Question

Describe the work of Pavlov and Bekhterev, relating their differences and similarities.

Answer 1

Ivan Pavlov's Work

Ivan Pavlov worked on the physiology of digestion which led him to the develop the first experimental model of learning, Classical Conditioning. Most of his research was gathered studying salivating dogs. Pavlov concluded that he was able to pair a neutral stimulus with an excitatory one. And have the neutral stimulus eventually elicit a response(an unlearned reflex) that was associated with the original excitatory stimulus. I

In Classical Conditioning terms, an unconditioned stimulus (US) is an event that causes a response to occur, which is referred to as the unconditioned response (UR). And, in Pavlov's study with dogs, the food within the dog's mouth is the US, and the salivation that results is the UR. Pavlov used a metronome as the neutral stimulus - called conditioned stimulus (CS), which he rang first and then fed the dogs. This pairing would eventually establish the dog's conditioned response of salivating to the sound of the metronome. After repeating this procedure several times, Pavlov was able to remove the US (food) and by only ringing the bell the dogs would salivate (CR). Since the bell alone now produced the unconditioned response (salivation), the association had been established (Conditioned). As his work progressed, Pavlov established the basis for conditioned reflexes and the field of classical conditioning.

Vladimir Bekhterev's Work

And what is called conditioned reflex in Pavlov's theory, was called association reflex by Bekhterev. Bekhterev was a neurologist and one of his researches was in the field of reflexology. One of the major contributions of Bekhterev is his experiments on animals and humans using mild electric shocks. He then noted the response of the organisms to the shocks. The idea behind this experiment was to trace the effect on learning. He noted that shocks are associated with withdrawal reaction. Withdrawal reactions means that humans and animals tend to move away from the source of th estimulus. In other words, the action of the organism is to avoid the stimulus which was felt harmful to the body and the organism therefore moved away. This response was called Associative reflex by Bekhterev.

He stated that associative reflex was learning, which is similar to learning by conditioning as given by Pavlov. Bekhterev claimed that all mental processes were accompanied by reflex movements and vegetative reactions, which could be observed and registered. Bekhterev said that scientists could study not only perceived, but also unconscious mental phenomena.

Though the two theories are essentially the same, Bekhterev had many criticisms for Pavlov’s. According to him, one of the major flaws in Pavlov's reserach is using a saliva method. He found fault with this method because, firstly it could not be easily used on humans. And secondly the secretory reflex is unimportant and unreliable. If the animal is not hungry then food may not elicit the desired response, acting as evidence of the method’s unreliability.

In contrast, Bekhterev's method of studying this association (conditioned) reflex using mild electrical stimulation to examine motor reflexes was able to demonstrate the existence of this reflex in humans. Pavlov criticised Bekhterev's research by stating that Bekhterev’s laboratory was poorly controlled.