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Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: Иван Петрович Павлов) 9September 14 1849 – February 27 1936) 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.

Life

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born in Ryazan, Russia on September 14, 1849. His father, Petr Dmitrievich Pavlov, was one of Ryazan's most respected clergymen. For the previous six generations, the Pavlov men had served Russian Eastern Orthodox Church. Consequently, it was expected that Pavlov would become a Seminarian. In his early years, Pavlov to the Church school and began his higher education at the Ryazan Theological Seminary, which he graduated from in 1869. After reading the writings of Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov, "The Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin, and stimulated by the ideas D.I. Pisarev, Pavlov abandoned his religious career to become a man of science.

In 1870, Pavlov enrolled in the Natural Sciences program at the University of Saint Petersburg where he studied physiology and chemistry under Dimitri Mendeleyev. By 1875, he graduated from the University of Saint Petersburg and in 1876 began his studies in medicine at the Military-Medical Academy which he graduated from in 1879.

In 1881, Pavlov married Seraphima (Sara) Vasilievna Karchevskaya. Seraphima suffered from a miscarriage, their son named Wirchik died unexpectedly as a young child, and another son, Vsevolod, died in 1935. Despite these tragedies, they had three children survive, two sons and one daughter, Vladimir, Victor, and Vera.

In 1883, he recieved his received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Imperial Medical Academy and submitted his doctoral thesis entitled "The Centrifugal Nerves of the Heart." A year later in 1884, Pavlov was appointed Lecturer in Physiology at the Military-Medical Academy. By 1891, Pavlov became the Director of the Department of Physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. From 1891 to 1900, Pavlov did the majority of his research on the physiology of digestion. In 1897, Pavlov published "Lectures on the Funtions of the Principal Digestive Glands." It was in 1889, that Pavlov surgically altered a dog's digestive system so that it would eat, but the food would not reach its stomach. He observed that even with the absence of food, the stomach excreted gastric fluids.

Then, in 1904, Ivan Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his accomplishments on the physiology of digestive glands. However, a year earlier, in 1903, Pavlov began his infamous research on the reflex reactions of animals.

By 1907, he was elected as the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was given an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in 1912. Pavlov and his research thrived within the communist Soviet government, as some government officials perceived his research as possibly being invaluable for brainwashing, but Pavlov was not open to those areas of research and application.

In 1924, Pavlov resigned from his professorship at the Military-Medical Academy. In 1935, the Soviet Government built a laboratory for Pavlov. Then, in February 1936, at the age of 86, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov died in Leningrad.

Work

Pavlov’s Dog, Pavlov Museum, 2005

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 produced in response to food under different conditions. He noticed that the dogs tended to salivate before food was actually delivered to their mouths, and set out to investigate this "psychic secretion", as he called it. 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. 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 conditional upon specific previous experiences of the animal. These experiments were carried out in the 1890s and 1900s, and were known to western scientists through translations of individual accounts, but first became fully available in English in a book published in 1927.

Pavlov was a dextrous operator who was compulsive about his working hours and habits. He would sit down to lunch at exactly 12 o'clock, he would go to bed at exactly the same time each evening, would always feed his dogs at exactly the same time each night and he would always leave Leningrad for Estonia on vacation on the same day each year. This behavior changed when his son Victor died in the White Army — after which he suffered from insomnia.

Unlike many pre-revolutionary scientists, Pavlov was highly regarded by the Soviet government, and he was able to continue his researches until he reached a considerable age. Pavlov himself was not favorable towards Marxism, but as a Nobel laureate he was seen as a valuable political asset.[1][2] After the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934, Pavlov wrote several letters to Molotov criticizing the mass persecutions which followed and asking for the reconsideration of cases pertaining to several people he knew personally.

In later life he was particularly interested in trying to use conditioning to establish an experimental model of the induction of neuroses. He died in Leningrad. His laboratory in Saint Petersburg has been carefully preserved.

