Description of Theory:
Pavlov's theory started off with being something different than what he had planned. The theory that he developed connects with behaviorism and how people will repeat an action without realizing that they have been conditioned to do so. His theory of classical conditioning describes that there is a neutral stimulus which will produce no response. There is also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus which will produce an unconditioned response. But by presenting the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus together, the patient will associate the two.
Experiment/Research:
An example of this is Pavlov's famous experiment with dogs. The neutral stimulus was a bell, which by itself produces no response. The unconditioned stimulus was dog food, which does produce the reaction of salivation, which is considered the unconditioned response of the food. Pavlov conducted the experiment by ringing the bell before meal times. Soon the dogs were classically conditioned to associate the sound of the bell with food. The dogs would drool in response to bell even when the food was not presented.
This theory and experiment was used by American psychologist John Watson to relate to child development. He conducted The Little Albert Experiment. In this experiment a nine month old boy Albert was shown several items. One of which was a white rat. Albert was initially unafraid of the animal. The next few times the rat was shown to Albert, Watson made a loud noise by banging on a metal pipe with a hammer. This caused Albert to cry because of the loud abrupt sound. Every time the rat was shown, Watson made the banging noise again. Albert was classically conditioned to associate seeing the rat with the crashing noise. Albert would cry in response after seeing the rat even when the loud noise was no longer presented.
Pavlov's theory started off with being something different than what he had planned. The theory that he developed connects with behaviorism and how people will repeat an action without realizing that they have been conditioned to do so. His theory of classical conditioning describes that there is a neutral stimulus which will produce no response. There is also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus which will produce an unconditioned response. But by presenting the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus together, the patient will associate the two.
Experiment/Research:
An example of this is Pavlov's famous experiment with dogs. The neutral stimulus was a bell, which by itself produces no response. The unconditioned stimulus was dog food, which does produce the reaction of salivation, which is considered the unconditioned response of the food. Pavlov conducted the experiment by ringing the bell before meal times. Soon the dogs were classically conditioned to associate the sound of the bell with food. The dogs would drool in response to bell even when the food was not presented.
This theory and experiment was used by American psychologist John Watson to relate to child development. He conducted The Little Albert Experiment. In this experiment a nine month old boy Albert was shown several items. One of which was a white rat. Albert was initially unafraid of the animal. The next few times the rat was shown to Albert, Watson made a loud noise by banging on a metal pipe with a hammer. This caused Albert to cry because of the loud abrupt sound. Every time the rat was shown, Watson made the banging noise again. Albert was classically conditioned to associate seeing the rat with the crashing noise. Albert would cry in response after seeing the rat even when the loud noise was no longer presented.