Ivan Pavlov was born in a small village in central Russia in 1849.
theological seminary, following his family's hopes that he would achieve priesthood; however,.
after reading the works of Charles Darwin, Pavlov discovered that he cared for more scientific.
pursuits and left the seminary to attend the University of Saint Petersburg. He studied chemistry.
and physiology, and received his doctorate in 1879. He then began his own research on digestion.
and blood circulation, becoming a well known scientist and being appointed professor of.
physiology at the Imperial Medical Academy. .
Pavlov was researching digestion in dogs, particularly the interaction between salivation.
and the stomach, when he realized that they were closely linked by reflexes in the autonomic.
nervous system. Without salivation, the stomach didn't get the message to start digesting. Pavlov.
would place meat powder or some other food morsel on the dog's tongue and wait for salivation.
to occur. He soon began to notice that the dogs were salivating upon his entrance to the room,.
before any food was procured. Since salivation in any animal is a reflex, he decided to probe.
deeper into the conditioning of dogs.
Pavlov took several steps in the process of performing his experiment. First, he had a.
minor operation performed on each animal to relocate its salivary duct to the outside of its cheek.
This was done so that the drops of saliva could be easily measured. The dog was then harnessed.
in an apparatus to keep it steady. It was deprived of food, though not to extremes, in order to.
encourage the success of results.
Pavlov periodically sounded a bell and shortly after would place meat powder in the dog's.
mouth. After a while, the dog, which before only salivated before and while it ate its food, would.
begin to salivate when the bell was rang, even if no food was present. .
The dog's salivation when meat powder was placed on its tongue is called unconditional.