Blog Post 1

 

Classical conditioning can be used a lot more than we may think it is. As we have learned, Classical Conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov a Russian psychologist. Classical Conditioning is learned through adding a shock stimulus to a neutral stimulus. Several different experiments were done regarding classical conditioning and how animals are able to be conditioned through different stimuli. The fist experiment that was founded was Pavlov’s experiment on dogs. 

Pavlov’s research was intended to find out how dogs respond to being fed and if they salivate or not. At first Pavlov believed that the dogs would begin salivating at their food when it was in front of them in their bowl. He soon realized he was wrong in this assumption and the dogs began salivating at the sound of the footsteps of the person placing the food in the bowl.  

In summary, in order to condition these dogs Pavlov begun ringing a bell while the dogs were being fed, which ultimately resulted in salivation for food with an association of a bell. At the end of the conditioning period, the dogs would begin salivating at the sound of the bell alone due to the association of the bell and food. In my personal opinion, conditioning is almost like training a new skill unconsciously and it could be beneficial in teaching dogs how to communicate with their owners. If dogs are able to unconsciously salivate at the tone of a bell due to conditioning, training dogs to hit a hanging bell when they need to go outside should be relatively easy if owners begin ringing a bell each time they go outside with their dog. 

McLeod, S. A. (2018, October 08). Pavlov's dogs. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html