Classical conditioning occurs when stimuli that control reflexive behavior are paired together. Pavlov, the scientist that discovered this concept, came across this finding during his unrelated experiment with salivary glands. Although he was not a psychologist, this was a major finding that affected many aspects of physiology and psychology. His experiment consisted of quantifying saliva from a dog under conditions of food being in front of them or no food being in front of them. As he understood that the salivary glands involuntarily produce more saliva when a dog sees food in front of them, it came to his surprise when the salivary glands of the dogs started working without food in front of them. He came to realize that the dogs were anticipating food, so since they understood from repetition that sitting in the lab with Pavlov meant eating food, their salivary glands would produce saliva before the food was even brought out. This confused Pavlov at first; after more research he came to the conclusion that the neutral and conditioned stimuli paired together, thus creating the term ‘classical conditioning’. These stimuli can be innate and automatic, meaning that they happen spontaneously and do not need to be learned. This explains why human bodies can anticipate a reaction; for example, humans scrunch up when next to a person blowing up a balloon. They don’t know that the balloon will pop, but from past experience their body has learned to automatically react in a tense way. These concepts all fall under classical conditioning.
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