Classical conditioning
Condicionamiento clásico
- Date
- 1897 · confidence high
- Place
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Credited to
- Ivan Pavlov
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
While studying digestion in dogs, Pavlov observes that they begin salivating at a neutral stimulus (such as a sound) repeatedly paired with food, describing the conditioned reflex.
American psychologist Edwin Twitmyer published related findings a year earlier, without the impact of Pavlov's work.
What it led to
- Experimental foundation of behaviourism (Watson, Skinner)
- Behaviour-modification therapies
- Neuroscience of conditioned reflexes and associative learning