The conditioning theory of learning put forward by Watson and Pavlov actually involves the conditioning of the Respondent behaviour though a process of stimulus association and substitution. This kind learning was named as Learning by Conditioning. As a result, after some time natural stimulus can be substituted or replaced by an artificial stimulus and this artificial stimulus is able to evoke the natural response.In this experiment, the dog learned to salivate at the sound of the bell. There becomes perfect association between the types of stimuli presented together. When both the artificial or neutral stimulus (ringing of the bell) and natural stimulus (food) are brought together, several times, the dog becomes habituated or conditioned to respond to this situation.
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the artificial stimulus like sound of the bell, sight of the light of a definite colour etc. It is simply a stimulus-response type of learning where in place of a natural stimulus like food, water, sexual contact etc. It considers the learning as a habit formation and is based on the principle of Association and Substitution. It was found that even the absence of food (the natural stimulus), the ringing of the bell (an artificial stimulus) caused the dog to secrete the saliva (natural response). In this case, also the amount of saliva secreted was recorded and measured. The activity of presenting the food accompanied with a ringing of the bell was repeated several times and the amount of saliva secreted was measured.Īfter several trials the dog was given no food but the bell was rung. When the food was presented before the dog and the bell was rung, there was automatic secretion of saliva from the mouth of the dog. Every time when the food was presented before the dog, he also arranged for the ringing of a bell. Arrangement was made to give food to the dog through automatic devices.
![pavlov classical conditioning pavlov classical conditioning](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/85/279854096_dc607f015c.jpg)
The observer kept himself hidden from the view of the dog but able to view the experiment by means of a set of mirrors. The dog was made comfortable anddistractions were excluded as far as it was possible to do so.
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In one of the experiments, Pavlov kept a dog hungry for the night and then tied him on to the experimental table which was fitted with certain mechanically controlled devices. The understanding what is conditioning and what does this theory imply, it is desirable to move an idea of the type of experiments performed by these psychologists. After performing various experiments upon the subjects like dogs, rats and cats, Psychologists Pavlov gave birth to a new theory of learning known as Conditioned Response Theory or simply as Learning by conditioning.