Our Pavlov’s Dogs And Recalcitrant Cats

I have singlehandedly created a pair of Pavlov’s dogs. Instead of a metronome, Mollie the Maltese and the Great Gatsby come scurrying to be at my side whenever they hear the scraping of the breakfast nook chair. It means I am about to sit down to eat. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, 1849-1936, was a Russian physiologist who discovered dogs have an unconditioned response, meaning it’s involuntary, to salivate when they smell or see food. He then further conditioned the dogs to begin salivating when his metronome started marking time, because they received food afterward. This meant a conditioned stimulus,...

Read more...