Conditioned Reflexes

by Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Pawlov) - greatest physiologist and the founder of Neuroscience , was born on September 14, 1849 in the village of Ryazan, Russia, the son of Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov, who was the village priest. He was an average child with average interests. That is until he read The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin, and the works of Russian physiologist I. M. Sechenov. This is when he decided to devote his life to science.

His main area of research throughout his scientific career was on the digestive process, which brought on a series of experiments exploring the correlation between the nervous system and the autonomic functions of the body.

Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine/ physiology in 1904 for his work The Centrifugal Nerves of the Heart.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Classics, Russia, Medicine, Historical

570 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for research pertaining to the digestive system. Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning.

Reviews

[Donnally Miller]

In his discussions of his experiments, Pavlov mentions primarily using a bright light, a tone played on an organ, or a metronome set to a certain pulse to instill conditioned reflexes. Given the established story about using a bell while dogs were feeding I was bemused to read the following in Lecture IV: "In contradistinction to this we must state with regard to acoustic stimuli that very loud sounds such as the violent ringing of a bell did not, in comparison with weaker stimuli, quickly establish a conditioned reflex. It can be assumed that powerful acoustic stimuli call out some other important reaction in the body (e.g., motor), which hinders the development of the salivary response."

[Chrissy]

Brilliant. Pavlov anticipated so much of what we now know to be true of the brain and behaviour.

[Julia Lich]

Interesting tidbit of history. Reading this book made me realize how little is remembered of his famous experiments - there are some fascinating and odd records in here. I did find the writing to often be a bit dull, but the content and the significance of this book really made up for it.