It is popularly believed that Pavlov always signaled the occurrence of food by ringing a bell. However, his writings record the use of a wide variety of auditory stimuli, including whistles, metronomes, tuning forks, in addition to a range of visual stimuli.

Legacy

Pavlov's term "conditional reflex" ("условный рефлекс") was mistranslated from the Russian as "conditioned reflex", and other scientists reading his work concluded that since such reflexes were conditioned, they must be produced by the process of conditioning. As Pavlov's work became known in the West, particularly through the writings of John B. Watson, the idea of "conditioning" as an automatic form of learning became a key concept in the developing specialism of comparative psychology, and the foundation of the psychological approach, behaviorism.

Pavlov's research on conditional reflexes greatly influenced not only science, but also popular culture. The phrase "Pavlov's dog" is often used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation and fails to use critical thinking. Pavlovian conditioning was a major theme in Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel, Brave New World.

Publications

Pavlov, I. P. (1927). "Conditioned Reflexes". London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Boakes, R. A. (1984). From Darwin to behaviourism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Firkin, B. G. & Whitworth, J. A. (1987). Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. Parthenon Publishing. ISBN 1-85070-333-7
Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Tiner, John Hudson. (2000). "100 Scientists Who Shaped World History". Bluewood Books.
Todes, D. P. (1997). "Pavlov's Physiological Factory," Isis. Vol. 88. The History of Science Society, p. 205-246.
Todes, Daniel.(2000). "Ivan Pavlov: Exploring the Animal Machine." Oxford University Press.

External links

Credits

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History of "Ivan Pavlov"

