Pavlov’s Dog

Who was Pavlov’s Dog?

Well, it is an experiment in behavioral psychology. The idea is that if we associate one thing with another (in this case, associate a bell with food), that eventually the same things will happen when the associated thing happens as when the original impetus happens. The dogs would start salivating when they saw their food… so they would ring a bell when the food came, and eventually, the dogs would start salivating when the bell rang… even when it was not accompanied by food.

The same thing happens in everyday life to a certain extent. For instance, someone who hates their job will get grumpy whenever they are at work… but they could also start to associate it with other things, like the whole company, the whole city, the whole state. Eventually “I hate California” would express that person’s hatred of doing a particular thing or interacting with a particular person, because they have associated other things with whatever they detest. Whether it is worth addressing all of our associations and working through them or just moving to another state depends on the circumstances.Read more: here

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So, every time I hear a bell… I get hungry? (grinin’)

Perhaps not, but I can relate to ill feelings stemming from my past. For instance, alcohol. I don’t drink, recalling so many hang-overs and events from my past (like pancreas). Seeking more self-control in my life, offering to be the designated driver and still enjoy the company of family and Friends on an outing.

The crutch in life. I have seen (at work) where many come in with a broken leg or had been shot and years later, even though they don’t need it, they still have a cane or walking stick.

So, where are you going with all this Art?

One of the things that helps me in my life; is Zen. When confronted with a situation (more often strong emotions) I will place my hands together, take a deep breath, close my eyes and begin now, recalling all that I know clouds judgment (yes experience is a helpful tool) but often times it is past emotions that are triggered by certain things (like the ringing of the bell) and even though I know not what triggered this emotion, I drop it and do what I know is right and that is live in the now. Zen is a state of being, in the now, there-fore I use this to suppress anger or anxieties and open my mind before I open my eyes. Then see it for what it is, for it is what it is!

The more I think about Pavlov’s dogs, the more I realize that there have been so many triggers instilled in our lives and to untangle them will take time. Just a little tid-bit, I recall my father when I was about 9 coming home drunk and tearing the house apart. He turned the refrigerator over in the kitchen. I came downstairs to see what the loud noise was and saw this, my mother ‘crying,’ orders me to go back to bed. In seeing someone get out of control has instilled in me to be in control of one’s anger and emotions. Yes, we are a direct result of our up bringing and environment.

I think of my mother as an Angel, that makes me a Demi-Angel!

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Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who lived from 1849-1936. He founded the Institute of Experimental Medicine in 1890, where his primary interest was digestion.

Pavlov’s Dogs is the name given to Ivan Pavlov’s seminal research in the early 20th century (there was not actually one dog as a pet but many dogs used in experimentations) which established some essential principles of Classical Conditioning in the field of human psychology. Classical Conditioning concerns ‘learned’ or conditioned behaviour, (which also forms the basis of behaviour therapy).

We all have behaviours that we might seek to change. The Pavlov’s Dogs illustration helps us to understand more about why we respond sometimes irrationally to certain situations.

Pavlov’s Dogs provides a wonderful and true example for anyone seeking to explain or understand how our past experiences can prompt certain behaviours in the future, for example, phobias (irrational fears), neurosis (severe nervous or emotional responses to particular situations), and even mild feelings of concern or anxiety that virtually all of us are prone to in one way or another (eg., public speaking, fear of heights, flying, being reprimanded or tested, etc.)

The initial Pavlov’s Dogs experiment was simply to place a dog in a sound-proof, smell-proof cubicle, with no outside view – a controlled environment in other words. A sound was made when food was given to the dog, and the amount of salivation the dog produced was measured. After repeating this several times (called ‘trials’), the sound was made but no food was given. The dog still salivated.

This simple experiment established that the dog did not necessarily need the food in order to respond to food. The dog was responding to a stimulus or ‘trigger’ that produced the same response as the real thing. Pavlov could make the dog salivate whenever the sound was made.

This is expressed technically: a ‘Conditioned Stimulus’ (the sound) can produce a ‘Conditioned Response’ (the salivation), which was the same ‘Unconditioned Response’ (salivation in response to food) for the original ‘Unconditioned Stimulus’ (the food)…. read more of this article here!

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