Van_Petrovich_Pavlov

IVAN PETROVICH PAVLOV Life & Research: Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849 in the village of Ryazan, Russia, the son of Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov, who was the village priest. Like most other children from Ryazan, he went to the Church school, and was later was enrolled in a theological seminary. It was after reading The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin, and the works of Russian physiologist I. M. Sechenov that Pavlov decided to abandon his theological studies and become a man of science. He left the seminary in favour of the University of St-Petersburg, where he enrolled in the Natural Sciences program. Pavlov realized his favourite subject was that of physiology, and it wasn't long before he that he produced, in tandem with a fellow student, his first paper, a work on The Physiology of the Pancreatic Nerves for which he was awarded a gold medal. Pavlov completed his course and received the degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences, but not one to rest on his laurels, he went on to study at the Academy of Medical Surgery where he was awarded another gold medal and later on, a fellowship; in addition to this, Pavlov was also Director of the Physiological Laboratory at the clinic of S. P. Botkin , a famed Russian physician. It was there he produced his doctoral thesis on The Centrifugal Nerves of the Heart, for which he was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine/ physiology (1904). Pavlov's 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 experimented with dogs, studying the relationship between salivation and digestion. By applying stimuli to the animals in a variety of ways, using sound, visual, and tactile stimulation, he was able to make the animals salivate whether they were in the presence of food or not; a phenomenon he called the conditioned reflex (Classical Conditioning). Concept of Classical Conditioning : This is learning by association. In the 1890s, Pavlov was investigating the gastric function of dogs by externalizing a salivary gland so he could collect, measure, and analyze the saliva many had in response to food under different conditions. Normally, dogs will salivate at the when food is presented, but Pavlov was interested why the dogs had started to salivate when the saw the people that usually fed them (they also responded to the sound of the dishes being used for their meals). He decided that this was more interesting than the chemistry of saliva, and changed the focus of his research, carrying out a long series of experiments in which he manipulated the stimuli occurring before the presentation of food. At feeding times, Pavlov would ring a bell and the amount of saliva produced by the dog was measured. After several 'trials' Pavlov rang the bell without presenting the food and found that the dogs salivated in the same way as if food was being presented. He thereby established the basic laws for the establishment and extinction of what he called "conditional reflexes" — i.e., reflex responses, like salivation, that only occurred conditionally upon specific previous experiences of the animal. These experiments were carried out in the 1890s and 1900s The Classical Conditioning Procedure: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING- IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING 1. Avoid classically conditioned negative emotions. Anticipate situations where negative emotions might be learned through classical conditioning. 2. Link learning with positive emotions. Arrange repeated pairing of positive feelings with certain kinds of learning, especially subjects that are anxiety provoking. 3. Teach students to generalize and discriminate appropriately. Poor performance on one assignment or test does not mean that the student is a poor performer. 4. Help students cope with classically conditioned anxiety. Help students learn to relax when facing anxiety provoking situations. 5. Teachers are able to apply classical conditioning in the class by creating a positive classroom environment to help students overcome anxiety or fear. Pairing an anxiety-provoking situation, such as performing in front of a group, with pleasant surroundings helps the student learn new associations. Instead of feeling anxious and tense in these situations, the child will learn to stay relaxed and calm. REFERENCES  Curzon, L.B. (1990). Teaching in Further Education. Cassell Educational Ltd.  Pavlov, I. (1941). Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes. International Publishers Co.  Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia. (2010). < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov>.  Nobelprize.org (2010). < http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1904/pavlov-bio.html>  Ivan Pavlov. (2003). < http://www.ivanpavlov.com/>  About.com : Psychology. (2010).