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@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born in Ryazan, Russia on September 14, 1849. His father, Petr Dmitrievich Pavlov, was one of Ryazan's most respected clergymen. For the previous six generations, the Pavlov men had served Russian Eastern Orthodox Church. Consequently, it was expected that Pavlov would become a Seminarian. In his early years, Pavlov to the Church school and began his higher education at the Ryazan Theological Seminary, which he graduated from in 1869. After reading the writings of Russian physiologist I.M. Sechenov, "The Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin, and stimulated by the ideas D.I. Pisarev, Pavlov abandoned his religious career to become a man of science.
-In 1870, Pavlov enrolled in the Natural Sciences program at the University of Saint Petersburg to begin his studies in physiology and chemistry. By 1875, he graduated from the University of Saint Petersburg and in 1876 he began his studies in medicine at the Military-Medical Academy which he graduated from in 1879.
+In 1870, Pavlov enrolled in the Natural Sciences program at the University of Saint Petersburg where he studied physiology and chemistry under Dimitri Mendeleyev. By 1875, he graduated from the University of Saint Petersburg and in 1876 began his studies in medicine at the Military-Medical Academy which he graduated from in 1879.
 In 1881, Pavlov married Seraphima (Sara) Vasilievna Karchevskaya. Seraphima suffered from a miscarriage, their son named Wirchik died unexpectedly as a young child, and another son, Vsevolod, died in 1935. Despite these tragedies, they had three children survive, two sons and one daughter, Vladimir, Victor, and Vera.
@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 In 1883, he recieved his received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Imperial Medical Academy and submitted his doctoral thesis entitled "The Centrifugal Nerves of the Heart." A year later in 1884, Pavlov was appointed Lecturer in Physiology at the Military-Medical Academy. By 1891, Pavlov became the Director of the Department of Physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine. From 1891 to 1900, Pavlov did the majority of his research on the physiology of digestion. In 1897, Pavlov published "Lectures on the Funtions of the Principal Digestive Glands." It was in 1889, that Pavlov surgically altered a dog's digestive system so that it would eat, but the food would not reach its stomach. He observed that even with the absence of food, the stomach excreted gastric fluids.
-Then, in 1904, Ivan Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his accomplishments on the physiology of digestive glands. However, a year earlier, in 1903, Pavlov began work on the reflect reactions of animals.
+Then, in 1904, Ivan Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his accomplishments on the physiology of digestive glands. However, a year earlier, in 1903, Pavlov began his infamous research on the reflex reactions of animals.
+By 1907, he was elected as the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was given an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in 1912. Pavlov and his research thrived within the communist Soviet government, as some government officials perceived his research as possibly being invaluable for brainwashing, but Pavlov was not open to those areas of research and application.
+In 1924, Pavlov resigned from his professorship at the Military-Medical Academy. In 1935, the Soviet Government built a laboratory for Pavlov. Then, in February 1936, at the age of 86, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov died in Leningrad.
 ==Work==
 [[Image:One of Pavlov's dogs.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Pavlov’s Dog, Pavlov Museum, 2005]]
@@ Line 32: / Line 35: @@
 Unlike many pre-revolutionary scientists, Pavlov was highly regarded by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] government, and he was able to continue his researches until he reached a considerable age. Pavlov himself was not favorable towards Marxism, but as a [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel laureate]] he was seen as a valuable political asset.[http://www.crystalinks.com/pavlov1.html][http://wwwa.britannica.com/eb/article-5560] After the murder of [[Sergei Kirov]] in [[1934]], Pavlov wrote several letters to [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]] criticizing the mass persecutions which followed and asking for the reconsideration of cases pertaining to several people he knew personally.
 In later life he was particularly interested in trying to use conditioning to establish an experimental model of the induction of [[neuroses]]. He died in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]]. His [[laboratory]] in [[Saint Petersburg]] has been carefully preserved.
+It is popularly believed that Pavlov always signaled the occurrence of food by ringing a bell.  However, his writings record the use of a wide variety of [[sound|auditory stimuli]], including whistles, metronomes, tuning forks, in addition to a range of visual stimuli.
 ==Legacy==
-Interestingly, Pavlov's term "conditional reflex" ("условный рефлекс") was mistranslated from the [[Russian language|Russian]] as "conditioned reflex", and other scientists reading his work concluded that since such reflexes were conditioned, they must be produced by a process called [[conditioning]]. As Pavlov's work became known in the West, particularly through the writings of [[John B. Watson]], the idea of "conditioning" as an automatic form of learning became a key concept in the developing specialism of [[comparative psychology]], and the general approach to psychology that underlay it, [[behaviorism]]. [[Bertrand Russell]] was an enthusiastic advocate of the importance of Pavlov's work for [[philosophy of mind]].
-Pavlov's research on conditional reflexes greatly influenced not only science, but also popular culture. The phrase "Pavlov's dog" is often used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation rather than uses critical thinking. Pavlovian conditioning was a major theme in [[Aldous Huxley]]'s [[dystopian]] novel, ''[[Brave New World]]''.
+Pavlov's term "conditional reflex" ("условный рефлекс") was mistranslated from the [[Russian language|Russian]] as "conditioned reflex", and other scientists reading his work concluded that since such reflexes were conditioned, they must be produced by the process of [[conditioning]]. As Pavlov's work became known in the West, particularly through the writings of [[John B. Watson]], the idea of "conditioning" as an automatic form of learning became a key concept in the developing specialism of [[comparative psychology]], and the foundation of the psychological approach, [[behaviorism]].
+Pavlov's research on conditional reflexes greatly influenced not only science, but also popular culture. The phrase "Pavlov's dog" is often used to describe someone who merely reacts to a situation and fails to use critical thinking. Pavlovian conditioning was a major theme in [[Aldous Huxley]]'s [[dystopian]] novel, ''[[Brave New World]]''.
-It is popularly believed that Pavlov always signaled the occurrence of food by ringing a bell.  However, his writings record the use of a wide variety of [[sound|auditory]] stimuli, including [[whistle]]s, [[metronome]]s, [[tuning fork]]s, in addition to a range of visual stimuli. When, in the 1990s, it became easier for Western scientists to visit Pavlov's laboratory, no trace of a bell could be found.
 ==Publications==