Pavlov's Experiment and Dog's Environmental Stimulus - Essay Example

Pavlov chose to use food as a stimulus that would evoke a natural and automatic response. The sound of a metronome was used as a neutral stimulus. Pavlov presented food with the ringing of a metronome. After the food was presented together with the sound of the bell several times, the metronome was used on its own. From his observation, Pavlov discovered the dogs would salivate to the sound of the metronome. He concluded that the sound of the metronome stimulated salivary secretion in the dogs.

In his experiments that he carried out, Pavlov discovered that food is an unconditioned stimulus that elicited salivation to occur naturally. Salivation to food is an unconditioned response since it occurred naturally. Sound of the metronome is a conditioned stimulus as it elicited salivation when food was presented with the sound of the metronome. When the dogs salivate to the sound of the metronome alone is a conditioned response. Experiments carried out by Ivan Pavlov took the dogs through a learning process which occurred through a continuous association between naturally occurring stimulus and environmental stimulus (Kouyoumdjian and Plotnik 202).