning
Next, the experiment with which Pavlov discovered the mechanism that supports the so-called classical conditioning is explained.
Ivan Pavlov: contributions
one of the great contributions by Ivan Pavlov It is associative learning. It consists of generating a connection between a neutral stimuluswhich before the creation of this association is unable to generate a concrete response, and an automatic reflex response. Through this association, the stimulus that was previously incapable of causing the reflex response can provoke it.
Ivan Pavlov: experiment
The origin of this contribution is found in the Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with dogs, one of the most famous experiments in the history of psychology. Pavlov observed that when giving food to a dog he would salivate, what he called the salivary reflex. However, he also came to realize that the dog was capable of salivating just by seeing or smelling food. Thus, he focused his study on the so-called psychic secretions, secretions produced by the salivary glands in the absence of food in the mouth. That is why every time he gave the dog food he would ring a bell just before giving it to him, so that the dog will associate the bell with food which he received moments later. After several associations between the bell and the food, the dog I salivated just by hearing the bell, regardless of whether there was food afterwards. With this, it was achieved that the bell, a neutral stimulus with no meaning for the dog before the series of associations, provoked the same response as the food, in this case salivation. In this way, the dog had learned to make an association.
With this experiment, the:
- Neutral stimulus (EN): stimulus without meaning and incapable of producing a reflex response, in this case the EN is the bell.
- Unconditioned stimulus (US): stimulus that generates a response in the body in an innate and automatic way, the EI would be food, which causes salivation naturally.
- Conditioned stimulus (CS): It is the neutral stimulus once the association with the unconditioned stimulus has been made. Therefore, the conditioned stimulus would be the bell, once associated with food after the dog’s learning process, capable of generating salivation on its own.
- Unconditioned response (IR): This is the innate response elicited automatically by the unconditioned stimulus. IR would be the salivation that is produced by food.
- Conditioned response (CR): the learned response, the one produced by the conditioned stimulus. In this case, the conditioned response would be salivation due to the sound of the bell.
This entire process is known as classical conditioningand today it continues to be one of the cornerstones of the behaviorist and learning theory. Likewise, these contributions of Iván Pávlov continue to be used to explain the basis of behaviors such as addictions and phobias, as well as the basis for aversive treatment for alcoholism and other addictions.
If you want to know more about conditioning, you can consult the following article: .
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Bibliography
- Gil, FMT, & Mollá, CC (2006). History of Psychology. McGraw-Hill, Inter-American of Spain.
- Gutiérrez, G. (1999). Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936). Latin American Journal of Psychology31(3), 557-560.
- Pérez, AM, & Cruz, JE (2003). Concepts of classical conditioning in basic and applied fields. interdisciplinary, 20(2), 205-227.